The Estimate to Fix my house is in

[tabs]

Does anyone care to make a guess? (I won't keep U in suspense...)

Well anyway the envelope please....$148,415.00

The recomendation was to dig a five foot deep trench around the house, 5 feet from the house and fill it with cement. Then to put a cement cap over the top of that. All tied in with rebar to the orginal foundation. To put foam etc under the part of the slab that has allready deformed to make it level once again. Regrade the lot, put rain gutters and a drainage system in the yard. Repalce the driveway. Then repair any structural or cosmetic damage in the house.

That doesn't include where I am going to live while the work is going on, or moving expenses in and out of the house. Nor does that figure cover the damages of having a stigma attached to the house, because it was defective in the first place. Doesn't cover attorneys or discovery fees* and doesn't cover the Fraud aspect of the case.

*I was told the discovery was $30K

Now let me make it clear here, the builder was given ample oportunity to make good on this house before it went this far. He has chosen not to respond or take any form of responsibility.


Now if U think my total is high my neighbors across the street estimate of repair is......$313,000.00. U got that right 313K. The recomendation to fix the house is to tear it down and start over. What it really says is that the slab has to be replaced, it is completely defective.

[Iggy]

Who's the builder? Pulte?

[cegerer]

2 words: screw anchors

http://www.abchance.com/ho_home.html

Possibly not cheaper, but a much higher success rate with that type of repair ......

[dd74]

So Vegas is such a deal, eh?

[concentric]

Originally posted by dd74
So Vegas is such a deal, eh?

Ohhh, burn...


Veg-ass.

JCM

[tabs]

Rhodes Homes...9th biggest builder in LV, but they all have problems here.

Problem is Expansive soil...that expands and contracts with moisture. As the Geologist said builders in LV just don't build heavy duty enough foundations.

Deal U say....The Builder has a waiting list of people who want to buy his buy back construction defect houses...So it's not a matter if the house is cr@p it will sell...furthermore I've seen some really poor quality construction in CA. Spec home (high end) builders don't put a slip sheet under their tile/marble/travertine flooring...which would keep the flooring from cracking if the slab cracks underneath, and they do crack frequently. The builder doesn't wan to spend the extra $1 a sq ft to protect the flooring. His warranty is for a year, and he gambles nothing will happen in that year. So the ***** is everywhere, not just here.

Further...prices ain't so cheap here anymore.

[motion]

Post tension slab... all the new homes in Phoenix use them.

[tabs]

Mine has that, and so do all 172 other homes in my development....if you have Expansive Soil it ain't enough....Builders here seem to think so though...they all use them and they all have problems with them. With Highly Expansive soil the solution is to either remove the soil and replace with non expansive soil or build heavy duty slabs with bond beams running through them so that they can withstand the movement in the soil.

[Shuie]

Post tension is not necessary if the builder is willing to do a conventional slab correctly. Its quicker, cheaper, and less labor intensive though. I had one builder tell me that he will start framing the walls almost immediately after a post tension slab dries. Don't they do compaction tests on the ground out before they start forming a slab out there?

[vash]

right, i am not in the home construction biz, but i think shuie is right. you compact the ground, test. if you meet something like 95% compaction, you build a sturdy foundation. you guys use slabs? then i think the key is proper gutters and drainage so the earth below the house doesnt see too much moisture. post tension slabs? wow!

cliff

[vash]

tabs, how wide is the trench? so you will not be able to plant stuff around the house? maybe i dont understand the plan. basically build a new footing foundation around the house?

cliff

[motion]

Cliff - no need to plant anything around the house... it is Las Vegas, ya know. Gravel will do just fine

[Doug Zielke]

tabs,
I'm curious....does Las Vegas have any building inspectors??
If so, do they not have some liability in your situation?

[widebody911]

Tabs: Why not just put the wheels back on the house and tow it somewhere else?

I had an x g/f who was a lawyer and had handled some home defect cases, and I even went with her once to check one out. It was amazing what passes for 'construction' these days.

Back in my party-days, I had a friend who was a framer, and he was perpetually stoned. He told me outright he felt sorry for anyone who bought a house that he'd built.

Back in December, I dated a girl for a short while who sold these pop-up houses. She was telling me about the contracts: the buyers can select a couple of details about the house, but on the rest, it's take it or leave it. The contracts are so one-sided in favor of the builder, but the buyers still bend over and take it. They could write "buyer shall be slapped with a frozen halibut 10 times daily" and they'd still be lining up for it.

Why?

Is the housing market that tight that every single builder can get away with this crap? Or is there effectively a builder cartel, and there's nowhere else to go?

The guy who helpded build my garage was telling me how they have to somewhat randomize the building inspector's domains, lest they get too cozy with the developers; either that or it's a way for everyone to get a share of the graft. Since I did my garage "owner-builder" they went over my stuff with a fine-toothed comb. Then inspector A would say item X was wrong, but inspector B would say X was fine, but Y was wrong. Back and forth. If the normal developers had to go thru this, everyone would be living in grass huts.

[dd74]

It's weird, but what Thom describes reminds me of "The Two Jakes," with Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel. Land development and the nasties that do it.

I imagine the adage "Build it and they will come," holds weight in the housing situation. Question is: "Who are they?"

In L.A. I'd like to know who all these people are that are buying the million $+ homes? Are there that many rich people in the city, or are they just "Keeping up with the Joneses" types who are willing to go terribly into debt?

As for the turnkey houses - each one I've seen is just crap. Architectually they're dismal and quality-wise? Well, I'll put it this way: if I was feeling up to it, I bet I could punch a fist through some of the walls I've seen.

We have friends who moved from a large '30s-era brick house in Sherman Oaks that they got for a post '94 Northridge earthquake steal to a prefab in Santa Clarita. All the houses look alike, and come without landscaping. You get a nice view of an empty pond, and can share deodorant sticks with your neighbor - as the houses are that close to each other.

These friends moved up there for the "school system," and - okay - they tripled their square footage. But the wife has no less than an hour's train ride into Burbank, where she has to leave her car so that she can drive 30 minutes from the train station to her job - all this with two children, both of whom she has in the Warner Bros. daycare.

So that's ninety or so minutes of commuting - on a train, then in a car, and with a two and four-year-old in tow - Monday through Friday - all for square footage. Even with a potentially better public school system in their future, I'm sure if they didn't move and put their kids in a private school or LAUSD magnet program, they'd have real homeowner equity, not an ugly track home, and a growing peptic ulcer from commuting.

[speeder]

David, Just give me one of those big pre-war houses near Larchmont, a nice 7-figure job at Paramount w/ a cute secretary, (walk or bicycle to work every day), and a huge garage. Oh yeah, and a pool for those hot days, to entertain. And a Jack Olsen-esque Porsche library. (CUE: ALARM CLOCK SOUND)

[dd74]

Denis: now you're getting into HUGE bucks. Have you checked out the listings in the Coldwell Banker window on Beverly and Larchmont? Those Hancock Park homes are OUTRAGEOUS.

The heating bill on some of those mansions are more than my friggin' mortgage.

I've heard just to duplicate a turn-of-the (20th) century Hancock Park home - down to the crown molding and wainscotting - is about $2 million. That doesn't include the $1 million or so for the lot.

again!

But there, you're rubbing shoulders with money even Hollywood can't touch - like Getty, Chandler and Mulholland "old" money.

[tabs]

I lost the wheels to my house at the Crap table.

The trench is to be 9 inch to 1 foot wide and 5 feet from the house, the cement cap is to be about 6 inchs below grade so it can be hidden. However I'll use part of it for a walk way.

When you have a jillion new houses going up and a handfull of inspectors lots of stuff gets by.

The problem here is a band of clay soil about 4 to 5 feet down that is expansive...otherwise the ground here is like cement so compaction is not the problem. This band of clay is like the fudge swirl in Fudge Swirl ice cream...One house can turn into a wreck and the next be perfectly ok. If they excavate the expansive soil and repalce it with clean soil or they put bond beams in the slab you won't have these problems.What I didn't realize before is that the edges of the slab rise as moisture hits the clay, leaving the center of the slab where it's still dry as a low spot. When the ratio of distortion gets to 1:300 or .6 of an inch over 15 feet the slab cracks. Mine is at 1:115, with a 1.8 inch difference between the high and low sides of the slab.... .75 is considered to be max allowable. (The first test I had done in late May was 1.6 inchs). I have no side yard landscaping nor backyard landscaping which would make my situation a lot worse.

The one thing I absolutely hate here is that allmost all of the homes are on top of each other. They are building 3000 + sqft house on 6000 sqft lots. You can literally open a window and touch the block wall between the houses. You can hear your neighbor drop & flush in the mornin. My development the minimum lot size is 1/4 acre going up to 1/2 acre. So it's not so bad.

Lots of times you see people buy the big expensive homes, have 2 MB's in the garage and NOTHING in the house but a TV, chair and Bed. Personally I hate that, I want a home, and being single I had to learn about the decorative arts so call me fking Maurice if U want (I was too cheap to hire an Interior Decorator) Thats why I got into art...I bought some really great furniture..Kindel and Baker...and a $500 print on the wall wouldn't cut it, and I couldn't afford $20000.00 for a painting so I started beating the bushes by going to auctions....ABELLS on Thursdays (In LA)... man some great art came outa there for a song...every week something good showed up. I bought an Austrailan Artist (Ray Crooke) painting for $550, his work goes all day long at auction, downunder for 10K US and the baby brother to my painting went at Sotherbys in London for 15K US. I saw an Edward Dufner Impressionist painting go out of Abells on a Thursday sale for 23K, the guy sold it the next day for 65K to a gallery in Beverley Hills who put a price of 150K on it. I held that painting and though nothing of it...just another piece of cr@p. The under bidder on that painting btw was Pete Sampras's dad.

Anyway I digressed...So much of construction is just plain cheap, even the high dollar custom stuff. Oh the Builders did Geotech testing on the development but not on a per house basis. According to my attorney ALL the builders here make the buyer sign an illegal contract trying to limit their liability for construction defect...but the housing market is so hot they can get away with it.

Anyway i learned a lot of ***** about Building construction while living here. Also I just hate living outa boxes, I havn't unpacked much more than just what I need...I have a pile of boxes to the ceiling in what was going to be my Library. All my art and stuff is still packed. I havn't spent one dime more than I needed to on the house...gates to keep the dogs in so I don't have to take them out and watch them 4 times a day and garage door openers...I've just bin living in limbo for almost a year now.

I think I just wana go someplace new and start over fresh, whether thats in LV or not I just don't know?

[tabs]

U wana hear a story...One of the known denizens I know from Abells told me that after he graduated HS in 1974 he boughta Tessarossa Ferrari for $4000.00, he said he coulda boughta a 62 GTO for 18K but didn't have the money. Anyway in 1987 a guy he knew at Barret Jackson said he could get 150K for the car at auction. He wound up selling the car and getting 250K for it....He then put that money down on a 500K house 5000 sq ft Tudor in Hancock Park. Where he still lives. At one time he owned 12000 shares of Disney stock at $120 a share, sold some of that off and bought a 250K Tiffany floor lamp.