Fairhaven residents: Dream home a nightmare; Pulte should pay
“The last thing we need is to have this wall come crumbling down into our bedroom," Mendoza says. “I wake up in the middle of the night. I wake up in the morning thinking about it.”  Related photos: Building Pulte Walls with no Foundation

Fairhaven residents: Dream home a nightmare; Pulte should pay

Joe Conger - KEN5 

SAN ANTONIO -- The cracks and separation along the retaining walls of Fairhaven subdivision has residents packing city hall meetings.

Though Pulte says it’s normal, residents say it’s a sign of a design flaw.

They want city leaders to make home-builders back their products with surety bonds - or buy them back.

“We’re going on 2 ½ years and we’re dealing with the same issues if not more now,” says homeowner Priscilla Mendoza.

Mendoza says Pulte sub-contractors have been steadily visiting her home to fix things since her 2009 movie-in.

Her latest concern is a two-story retaining wall that snakes around her Fairhaven neighborhood, right outside her window.

“The last thing we need is to have this wall come crumbling down into our bedroom," Mendoza says. “I wake up in the middle of the night. I wake up in the morning thinking about it.”

Concerned homeowners say the walls are weak, and aren’t designed to handle rain or irrigation water behind it.

They dug portions of it up to show there is no foundation under the wall, but tons of dirt and rock behind it.

James Wilson lives on top of the wall. He says he has seen half a foot of his yard sink and disappear. He wonders about his neighbors below.

“What happens if this wall fails? And you can’t get those answers when you ask," he says.

In a letter to KENS-TV, Pulte says the wall is functioning as designed, that any separation is normal, and that an independent engineer found no significant cracks or signs of failure.

Homeowners aren’t convinced. They fear the worst.

Pulte says the wall is a totally different design than that of the Rivermist subdivision where that wall failed a couple of years ago.

Related:
Evaluation of Fairhaven's modular block retaining wall

Pulte: Fairhaven's VERSA-LOK retaining wall