Posted on 02/14/2007 9:00:35 AM PST by Hydroshock
(Money Magazine) -- Less than a year after moving into her new 2,100-square-foot house in Lenexa, Kans., Susan Sabin has strung up lemon lights in her front window.
The lemons, she says, go perfectly with the home's most prominent features: jammed doors, warped windows, bent pipes and cracked walls. "The house is essentially splitting in two," says Sabin.
Where to go for help If you're buying or fear a problem: These consumer groups post advice for buyers, news about home builders and the latest on construction materials: HomeOwners for Better Building (hobb.org) and Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (hadd.com). If you need a pro: You can find a home inspector in your area at the American Society of Home Inspectors Web site at ashi.org. If you suspect fraud: Complain to regulators. Find out how to reach your state attorney general's office at naag.org; reach the Federal Trade Commission at ftc.gov.
At the peak of the recent housing boom, home buyers scooped up a million newly built homes every year while homeowners poured more than $200 billion into renovations. But now stories of shifting soil, leaky roofs, damaged stucco and other construction defects abound.
Though many builders have worked to improve the quality of their houses over the past decade, says Alan Mooney, president of Criterium Engineers, a national engineering firm, the building frenzy also opened the door for unskilled labor, unscrupulous contractors and untested products.
"When everyone is out there building as fast as they can, that does result in more defects," he says.
Contractor problems rank among the most common consumer complaints, according to the Better Business Bureau, and a recent Criterium Engineers study found that 17 percent of new residential construction projects inspected by the firm in 2006 had at least two significant problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
If I had been bribed I sure as heck would have said no. Don't know about anyone else but no amount of money is enough to explain to St. Pete at the pearly gates why I knowingingly let a unsafe job pass.
I used to hear this accusation quite a bit. Usually when I failed a plan or an inspection. None of the guys I worked with ever would have taken a bribe.
Can't say it never happens. After the obvious code violations revealed in Miami after Hurricane Andrew. One has to assume the inspectors ( often private engineers hired by builders) had to be blind or they followed the well known South American culture of graft.
This was before illegals became prevalent here - '78 - '90. In those days we had strict town and county inspecters so things couldn't be built too shoddily even by the fly-by-nights. I don't know how rigid inspection is now. There is a lot of building in this county though.
The better quality of materials in older homes is a big selling point. Plus you know the older house has lasted through what nature has thrown at it so far. Also in building a new house there are ALWAYS unexpected cost increases.
I hear you. I know a good number of good contractors that were driven out by low wage illegals. But you get what you pay for.
I had my new home inspected before I bought it -- it was difficult to get "permission" from the builder, but I was able to get it done.
I also had it inspected a week before the 1-year warranty was up.
In both cases, the inspectors found things I wouldn't have.
Smart people hire professional inspectors to check their homes out.
You think that's bad? About two years ago my wifes best friend & her husband paid about $400k for a beautiful 2500sf home in a brand new neighborhood. From the day they moved in, they started complaining about consistently damp ground around their foundation (slab on grade), and water seeping into the house. The builder put a drain under the corner of the house, but otherwise refused to do anything about it...suggesting that they call a gardener.
They woke up in the middle of the night about six months later to sound of a tremendous bang and the sensation of the whole house moving. Her husband ran downstairs and discovered the kitchen island in a newly formed hole, natural gas leaking out of the busted pipes , and the entire back wall of the house leaning outward (it had torn loose at the top as the foundation beneath it gave way).
It turned out that her home had been built on top of the well for the farm that had once occupied the property. Instead of properly filling and sealing the well, the builder rushed the job, just scraping off the top foot or two of dirt and backfilling it. Since the well wasn't properly sealed, it continued to seep under her house, eventually forming a sinkhole.
The house was leveled and nothing is there today, but she's still fighting with the builder over liability, and is stuck paying the mortgage every month until they settle with the builder (builder agreed to buy back the house at the original cost, but they want the builder to pay them back at current market cost since they're having to buy a new house at current market cost...they want about $650k).
Ouch!
I have a question...are these structures/homes literally fire traps should they burn? From the posts..it would seem to be the case.
When we built our house I was there on site every Tuesday and Thursday after work to inspect what had been done. You'd be surprise at the number of errors and problems you can catch. I remember visiting the site during a heavy rainstorm in which they had installed the oak staircase but not the roof. Water was flooding into the house and I made the builder get out there immediately to correct the problem. That was just one of many stories. I had to go overseas on business for three months during this time and this was the worst thing I could have done. I could have caught a number of problems that were created during this time.
You also have to develop some level of trust with the contractor and be reasonable. In my case the contractor forgot something in the contract that would have cost him some money. It was clearly my responsibility and I paid the bill. In turn he did some things for me that put an extra level of quality in the home. I got my money's worth.
I have read where banks can help you with problems. A friend of mine found it difficult to get the builder to return to correct some of her problems on her house. After I had read this I suggested she give her bank a call. The builder was out there the next week to fix the problem. The book I read said you should never pay cash for a house but go through a bank for the first three years in case there is a problem with the builder.
I don't know if fiberboard burns more readily than plywood.
A former sister in law had a house made for her in the 1980s and it had constant problems with the foundations and basement. By the time she finished taking the company to court she lost over $500,000 in court costs (she received the money from her former husbands death, also due to shoddy manufacturing in the Clinic Avenue Bridge collapse in Northwest Indiana in the early 1980s) and had to settle for the company coming in and repairing the damage, also valued at over $75,000. She eventually sold the home. Don't know if she made anything from it or not but I tend to doubt it.
Reminds me of a TV show a Pxxte home in VA. It was good sized house, but one could shake the house by pushing on it.
Reminds me of a TV show a Pxxte home in VA. It was good sized house, but one could shake the house by pushing on it.
Shouldn't need an inspector to catch that one.
I got out of construction in the early '90s for health reasons not economic reasons but I have watched numerous peers leave or change careers because of the flood of illegals here.
Some contractors stay in and choose to use illegals to compete. Others choose not to and try to make it on the fringes of the trade by catering to niches in the market like fostering a reputation for quality work. That means they get less work, make less money for it than they should and hire fewer workers. They are not likely to move from being small project contractors to large project contractors as was the common path in days past.
This is a great thread, thanks for starting it. There are many other factors in the phenomena of shoddy construction and the posts here are covering that well.
The bottom line is you get what you pay for and people do not do what you expect they do what you inspect.
Thank God our house, built before the 'boom,' is in really great shape.
I had a new house built for me in 2005, and illegal Hispanics were involved with a lot of the work. The stone work had to be completely redone because they botched it. It took more than a year of pestering the builder, who drug his feet. Also the illegals installed sold and an underground irrigation system that was a disaster. They forgot to tamp down the earth after putting in the irrigation system, so the sod sank wherever there was an underground pipe. You couldn't walk the lawn without falling into a hole, or twisting your ankle, or even falling. Again, it took more than a year, but the builder had to eventually make good. Interestingly, there was so much trouble with the illegals that the lawn and irrigation company switched to Americans and the quality of work jumped skyward. They haven't had any problems since then. I gave contractor and the lawn & irrigation subcontractor living hell about the disastrous lawn and irrigation. That's what it takes to get any results.
That sounds like a wonderful home!
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