This kitchen remodeling project in Washington, DC was started by Bath + Kitchen about a year after the kitchen was remodeled by a flipper. The flipper took dozens of shortcuts in construction, made design mistakes, used cheap materials and committed permit fraud. Frankly, it’s a miracle the house is still standing given the severe structural issues we discovered after completing the demolition. Below is a shortlist of code infractions:
Major structural issues:
- Insufficient load-bearing beams and not right type of beams
- No window header, framed out with 2x4s, window is sagging
- Joists not going from wall to wall
- Floor: installed 2×4 framing on top of old flooring. 2×4 studs are not to be used in place of joists.
- Made too large of a hole in the ceiling joist to run the drain for bathroom above kitchen.
Other code violations:
- Duct for ventilation is 4″, which is meant for a bath vent fan, minimum requirement is 6″ for kitchen ventilation.
- Cut through 2x4s to run plumbing for island sink.
- Drain pipes not properly protected.
- Gas line is 1/2″, minimum requirement is 3/4″
- No insulation in crawl space
- Not right type of insulation
- Rather than sister the existing exterior studs they installed new framing on top of old framing and made the room smaller in the process.