Frank wrote:
HeyBub wrote:
"RESIDENTS of a model housing estate bankrolled by Hollywood
celebrities and hand-built by Jimmy Carter, the former US president,
are complaining that it is falling apart.

And, here I thought Jimmy's only competence was in hammering nails

Brother Jimmy is a better carpenter than he was a president, and was
fine at hammering nails. (And now in his dotage, he probably can't even
do that any more.) But while trained as an engineer, it wasn't in civil
engineering- if the people that set up the project were stupid enough to
put it on poorly drained uncompacted fill land, well, problems are
inevitable. You can't build in a swamp. (I have firsthand experience
with that, owning a house in Louisiana. Even on high ground, the climate
rots everything.) And pretty much everywhere in the far southland, bugs
and termites are everywhere.

But yes, the HforH houses are low-end at best, and even supervised
amateurs do make more mistakes than 'real' carpenters. But even a
low-end house can be made to last, as long as it is on solid ground, and
properly maintained. Part of the HforH process is that the recipients
have to put in sweat equity, on their own and other houses. Supposedly,
this also gives them the skill set to do basic upkeep down the road. Sad
to hear it didn't work out in this case. The HforH houses around here
seem to be doing okay, with few public complaints, and a very low
default rate.

I do agree with the others- I'd also be wary of a speed-record blitz
house. QC is an important part of the build process, and doing rework is
pretty hard if 3 more layers of building materials are covering the work.

--
aem sends....