The contractors that thought it was ok to do these are true idiots.  Anybody else have pics of projects where you shake your head as in  :wtf: were these guys thinking?

 

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,3548.0.html

That picture of the driveway is pretty amazing.  I also want to know what the buyers were thinking when they bought that place.

That picture of the driveway is pretty amazing. I also want to know what the buyers were thinking when they bought that place.

 

They weren't!

 

If that is in Ohio, can you imagine that driveway in winter? 

Is it possible they were photoshopped.  I can't see city code allowing this and approving the plans. 

No, I found that house in a home construction forum at one point and ... it is sadly true.

I had a contractor run all the plumbing stacks in a house straight down through the basement instead of running them off to the side along the basement wall, including one that completely blocked the staircase.  That same house had a bedroom where there was supposed to be a vaulted ceiling above the living room (and they left out the window).  Also, the framing included alot of random boards that had been nailed in to the frame or just right onto the plywood (not connected to the frame at all, and not even straight).  They must have used a quarter more wood than they needed.

 

Another house a couple of doors down a different contractor screwed up the benchmark elevation, leaving us with a house that had most of it's basement above grade, and the entrance from the attached garage about 6' in the air.  We had to bring the entire lot up by about 4'.  They did so with sand, which as you might guess isn't very stable in that situation.  We then had to build a retaining wall around half the property to keep the sand in, and cap the rest with the sod.

 

This is what I stepped into when I took over that project along with a myriad minor issues, and one major uneven floor in a house that had already been sold and occupied.

ugh... That sounds like a NIGHTMARE! Did you have to redo a bunch of the construction?

Yeah, the plumbing had to be rerun and the basement floor slab patched.  We left the bedroom, but had them put in a window.  We left the extra boards in the framing- they weren't doing any harm.

 

On the other house we had to truck in all the fill, build retaining walls, and build a grand front staircase.  By the time we realized all that was necessary to remedy the problems caused by the false benchmarking, it would have been cheaper to have dug out the foundation and excavated down further.  I still don't know who the costs got pinned on finally.

 

I spent a year on that project getting these and the other minor issues I mentioned along with standard warranty/punchlist issues addressed, and then was out.

^Holy crap.  Was this a first project for these contractors or were they just amazingly incompetent?

Thanks for posting this.  I remember seeing these photos a couple years ago, and I had been looking for them since to show someone.

 

I like how the revision call sign in the last pic got confused for a step.  What an awesome error in response to an error for an error lol.

 

 

Fortunately, they didn't cut curly lines like some revision clouds

 

 

EDIT: Nvm, look what I found!!!

 

 

 

What the hell.

Uh oh!  Did we forget a boxout of something?

I'm going to guess they made that with cardboard tubes or something.  Imagine all that trouble... and the look on the homeowners face.  "And this is for? ? ?"

It seems like a cheap and more aesthetic alternative would be to landscape the front yard nicely with a small, gently winding path with steps leading to the front door and create a narrow driveway path leading to a rear garage but Americans are obsessed with having large garages in the front which make the house seem bigger. Sadly, that's what it's about for a lot of people.

 

 

How much would it cost (roughly) to level out that land and remove the dirt? Anyone know? Are there any other major complications with that?

Thanks for posting this.  I remember seeing these photos a couple years ago, and I had been looking for them since to show someone.

 

I like how the revision call sign in the last pic got confused for a step.  What an awesome error in response to an error for an error lol.

 

Fortunately, they didn't cut curly lines like some revision clouds

 

EDIT: Nvm, look what I found!!!

 

 

 

I'd guess they needed a hole for ductwork, and made it by punching a series of contiguous holes with a diamond hole saw like they use to make holes for pipes. You can see the splatters on the wall from the water.

 

 

It seems like a cheap and more aesthetic alternative would be to landscape the front yard nicely with a small, gently winding path with steps leading to the front door and create a narrow driveway path leading to a rear garage but Americans are obsessed with having large garages in the front which make the house seem bigger. Sadly, that's what it's about for a lot of people.

 

How much would it cost (roughly) to level out that land and remove the dirt? Anyone know? Are there any other major complications with that?

 

Depending on the cost of infrastructure, although I'm going to assume each way, ripping out the street and sidewalks is the best alternative.  But it's still going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

I don't understand the big garage in front phenomenon either seicer.  Depending on where you live it lowers your home value and is an awful feature when the house goes up on the market.  The correct way is to make the living quarters more prominent, or locate the garage entries to the side of the house.

I really like the side-garage look. From the front, people assume it's a dining room or something.

I don't understand the big garage in front phenomenon either seicer.  Depending on where you live it lowers your home value and is an awful feature when the house goes up on the market.  The correct way is to make the living quarters more prominent, or locate the garage entries to the side of the house.

 

Depends on where you are. In the midwest, a huge garage door means you have at least two huge SUVs,  or maybe one of those Escalade-styled pickup thingies and a big-ass boat to haul with it, and that raises your social standing almost as much as a pickup truck on cement blocks in the front yard and two dogs under the porch.

In my mom's subdivision, every house is like that. A lot of the guys like the huge garages because they can work on their cars or whatever they're building or fixing. In the evening or on weekends, they'll invite their friends over and all hang out in the garage and drink beer from a beer-fridge that's conveniently inside the garage. The fact that it's in the front, makes it more 'inviting' in the same sense as a front porch would, since many of the neighbors will go inside the garage and hang out and drink beer. I think that's more of a blue collar thing though. Most of the houses only range from 150-200k.

I posted some of these pictures in the Construction Science lab at UC.  I think everyone got a good laugh.

In my mom's subdivision, every house is like that. A lot of the guys like the huge garages because they can work on their cars or whatever they're building or fixing. In the evening or on weekends, they'll invite their friends over and all hang out in the garage and drink beer from a beer-fridge that's conveniently inside the garage. The fact that it's in the front, makes it more 'inviting' in the same sense as a front porch would, since many of the neighbors will go inside the garage and hang out and drink beer. I think that's more of a blue collar thing though. Most of the houses only range from 150-200k.

 

You can get screens that cover the garage door opening for summer socializing space. I think they pull down from a roller; I've seen one in use across the street from a friend's house, and it covered the entire width of a two-car garage door. Gas grill in the driveway, screen on the garage door, beer fridge inside, above-ground pool in the back yard for the kids. It don't get no better'n that.

I don't understand the big garage in front phenomenon either seicer.  Depending on where you live it lowers your home value and is an awful feature when the house goes up on the market.  The correct way is to make the living quarters more prominent, or locate the garage entries to the side of the house.

 

Depends on where you are. In the midwest, a huge garage door means you have at least two huge SUVs,  or maybe one of those Escalade-styled pickup thingies and a big-ass boat to haul with it, and that raises your social standing almost as much as a pickup truck on cement blocks in the front yard and two dogs under the porch.

 

Well, not so much here despite being in the middle of general motors land.  Although it also depends on the builder.  The large homebuilder companies up here in mid-michigan only do custom builts.  The design is different for all houses, but in most situations, the client wants the garage to be less prominent.  I actually think a big garage at the front cheapens the look of your home.  But these builders are accommodating three car garages, from the front, you wouldn't even know they were there.

 

Here's a saginaw county builder.  Note that even on their model page....no garage visible

http://www.bavarianbuilders.com/forsales.htm

 

This is a nice model as well

I want my garage to be underground, in my back yard. A narrow hallway will lead you from the underground garage to the inside of the house (once you come out of the revolving book case).

 

That's quite an eye-pleasing design, and I like the way the colors work in the setting.

 

I don't understand the chimney, even though I've seen a lot of them done that way recently. It looks as though it's functional, possibly for a fireplace, and in that case I'd prefer it to be faced in traditional masonry. If it's not functional, then I'd rather see nothing at all in its place.

 

I was only being a little bit tongue-in-cheek about front-facing garage doors being considered desirable here. I live in Fort Wayne, and the damn ugly things are ubiquitous in new developments. They really do seem to be a point of pride among suburbanites in Northeast Indiana.

I want my garage to be underground, in my back yard. A narrow hallway will lead you from the underground garage to the inside of the house (once you come out of the revolving book case).

 

When I was working in Evanston, IL, I did drawings for a client that had something like that.  The dude wanted all these built in cabinets.  His study had a door built as a book case into the garage.  There was also a typical doorway near the kitchen, but his study was his personal space, and he also had a nice car collection.  The book-case door was really a conversation piece.  There was also an elevator in the house accessed from a doorway which looked like the old-school phone closets.  I think we are going to find elevators to be a common feature someday.  Especially as families grow old, and the parents want to hold onto the house as long as possible.  Typical cost for installing a residential elevator is about $16,000-$26,000, which is really not all that bad when you look at the cost of building a home nowadays.  If you are in your 70's, have a two story home, and the laundry is in the basement, it seems worth sacrificing the small extra closet you don't use for a lift.

 

 

It seems like a cheap and more aesthetic alternative would be to landscape the front yard nicely with a small, gently winding path with steps leading to the front door and create a narrow driveway path leading to a rear garage but Americans are obsessed with having large garages in the front which make the house seem bigger. Sadly, that's what it's about for a lot of people.

 

How much would it cost (roughly) to level out that land and remove the dirt? Anyone know? Are there any other major complications with that?

 

Depending on the cost of infrastructure, although I'm going to assume each way, ripping out the street and sidewalks is the best alternative. But it's still going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

I don't understand the big garage in front phenomenon either seicer. Depending on where you live it lowers your home value and is an awful feature when the house goes up on the market. The correct way is to make the living quarters more prominent, or locate the garage entries to the side of the house.

 

It also comes down the the width of the lot.  Some of these developments shoehorn as many lots as possible into a new street, thus not providing space for a drive to access a garage in the back.

Possible candidate!!    We will see when more details emerge.

 

Ceiling Collapses At Mason Business

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=831ef741-04b2-4c2e-840e-4e5c78739ad6

Last Update: 4:51 pm 

 

Web produced by: Ian Preuth

Photographed by: Jeremy Glover

 

At least one medical helicopter has been called to Mason after a ceiling collapsed at a business Tuesday afternoon.

 

Preliminary reports indicate a ceiling collapsed at Blackhawk Automotive on US 42 around 4 p.m.

 

At least two people were injured in the collapse.

 

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) are on standby and may be called in to search for possible victims.

 

 

Shouldn't that be Suburban Search and Rescue? But seriously, people got hurt and may be trapped, it's in bad taste to put this here now

I TRUELY hope the Search & Rescue is a precautionary measure and that the injuries were minor.

 

That said, shoddy engineering and/or construction is not looked upon lightly in this country.  You can expect to be seeing more about this tragedy due to how rarely something like this happens.

I posted some of these pictures in the Construction Science lab at UC.  I think everyone got a good laugh.

 

Is the construction science lab at OCAS? Engineering construction is... memorable.

 

When I lived in an apartment sophomore year, affectionately called the Rohs St Crack House, the furnace failed, and they replaced it. In doing so, they routed the gas line through the main distribution duct work. Needless to say, Duke Energy red tagged that.

The next time I am out that way, I'll snap a pic.

 

But the Boone County judicial Center in Burlington, Kentucky is just AWFUL. A very nice looking structure that does not front the street. In fact, the back of the jail resides along KY 338, and the front fronts a large surface lot that empties onto Rogers Lane. Some of the sidewalks were upgraded, and "on street" parking was added, but marked as no-parking zones. The lights are nice.

 

Aerial. Streetview

"Is the construction science lab at OCAS?"

 

I posted them in the construction science computer lab.  But we do have a high bay lab at OCAS, with a concrete pressure tester and other material testers.

A friend of mine in Seattle came home from work to his apartment last Friday to see that they finally got around to pouring the sidewalks around his building...

 

 

 

 

WTF?

^^ That's hilarious :wtf:

Well, from what I can see, it does meet code, although poorly thought out.  They should have added a small step for that door near the loading entrance for extra safety.  Although the vehicle accessibility to that garage is another story.

Any concrete contractor working in a place with Seattle's topography would have seen these issues arise well before pouring.  I think this is probably someone making a point to an engineer.

Wow, his building is less useful now and I'd imagine it would hav a negative effect on his property value.

That'll be ripped out and the new work backcharged to either the contractor, or if what I surmise is correct, to the engineer for making a sloppy, incorrect, or incomplete topo.

That building looks new...I wonder if some time passed between the survey and when the City let the bid for construction (sometimes plans can be shelved for a while).

 

whatever happened to using common sense and asking for a redesign?

That building looks new...I wonder if some time passed between the survey and when the City let the bid for construction (sometimes plans can be shelved for a while).

 

whatever happened to using common sense and asking for a redesign?

It is new.  He signed a lease when it was almost complete then left town for a few weeks and they were supposed to be done when he got back.  They've been working on it for a few more weeks and as you can see from the pictures, they probably have a few more to go.

A friend of mine in Seattle came home from work to his apartment last Friday to see that they finally got around to pouring the sidewalks around his building...

 

 

 

 

 

Good goobly goop!!

Nice enough, but be careful jumping up and down in that room on the right...

 

 

http://lovelylisting.blogspot.com/2008/07/dont-break-house-by-milton-bradley.html

There are power lines with giant poles running diagonally through the yards of my mom's subdivision. Dominion Homes for ya.

Now in all fairness, that yellow house is probably constructed correctly.  Those appear to be steel posts supporting a transfer beam, on which wood joists meet.  The same type of construction you find in the basements of most homes constructed after 1940.  This actually almost looks over-built since they have two columns, and the beam doesn't appear to be cantilevered, but joined with the corner of the house..

Well those of us without arch degrees can only look at it from a aesthetics perspective lol

 

I guess the house has split levels? It seems like it would have been better to just extend the floor below it, to the same depth. What an awkward space. I wouldn't trust putting a bbq grill there as tempting as it would be.

Aesthetically it's terrible I agree, but the sh!t still holds together.  I think the 2nd and half floors were an addition.  You can kind of tell the house looked "normal" at one time, and also note where excavation occurred, the siding is staggered on the lower level indicating there was once graded land.