For some time now I have made references to the problems we had when starting to develop our home site. This is as good a time as any to sit down and share our experience.
We contracted with a local engineer to do the plans for our home and had nothing but trouble. Being new to the small town, we wanted to work with the locals. In the end that proved to be a very bad decision. The engineer passed the production of the plans to a draftsman and his work load was so heavy that our plans were always put on the back burner. The communication of changes was difficult . After seven months of frustration I took the disputed plans to an architect in a large city near us. He found fourteen serious errors in the plan, far more than I had been demanding be fixed. An example was the first floor did not match the size of the foundation and the stairs did not reach the second floor.
The foundation error was eighteen inches. The stairs were for an eight foot ceiling and not the nine foot as in the plan. There were a variety of other problems including specifying TJI’s that as the reviewing architect commented would support a semi truck. A full four levels above what would be recommended by the manufacturer. The added cost here was over three thousand dollars just for the TJI’s. The stairs were the biggest problem as there was no easy fix. To make a correction seriously effected the either the roof line or loss of space from the kitchen which was already a little to tight.
Now for the best part, this engineer was also responsible for the septic system. Our property has a few areas that will perc and a lot that will not. We found an area with the help of an excavator after digging several test holes. The engineer sent a tech out and looked at the selected hole and agreed that we should do the perc tests there. I requested that he call me and that I be there when the test was done. After two weeks I called and asked when the test was going to be done. This was in December in Upstate New York and the snow was coming. I was told that the tests had been done and the system location had passed. When I asked why I was not informed when the test would be done the excuse was ‘I forgot’.
It was about a week later when I picked up a copy of the report. When I looked at the date listed for the perc test, it was the same day as the test hole was dug. Since my wife and I had spent the rest of that day at the property discussing placement of the house and outbuildings, I really became suspicious. The trouble was that snow now covered the ground so finding the three perc test holes was impossible.
When the snow melted, I hired another engineer to review the site and the test documents. His conclusion was no perc tests had been done. I contacted the county health board that issued the permit and reported my findings. They immediately sent out a tech to examine the site. Again her conclusion was that no perc tests were done. She told me she had to report to her supervisor and that they would be in contact with me. The next day her supervisor called and said a hearing was going to be scheduled in about three weeks. He also said this was a very serious violation.
Immediately after I got off the phone my wife and I went to the property and found the tech from the engineering firm at the site with shovel in hand. I made him walk back to the septic site with me. As we walked, he admitted that he did not do the perc tests.
As soon as the heath office had contacted the engineer, the tech was at the property digging fake perc test holes.
After a hearing the Board of Health determined that they could not tell if the perc tests had been done or not done. The permit was allowed to stand and the whole issue was swept under the proverbial rug. I had another engineer test the site and it did in fact pass with numbers significantly different from the bogus report.
I also received a letter from the original engineer saying that I could not build the house he designed for us. As if I would build the house with all the errors. We did have a different design built with the help of a wonderful architect and we love our new home.
I know this is a long post but believe it or not this is the condensed version. I am no novice to building projects and have had problems before with contractors. However this was the first time that I could say that I ran into a professional that used the above as SOP. It is a cash cow when people pay for tests not done. Most people were just happy to hear that the “tests†were successful and in fact some knew that they were not done on their site either.
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