On 1/11/2013 12:52 PM, harry wrote:
On Jan 11, 12:56 pm, Doug wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:14:21 -0800 (PST), harry









wrote:
On Jan 11, 5:45 am, Doug wrote:
On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:34:08 -0800 (PST), harry

wrote:
On Jan 10, 4:18 am, wrote:
STEVEN DERSE, the owner of a corporate travel business in Nashville,
cannot feel his house move, but he can hear it. “It’s an eerie creaking
sound,” he said, and it echoes throughout his two-story Georgian-style
house.

COUNTER MEASURES The soil under the home of Psonya Wilson has required
some major work and repairs. The two-story garden style house in
Brandon, Miss., has required the installation of stabilization piers to
shore up the foundation.

It started two years ago when a severe drought contracted the soil
beneath the foundation, which caused it to crack and sink, pulling the
house down with it. The noise has continued intermittently, becoming
more insistent last year when flooding pushed the already compromised
foundation and house back upward.

This seesawing effect was noisy and expensive. Mr. Derse has spent more
than $10,000 to install subterranean piers to stabilize his foundation,
and he expects he will have to install more to prevent further cracking
and crumbling. “You lose your sense of security,” he said. “You love
your home and then it literally turns on you.”

(article continues on website).....http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/ga...tml?pagewanted...

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Here are more links to similar related problems.

From KANSAS CITY, Mo.

http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/extreme...me-foundations

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/335...ith-drought-re...

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And an interesting article
"How to Spot Foundation Damage Caused by Drought"
from Allstate

http://blog.allstate.com/how-to-spot...caused-by-drou...

Common enough.
Caused by **** builders, foundations not deep enough.

Not necessarily. Happened a lot in and around Houston last year.

If you dig deep enough the water content of the ground varies much
less.
American building standards are very low anyway.

Of course but there are economics to consider in building homes not
necessarily because of ****ty builders. Yes there are some ****ty
builders but it doesn't have to do with just foundations. The more
expensive homes in Houston (my current residence) where we have
expansive soils use pile foundations about 8 to 10 feet deep. When I
lived in Long Island, I don't recall hearing about cracked foundations
but most homes had cellars.

What qualifies you to tell me that the American Standards are very low
and what are you comparing them to? Are you a structural engineer?

I was in the construction and maintenance.. Retired.
I took opportunity to look round some domestic house construction site
while I was in the USA a few years back.
Pretty appalling.
Those houses were bound to have problems a few years down the road.
I felt sorry for anyone buying them.


Were the homes being built by Mexicans? I know home builders who have
gone into homes built by Mexican crews and were appalled by the fact
that they couldn't find anything that was level or square. ^_^

TDD