Shoddy Construction of 2000-2005 Housing Boom: Beware of National Builders

[powayseller]

In a hurry to put up as many homes as possible in the last housing boom, builders cut corners on construction. Building inspectors were overwhelmed by the demand for inspections, and cut corners as well.

Mike Morgan, a realtor in Florida, spent $200K of his own money to start a website and campaign exposing Lennar for violations of building codes.

In a very gross case of negligence, an appliance deliveryman, who had turned off the power prior to doing his work, was killed when he simply attached a dryer hose to the vent in a Lennar house. The problem: “a drywall screw had been fired through the yellow wire casing, piercing the hot wire inside and the metal stud. That created a giant power circuit that electrified the house…an inspector approved the electrical wiring on Sept. 6, 14 days before [the deliveryman] was electrocuted.”. The screws to the bathroom mirror had 110 V of power running through them!

The sad part of the story is the appliance deliveryman had a little girl, who puts a quarter into every wishing well she passes; she needs a big coin for her big wish: to have her daddy back.

The lawsuit has been filed against Lennar and the building inspector. People can make donations to the deceased’s family, per the website I gave above.

Mike is going to put $1 million of his own money into expanding his non-profit business to include all national home builders.

A realtor once told me that many homes in Scripps Ranch were settling, causing severe problems with the foundation, because the fill dirt was not properly compacted. We didn’t hire foundation/geotechnical experts for our homes, because we have family members who evaluated this for us. But it is critical for anyone buying a house to go beyond the usual home inspection, and make sure the foundation, roof, and structure, plumbing, etc. are working as designed. My cousin had to pay $80K to lift her house off the foundation and rebuilt it, because her house was settling (San Francisco) – this was just after buying her house, and she had not done any testing of the foundation. Her husband is an architect, but didn’t know enough to catch this. I once bought a house with a leaking roof, so the inspector did a crappy job. We had to replace the entire roof – it wasn’t just a patch job.

My own experience, building a house off our own blueprints in San Diego during the housing boom, is that the building inspectors were a pain in the rear and persistent that everything is perfect, except when it came to inspecting the roof. I guess they don’t like to climb on ladders, so anything goes at the roof level. The contractors were very diligent, perhaps because they knew a homeowner was watching their every step. I saw what is behind my drywall, so I knew the framing, plumbing, electrical, water sprinkler system and insulation were done to very high standards. But once the drywall covers it all up, you have no clue what’s behind there. I once read the builders keep their sandwich wrappers and other trash on the studs, so you could even have trash behind your drywall.

In mass construction, when time and money matter moer than quality and there is no customer breathing down their neck, I suspect we will hear many more horror stories. They had to ramp up hiring, which makes you wonder how well all those hundreds of thousands of sudden new construction were trained. Wall Street’s emphasis on short term profits, which just drives me crazy ( I prefer a long term perspective), exacerbates this.

So many things are wrong with a house anyway, due to age, why would anyone buy a house that comes built with problems? The damage is already built-in. Is it time to boycott the 2000-2006 vintage of homes?

Can we generalize and say the crop of homes built duirng this housing boom are inferior in quality and craftsmanship, and should be avoided? Better to buy that house from the 1980’s and be safe, than take a chance on getting one of those crap homes from the last housing boom.

[blahblahblah]

Our houses are crappy because they’re built by illegal aliens and meth addicts and sold to us by conmen. We buy them anyway. Our food is full of e-coli and toxic chemicals. We eat it anyway. I remember when I was a kid, we read stories in school about how shoddy Soviet-manufactured goods were because there was no incentive to make things any better. Weren’t things supposed to be different here?

[PerryChase]

I have a friend who is a small builder in Florida. He says that the building industry goes by the “good enough” motto. If it looks good enough then that’s all that counts. Painter’s caulking is what’s used to hide all the imperfections.

[SD Attorney]

I read Piggington’s daily and had to chime in when I saw this topic because I make a living off of it.

I spent 6 years as a carpenter in Minnesota and Colorado before moving to San Diego to practice law. I practice now in construction defect litigation and I couldn’t agree with you more regarding the quality of construction during the latest boom here. Shoddy at best.

Many of the major problems that could go wrong with your house are not visible to the naked eye. Southern California is full of fault lines and poor soil conditions, therefore if the soil settles underneath the pad your house is built on you are in for major problems. Cracked foundations/concrete/stucco/flooring. Windows and doors become off center, counter tops can crack, plumbing lines rupture, etc.

Often times builders cut corners when testing the soil conditions of the proposed homes. This is because soils engineering is very expensive and can take a long time to complete. When a builder should do soil borings in 100 locations to get a sampling of the development, they instead will choose to do 25. This is problematic in southern CA when the soil conditions can change dramatically over a very small range.

I don’t know what the ultimate factors are for prospective buyers to consider when assessing the manner in which their house was constructed. But, it helps to have a friend that is a builder or to ask the seller/builder every question you can think of.

Good luck.

[powayseller]

Construction Attorney, do you have a website or e-mail address? My brother is an attorney at Shepherd Mullin, and I’ve been trying to get him interested in starting his own practice, profiting from the huge fall-out of the housing bust. Your field is one such area. He’s not interested in bankruptcy law, because you’re dealing with clients who are broke, plus he is ethically opposed to the new BK law which makes people debt slaves according to him. But construction litigation holds more promise for high fees. If you’re not busy now, you soon will be.

My husband is an engineer by training, so he knows how to do/supervise all the soils tests you’re referring to. The County did not require us to do any soils or compaction testing when we built our house, but we did them anyway. It cost less than $1K. Our neighbors did not do any at all!!! Can you believe it? But we did tested our soil, and we also put extra reinforcement in our foundation: exra rebar to make the foundation stronger. Even if you build according to the building codes, as you mentioned, your house is inferior. I feel sorry for anybody with a tract house, unless of course they got it for pennies on the dollar.

Even $1 mil houses could be just paper boxes built most likely on poor soil, not properly compacted, missing roof vents (because remember that building inspectors do NOT climb on ladders or crawl through attics since they are too good for that). You cannot know what is in your house, because it is covered with some cheap stucco and a nice coat of paint. But underneath that pretty paint and smooth stucco, is who-knows-what? Cracked 2×4 framing? Soil not compacted properly? One will never know.

Does anyone know if construction used to be of higher quality? Was there a certain year when the quality deteriorated? Are some builders still craftsmen?

[mydogsarelazy]

We own a KB home built in 2004 in Murrieta.

After the close of escrow we had the home professionally inspected and found only a few minor issues — a cracked roof tile, and a place that wiring needed to be re-shielded.
During the warranty period we contacted the builder twice for minor repairs which were instantly and expertly taken care of.

So, just one anecdote here, but we are very satisfied with the quality of our new home.

JS

[mixxalot]

Now buying a home worries me

With the shoddy build quality and inflated prices.

I almost bought a place 2 years ago in Sacramento and found a lot of problems and backed out of the deal. It ticked off the agent but I was angry that she would sell me a piece of crap for 390k at the time.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

The newest house I ever purchased was built in 1963, bought in 1996. Since then I’ve bought houses built in 1952 and the 1920’s.
My advice: buy something that has been around at least 40 years and expect to do some routine maintenance. Beats paying HOA, mello roos and getting an inferior product IMO.

[surveyor]

My rental property/SFR in Mira Mesa was built in 1997, but has held up pretty well. No major problems.

My in-law’s place in 4s ranch (which they are renting), the sprinkler system has gone awry four times (the house itself is almost 4 years old) and each time they have to tear up the sidewalk and the driveway to solve the problem. I haven’t heard any other problems with 4s ranch houses, though.

[PerryChase]

I’m hoping for pre-fab modular houses that people can just bolt together on top of a slab. That will permanently lower the cost of housing. These container based houses should be extremely strong. Add nice lanscaping and you have great inexpensive houses that are also structurally sound.

We just need to be a little creative and forget about the “traditional” houses. I kinda think we need a housing revolution.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/06/16/carollloyd.DTL

[SD Attorney]

Powayseller, I can be reached at 8582545077.

[Cow_tipping]

Construction Attorney,
I live in NC not in CA. and own a 4 year old centex house. Well out of warranty. However I believe I have some structural defects. Nails on the second floor holding the boards to the joists instead of screws. Floor creaks very very very loudly when you walk on it. I am wondering if it is a worthwhile endeavor to initiate legal proceedings against them for that. Last year they replaced a similar problem in my neighbors house. They also were out of warranty. 3 year old house at that time.
Thanks.
Cow_tipping.

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