Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 3 month nightmare help comments or prayers please

I'm not a fan of government, or many of the countless preposterous restrictions, codes, regulations and laws citizens are subjected to in everyday life. That said, this I do believe: sometimes there are very good reasons for certain standards, such as building codes and inspections that are designed (mostly) to protect people from getting hurt, screwed or doing things that are potentially really stupid, dangerous and/or costly. Example? Being able to have a home built that falls apart/self-destructs within a single year after spending a pile of dough on because no meaningful standards were in place and scrutinized to protect the consumer/owner...

Your use of 'nightmare' seems appropriate, and if nothing else may serve as a warning to others. I've nothing to offer beyond that other than, sorry for your troubles and best of luck, OP.

Italian lightning, anyone?

There's shady folks in all occupations and contractors sure seem to have more than most.

I can't add anything in terms of advice but damn, I sure hope you get some resolution without having to get someone in a choke hold.

Hope you get things fixed up.....good luck to you!!

Sorry to hear about your house problems.I have had several homes built ,plus I used to build cabins.I sure don`t know the laws in Missouri,but it seems you got a shady contractor.Around here you could never get a home loan with out the bank checking the Contractors Insurance and bono fides.Something I do my self anyway.On new construction you must be on site every day to see what the contractors are doing.It really is up to you to know the building codes in your area and make sure they are followed.
Yes, you for sure need a lawyer familiar with real estate and building codes.If you have a written contract on how the home should be constructed you should be good to go.How ever if the contractor is a LLC,I don`t know if you can go after his personal property.My daughter lives around St Joes and knows some good contractors.Maybe they could help you?

If the “contractor” doesn’t have a business license I’m thinking he doesn’t have a LLC either. I’d lawyer up and make damned sure you own everything he has. It’ll take years of misery but it is the only satisfaction you’ll get.

Yeah like mil spec, thats bs, code is all about health & safety. Plumbing & electric completed to a standard, engineering verified, for load bearing, spans, deflection. Code protects people that dont have a clue or the wherewithal to check why there are fewer posts than planned, why the drains have been changed and plumbed under the house.. doesn't mean code inspections and enforcement are the same everywhere, which is unfortunate. Bottom line, you spend 540k, caveat emptor

As an aside - (and maybe in that area it's common, ) why would someone not have a concrete basement poured; both floor and walls?? If the soil conditions are such that water can be an issue, there's tiling that's laid and a sump pump removes excess..

I'd be mad enough to get revenge. I don't know how you haven't blown a gasket by now.

Best of luck getting your house fixed. After being in business most my life I guess I would advise spending your money where you might see actual results. I would want to know there was a good chance I could collect on any judgement you pay legal fees to win. May be best if he doesn't have a business license or if he misrepresented he did so you might be able to sue him individually or personally. Its too easy for him to bk the business. I would contact your state attorney generals office. You may never collect a dime through that office but they might put him out of business on their dime instead of yours if he violated state law. Collecting on a judgement can be tough especially if he has little money or a family. If he is single he likely doesnt have the level of protection against collection of a judgement.

What is the advantage of an "Encapsulated Crawl Space"? I had to ask.

A good bet is that everyone that built that house is judgement proof.

The "veil" of liability protection can be pierced if the LLC is sloppy with accounting and procedures.

1. I actually did read the whole thing, just can't quite picture the entire fiasco just yet.

2. I smell bankruptcy's in the near future.

3. You need all the professional help you can muster including lawyers,

4. When you tire of screaming at people, scream even louder, No one is going to find the solution(s) but you, and you're going to have to become merciless.

5. Are you talking erosion from storm water? from the gutters and downspouts? If so immediately disconnect the downspouts, But I'm sure that's been discussed already.

Where is all this water coming from and why is it not being diverted properly?

Even with a sag in the building drain It takes greater pressures to back up, (overcome the static head pressure) and then how is the water from inside the drainage system backing up into the crawlspace? Broken pipe or open receptor somewhere?

Might be some dumb questions here but I just cant visualize the scenario your trying to describe.

Underground erosion, sinkholes and stuff, enough erosion that counter-tops are pulling away from walls?

You're in for a hell of a fight.

Best of Luck.

It wouldn’t cost anything to send the description of events you have posted here to your state attorney generals office. Perhaps there would be some form of help from them? Won’t hurt to try.

For all the issues you have posted and If I knew of them and was still purchasing the property as is, I would be putting in the correct foundation next to what’s there. I’d hire a home mover to slide the home over. The utility lines and hook ups can be extended. Then I would doze and scrape the old out and fix it as yard.

It’s much easier and faster to fix in the open versus work underneath, plus the existing soil under current is compromised.

Not sure I understand the pumping suggested. If your on a hill one or even two horizontal bands of drain piping with saturation rock could be run around the perimeter and fed out downhill. Gravity is your friend. Having dehumidifiers in the basement or crawl spaces is very common here, set up to dump into buried drains, solid pipe discharging into a rock pot somewhere outside and away.
Apologies but hind sight is as they say….

Osky

Fireball2/krp/bobmt, know how a legitimate construction business operates.

Folks saying ''lawyer-up'' and take everything the CONtractor owns, yeah, and the lawyer will get most of what is retrieved.

The three coastal counties in Mississippi, one had no code enforcement >Hancock county, the fly-by-night bunch gravitated to it.

H5farm, I have nothing to ad that hasn't already been said, I do agree with the comment, put getting your house straightened out first and foremost.

And oftentimes in the end lawsuits and the stress & time involved just aren't worth it.
View it as, the amount you spent over & above the contact price, is what you would have spent by going with a first class outfit. Like hiring an engineering firm to oversee the project.

Good luck during this stressful time.

Here is a pic. The top pipe is the water from four gutters sitting on top of the footer on each side. The bottom pipe is the foundation drain sitting below the footer on each side. If you zoom in you see the bottom pipe it is perforated and has holes in it. I took the picture which is the only proof that I have of this stupid ass system today. I had forgotten I had the picture until Monday.

The septic guy came a few days later and ran a 6 inch line out of the middle void in the picture in the sleeve in the bottom of the footer 6 inch heavy duty septic pipe 190 foot directly into the septic lagoon,

The contractor had him take the two lines he created with the plumber which were two 4 inch pipes one each side (in the picture) and join them with a fitting then put them into a into one 6 inch pipe the same pipe that the septic line uses that is rated to be buried and run out one long 6 inch heavy duty pipe right next to the septic pipe. Because the guy was burying all the pipe and all he carried was 6 inch pipe. He stopped the gutter/foundation drain pipe at 160 feet which day lighted into the woods.

So basically he took two 4 inch pipes into a 6 inch pipe changing the plumbers work as this reduced the line of pipe by half because the plumber had 4 gutters per pipe. He now had it back to 8 gutters one pipe. This [bleep] ass system was supposed to handle all the rain water from a 3100 square foot house with a 10/12 foot pitched roof.

The sad fact is that it never even got a chance to work because the guy who buried it basically crimped it 20 foot from the house trapping a 40 foot section of solid water making it just like you had put a cap on the end of it causing it to spray back through the holes in the drain pipe against the house and under the sealed liner in the crawlspace. Then when the rain stops the water leaches out taking the soil from under the piers sinking the house every time it rains. In theory the contractors system would have work up to certain volumes of heavy rain and was greatly reduced when he changed the plumbers calculation by putting it into one pipe after he left. The main problem was if a turtle or a log fell and blocked the pipe or they damaged it during back fill its only way out is against the house this was a ticking time bomb. It never comes out the gutters or shows any signs other than under ground. It was doomed before we moved in.

Monday the Engineer was adamant about the water. I found out Tuesday there was water for sure under the house. Wed that this guy had crimped the pipe. I hope his insurance helps out.

Either way the gutters are cut off and redirected no more water pumped under the house. The system was always doomed but broken before we moved in. All because of a stupid design that had its one fatal flaw engaged before it was ever fully installed.

Snow storms in Missouri, A total whiteout.......

Dude, you can't catch a break at all.

Osky makes a good point. Get the Attorney General involved. Heck, may even the state rep for your district?

You have a tough decision to make. Spend the money on your own and get the house fixed and call it good…or spending the money to get the house fixed, hire a lawyer to sue and hope you break even at the end of the day.

At the least, get a lawyer to subpoena records of insurance, etc. at the time of construction. Easiest way I know of to put that issue at rest.

That is an engineering cluster F!!!

Kent

Still trying to visualize this,

I have see no problem with the design or install,
A 6 inch pipe has greater volume than 2, 4 inch pipes,
If a 6 inch drain can not handle the flow, what size gutters do you have??????

No way the gutters could carry that volume either,

The 'trap' is the main suspect, but still,,,

More than meets the eye here.