MovieChat Forums > Hoarders (2009) Discussion > How are any of these houses livable afte...

How are any of these houses livable after the clean-up?

posted 8 years ago by MichaelNYC
9 replies | jump to latest

The most recent episode I saw had a logical conclusion, one sister was the landlord and the other was the tenant. The clean-up crew did all they could but afterward it was clear that the house just was beyond repair.

I always wonder how is it people live in these homes after a horde of 10+ years. Aside from the vermin and filth you can see, can you imagine what's going on behind the walls? The insects/droppings/black mold,etc?

Sure you may bring in a new bed and hang some drapes but that home is a bio-hazard and needs to be stripped down to the rafters and completely gutted in order to be habitable again. I don't get how people go on as if the horde never happened.

[–] daverindone 8 years ago

I actually knew someone that hoarded cats in a very nice house in our State. It was a brand new unit that sat in a development, but it got progressively worse over time. I hadn't been there since 2007 (the smell was just too bad - it was like having ammonia sprayed in your face) and found out recently the place was foreclosed on and condemned. They have to tear it down because it cat urine got into the foundation and would be a permanent smell.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Devans00 8 years ago

I know what you mean, MichaelNYC.

I allways wonder about the damage the weight all of that horde does to the building structure. For instance, the husband and wufe couple, Claire and Vance, with hundreds of thousands of books. Why hasn't their building collasped?

I've only seen one episode where the floor joists in the basement were cracked and bowed because of the hoard in the house. I'm suprised it doesn't happen more often.

No two persons ever watch the same movie.

[–] Yell0wmnm 8 years ago

there was a show I watched where the sewer line backed up and was going through the house. They just left it there for a long time and it got worse and worse. They eventually had to tear down the house because of the contamination to everything.

We had the same problem with our downstairs bathroom, but several things saved our bacon!

First off, we didn't have sub-floors, it was all concrete. and second, we got the plumber, insurance adjuster, and restoration team out there the next day.

it was a $6,000 job, but luckily, insurance was there for us!

Once I did wrong, I heard it ever, Twice I did right, I heard it never!

[–] Iononhopaura 8 years ago

The homes are not habitable. They make it as presentable as possible for the cameras and then leave to film the next episode. I'm sure that there is still damage below the surface, and that there's still a massive stink permeating the neighborhood, but you can't experience that on TV.

''That one felt like my dad!''

[–] mojo2004 7 years ago

The homes are not habitable.

That's not always so. They've had quite a few hoarders were they people had very nice homes and a lot of nice stuff, just too much of it. They didn't have rodents, roaches they didn't have food & trash. Just stuff. I've seen really huge beautiful homes and condos on the show that when the stuff was gone looked like showroom set pieces. The cleaning team on this show doesn't hesitate to call in professionals to check to see if the homes that look very bad are indeed safe. At a few homes they had a home inspection team with them and later stopped the clean-up and advised the person the inspectors have stated , for safety reasons, the home can't be occupied even when cleaned & had the house tagged accordingly. It's only been a few hoarders that refused to co-operate when told that and the show shut down operations and walked away.In those cases they still called Code Enforcement in those cities so they could go to the home.

There was an episode where the deceased mother had left the family home to her other daughter that didn't live there because of her daughter who hoarded. This was one where the clean-up was stopped & the home condemned & tagged. At the end the black card stated she later broke into the home and lived there for a month before being found out.

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[–] avortac4 (3458) 2 years ago

" Just stuff. "

You can't be that ignorant.

'Just stuff' doesn't really exist. There are always going to be bacteria, microbes, dust, diseases, particles of all kinds of nasty stuff, insects, spiders, eggs, and so on. You don't know if some stray cats have given birth to kittens that have died in some corner of the attic of some hoarder's house that has 'just stuff' in it.

When you can't vacuum, mop or scrub behind 'stuff', what do you think accumulates there? Do you think it's hygienic to have 'just stuff'?

No. It's never hygienic if you have a lot of ANYTHING there. If you can't clean behind something or if some corner is hidden 'behind stuff' for 10 or 20 years, you don't really need a lot of imagination to realize it is _NOT_ hygienic, it's not healthy, and it's going to be nasty, one way or another. There's no such thing as 'clean hoarder', there's no such thing as 'just stuff' that would magically stay clean.

Nature corrodes things, it brings insects, pestilence, rust, dust, tics, bacteria, .. do I really have to paint you a full picture? You can have clean furniture laying in a corner for 20 years, and I am willing to bet that corner is not going to be healthy to be in or hygienic, and if you go in there with a microscope or some kind of micro-imaging system, you will get pictures that will make you puke.

Stop with this 'just stuff' stuff, it doesn't exist in the real world. The most hygienic and clean hoarder's untouched hoard nest is going to be nastier than the sloppiest, most unclean 'bachelor's apartment', I can friggin' guarantee it.

[–] robpennpacino 7 years ago

Good question, there would be no way in hell that the rat Guy's home could ever be lived in again.

Who knows if they got all of the rats and there would be so much poop in the walls and most likely dead rats trapped under the house and between the walls.

That house was absolutely ruined and would clearly be a health hazard, I felt sorry for the rat Guy but why his Friends didn't intervene for years was beyond comprehension.

[–] Torni3945 7 years ago

I heard rat man passed away like a year or two ago.