In 2007 Powell Custom Homes was contracted to do the excavation and foundation for our home in Fox Creek. This included basement walls and retaining walls. The walls were backfilled with clay that caused in the first 6 months the largest retaining wall to fail. This wall was replaced twice once without the use of an structural engineer and once with a structural engineer, with pressure from me, to draw it up and compensate for the clay back filling. This wall held , however, the stress the replacement caused to the adjoining wall caused a 13 foot structural crack all the way to the footings. Two more retaining walls cracked, one right off the house, after 6 years of freeze and thaw of the clay and the pressure against the concreat. Clay holds water and is not porous so drainage is poor and concrete will give under this kind of pressure.
I contacted Powell to have them come and look at these issues they never came or sent anyone to investigate. I employed SME soils engineering, Nederveld structural engineering and finally Kent Concrete specialist to fix this problem. As each written report was received I sent it to Powell Custom Homes. My initial cost for the contracted poured walls was $30,000.00 The cost of fix the problem was $21,800.00. The only time Powell responded was with a letter saying that they sympathized with the misfortunes that have occurred, we feel that this is not our financial responsibility.
Anyone considering this contractor should be aware of these issues. The foundation is the support of your house. Backfilling with clay without making some special provisions when building can cause problems for years and often doesn't show up for a few years. Do your investigation regarding your soils and your builder's previous practices in relation to these challenges. read more
