Construction Projects
Consulting Projects
This home was basically built on a pile of rocks. As the job progressed, issues arose between the owner, owner’s expert, architect, excavation subcontractor, foundation subcontractor, and others. These individuals participated in many change orders related to grading, floor levels, retaining walls, and more. The paperwork was minimal at best. The owner felt he was being over-charged for much of the work. He didn’t want to invest in new plans, so the changes were made on a cost-plus basis (value engineering).
At one point, the excavation contractor was directed to back-fill improperly waterproofed retaining walls. The elevation between the home and garage was changed by 5 feet, compromising the home-to-garage connection. A utility trench in rock was added. By the time the job was almost complete, the owner, and various contractors, were all feuding amongst themselves.
One of the subcontractors asked me to help determine the causes of the problems and sort out the disputes between the various parties involved. We got this done, and resolved the disputes, by putting together a job history to demonstrate the problems encountered by all.
The contractor made many omissions with the construction of this home.
Errors included:
Weep screeds covered or omitted.
Two sets of doors improperly installed, allowing water intrusion.
Curved exterior stairs built on uncompacted soil and therefore, settling.
Interior stairs not built to code (this is a safety issue).
Second-floor deck not properly water-proofed, causing loose tile that probably will fall off (another safety issue).
Grading and drainage errors: run-off water from mountain runs into home.
Issues with electric fixtures, wiring, and an undersized electric panel.
Fireplace flue exposed and not boxed in and finished with stucco.
Wall penetrations at pool area not sealed, allowing water intrusion into the structure.
General contractor over-charged on cost-plus contract.
The owner and his attorney employed me to document and help resolve the many instances of construction defects made by the general contractor.
Hail loss on an 11,000-square-foot commercial building in Phoenix, AZ, occurred in October 2010.
The building has a SPF roof with elastomeric coating with painted split block and stucco walls.
The Insurance company first estimated the repair work for this building at: $28,242.15.
I inspected the necessary work to bring the building back to its pre-loss condition at $176,426.68 (which is $148,184.33 or 624% times the insurance company estimate). The insurance company omitted damages to finishes and especially the extensive hail damage to all the many HVAC package units on the roof. The photo on the right shows the type of extensive damage done to the units rendering the package units practically useless.
The final insurance payment was 6.24 times the insurance company’s original estimate.
The contractor for this home bought substandard windows and then installed them improperly. He drilled slots in the window frames (which is not recommended by the window manufacturers) and didn’t get the windows themselves into the tracks. The result: the windows didn’t open and close properly, and eventually, fell apart.
The owner hired me to help determine why the windows didn’t work properly, and what it would take to make things right, and in the end, the dispute was resolved: the contractor repaired some of the windows and replaced others.
Following are some examples of construction defects I’ve found and documented in cases I’ve worked on.
