What does your inspector mean he knows his way around arbitration? Do not think for one minute you will get out of it  if anything happens. It is in your contract and it is the law.
Want to read a horror story? Google "Joran Fogal" and see what happens. Think you are out of arbitration. Go to court and the judge may throw you right back into it.
Watch your red flags.

Janet,
I’m the guy who wrote the foundation diatribe. Now I have another tale of woe to tell.
My neighbor who bought the McMansion built by Blanchard Builders next door to me 4 years ago is threatening to cut down a huge pecan tree which shades the rear of my house from the blazing Texas sun as well as screen us from the ugly back side of his house.

He claims that Home of Texas home warranties will cancel his home warranty if he doesn’t cut the tree down. He has been out of work for about a year and I can imagine his terror of being stuck with a house with a bad foundation and no warranty.

What I tried to explain to him but got nowhere was that Home of Texas is a risk management Corporation in Pennsylvania which specializes in shielding builders from lawsuits from homeowners. He let me read his cover letter and it specifically stated that no tree shall exist within 20 feet of the slab foundation and that it was the homeowners responsibility to properly care for the foundation while they own the house or the warranty would expire. Funny the builder who sold the house with the warranty in place built it so close to the tree.

The tree thing got me thinking. Side yard setbacks here are 5 and 10 feet one side or the other. This would preclude any trees on the sides of a house. Front yard setbacks are 25 feet so a tree could only be planted in the 5 foot strip between the sidewalk and treeless zone. So much for landscaping I guess or shade trees of any kind as far as Home of Texas is concerned. But this is a 100 year old neighborhood with mature trees that the McMansion builders are cramming these over size houses into. Then they sell unenforceable warranties to unsuspecting buyers. Shouldn’t this be called organized crime or mail fraud?

I have to ask you. Why should it be anybody’s responsibility to "properly care for a foundation" of a brand new half million dollar house? Wouldn’t you think that at the very least the foundation of these huge things would be one of the most stable parts? Absolutely not!!! Even though bed rock is only 4 feet down here, the builder chose to bring in more black clay and put in a post tension slab with no piers. Additionally they ignored the pecan tree on the property line and conveniently left it out of the site plan submitted to the city and then built the house to within 2 feet of the tree. They routinely build this type of slab here even though the city officials and the builders all know that the slabs will crack and buckle with alarming regularity. Now that the slab is busted down the middle they are blaming the pecan tree which was there when they built the house even though the wetback ditch diggers cut all the roots when they dug the perimeter beams .

While I cannot tell you how glad I am to not own that house, I can tell you that being the neighbor has been a nightmare anyway.

Good Foundation

FOUNDATION UPDATE:
The myths of watering foundations and under designed foundations.
Too much rain, lack of rain, trees as “Acts of God” exposed as a fairy tale.

Because of so many homeowner complaints describing foundation failures the American Society of Engineers asked for comments and recommendations from all engineer in Texas.  The recommendation from the engineers who participated was to design slabs stiffer.  The suggested proposed results were astounding; the recommended guideline changes would increase foundation strength by 2700% at an estimated cost of only a $1,000 for a 2,500 square foot one story home or a 5,000 square foot two story.

At a recent meeting of the Texas Residential Construction Committee (TRCC) Warranty Standards Committee, a group of engineers presented their suggestions regarding what it would take to beef up foundations.  They described and acknowledged that home foundations are being designed by engineers to less stringent standards in order to build foundations cheaper.
 
One of the committee members describing how homeowners are instructed by the builder to put a soaker hose around the perimeter of the home, and never turn it off in order to keep the foundation from cracking and keep it stable.  He then asked how much water was needed to maintain a foundation.  The well known engineer responded, you can not maintain a foundation by watering it because “you can never water enough.”   

It was then pointed out that the cost of water over even a relatively short period of time would far exceed the cost of $1,000 to stiffen the foundation significantly when it is built.

So finally we have it on authority that the excuse for foundation failures caused by too much rain, lack of rain or trees is a fairy tale, and that “Acts of God” are manmade in order to increase builder’s profits.

Janet Ahmad