WWYD-- Cracked Foundation in a New Home??

[stnet]

First you should file a complaint with the TRCC - its free. Then you should send letters every week to Lennar - warranty letters. You should also try to find out from Lennar who engineered the cables in the slab. Once you find out the name of the company you should contact them about coming out and doing a test on the slab - sometimes there is no charge for this. I can give you the name of a structural engineer if you want it just PM me.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

While it's not foundation related, I have an experience where I had to deal with my builder about a problem....

I'll try to keep it concise -

We built our house in 2003. We have a finished basement, a main floor, and a second story. Right away we could tell there was an issue with the heating/cooling. The airflow was too strong in the basement and very weak in the second story. The second story was always super cold (even though heat rises) and the basement was like an oven. Things were just totally backwards.

We contacted the builder and they sent out their heating/cooling contractor (several visits). He'd turn the heat/AC on & off, walk around, stick a thermometer in the vents, and basically tell us everything was OK and that we needed to close the vents in the basement and the main level to push the airflow the second story. He basically dismissed us every time.

I got more and more angry because I knew something was wrong. So, I took things in my own hands and called two separate independent heating/cooling contractors and paid them to inspect our system. They both did full inspections and spent ALOT of time making notes on what they found. They each charged under $100.

The inspections found that the heat exchanger was bad and no dampers were installed so the airflow could be adjusted.

I wrote a letter to my builder (sent certified mail) about the inspections and the findings. Guess what? My builder FINALLY fixed the problem. They sent a different heating/cooling contractor (not the one that kept coming to my house and saying everything was OK) and the replaced the heat exchanger and installed dampers at no cost to me. They didn't reimburse the cost of having the two independent contractors do their inspections but that was OK because it got the problem fixed.

Good luck with your builder. Be strong!

 

[SalandJeff]

Call a lawyer and follow their advice and get a structural engineer out there. Just because the builder says they will not fix it if their engineer doesn't agree, does not mean they cannot be forced to fix it. Do it Monday morning!

Here is my story - my house is not new. Our house was built in 1968 and we bought it in 1993. We have a basement, but the garage was added at a later time and is on a slab. There was a crack from front to back in the slab. The building inspector said it was fine....a settlement crack. Being the naive 1st time home buyers that we were we believed him.

Well over time, the entire right side of my garage has started to sink. We can no longer put the cars in. The walls have separated along the bottom between the bottom plate of wall and the concrete.

The sinking seemed to accelerate quickly after we installed a sump pump in the basement. (Another problem the sellers failed to tell us about...a week after we moved in, the boxes in the basement were floating around in 6 inches of water). The pump ran continuously for a few weeks and then finally stopped. I think there was some type of spring under the house and once the water was all gone, it affected the garage slab - the water was holding it up in effect.

We unfortunately had no one to go after for our problems. But you do. Do it now before it effects the rest of the structural integrity of your house. Good luck!