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We moved into our house in September of 2005 with absolute faith and trust in CENTEX homes
and the warranty they sold us. In the course of over a year and a half, that faith has been broken
and we have been lied to. Their engineers & warranty department have failed us. The Centex reps
said it best at the July 10th City Council meeting with the statement to the effect that there were
problems with that land before they bought it. And, with every day, it becomes more apparent to
me that my house had been set up for failure since before it was even built. Water is a destructive
force when allowed to run amuck.
When we moved in, we immediately noticed in fall/winter 2005:
• A huge hole (at least 3ft by 3ft if not bigger) that was eroding out from under our front driveway
area. They packed it with soil, it eroded again. They then took a wheelbarrow full of wet cement
and slopped it in there. Did that fix it? I don’t know.
• There was water drainage runoff of a huge amount and velocity from the properties above and
behind us through and over our railroad tie retaining wall. Video: Waterfall We reported that on
11/12/05.
• Pooling of water in the back and side of our house.
Shortly after moving in we contacted the warranty department regarding concerns over the
retaining wall and the pooling of water against our foundation. We were told that the retaining wall
was fine and that the water problems were because the new sod hadn’t settled yet. Huh?
After a couple of weeks when the problem still hadn’t resolved, they finally decided to address it by
putting in some form of (I call it substandard) French drainage system in fall of 2005.
(Aerial shots show the scars in
the yards from the first attempt
to install the drainage system).
The heavy construction equipment left huge rutted tracks that tore through our front yard. We
complained about this drainage system not only because it sat up above the topsoil
and looked unsightly for months but also because it did not
seem to be working. My back yard sat wet through drought
and water restrictions. What was the point of it?
When we started noticing interior/exterior damages Centex
sent an engineer out to do a survey of our property . I assumed
& trusted that it would be a third party engineer and not the one
who had engineered my foundation.
(They attempted to fix my LR wall and ceiling separation twice. The first time they caulked it and
tried to nail it down but it ripped open again shortly later. One of the workers fell through my
master closet ceiling and had to do repairs on that and the repair job isn't a great one either-- The
second time someone from the warranty department came out they took one look at it and said
they couldn't help me and walked right back out of my house).
The engineer stated in beginning of January 2006 that there was minimal damage to our
foundation but that it was important that the water problems be corrected as soon as possible. It
was recommended/suggested that they use a French drainage system that had perforated PVC
piping. This was not utilized until their 3rd attempt at fixing my yard over a year later in 2007. (Why
didn’t they follow their own engineer’s advice and utilize it immediately in January of 2006?)
In June of 2006 I hired a house inspector to come out to go over our property because of more
damages showing up and my concern over the drainage system installed. He suggested that we
get flood insurance due to the severe sloping of our back yard. He felt that the drainage system
installed would not be able to handle any heavy surface rain coming down our backyard from
above properties and suggested the possibility of it running straight into the back of our
house. He recommended that we get a structural engineer or foundation repair company to come
out since he saw separation of our siding, and brick
veneer separating from our front window and cracking
down the other side through the mortar, along with our
interior damages.
Sometime during all this, my neighbors’ received the same beautiful substandard French
drainage system that had not been working in my yard. Predictably, it caused more problems
instead of lessening them. Some neighbors were lucky enough to have miscellaneous trash
thrown in with their systems. In the summer of 2006 after all these systems were installed, the
neighbors got together at my house and we talked about setting up a meeting with our builder.
Lack of communication & competence of work was a horrible repeated theme throughout the
whole process and one we all were upset about. We expressed our concerns at this meeting (and
at a subsequent meetings as well as impromptu visits from representatives), but left feeling our
concerns were not fully addressed.
The builders still refused to address the water drainage run off we were getting from the
properties above and behind us and thoughtfully gave us a 10 year warranty on our railroad tie
retaining wall. (Even as other railroad tie retaining walls were having integrity failure
in other areas of our community.
Retaining walls shorter than some of ours).
They did however concede that the severe sloping in some of our back yards was a problem.
They stated that some yards would be re-graded to correct this and that a rock wall with patio
would be put into place. They sold us the rock wall as an idea of an upgrade but it was a
nightmare of a project that we should never have allowed.
It also serves a purpose in that it puts weight up against the railroad tie retaining wall. Was it
really an upgrade, or rather, a necessity? Hmmm...
They stated that the re-grading and rock wall wouldn’t take long to implement. I believe they stated
it could take as little as 2 weeks. It didn’t. It dragged on for what seemed like forever. It was a
nightmare. We were forever waking up early in the morning to the sudden sounds of starting
diesel construction vehicles Video: Wake Up Alarm, men talking loudly all a sudden on the side of
our house or in our back yard. We listened to loud music being played on radios at all hours of
the day while strange men worked in our yard leaving trails of trash that I had to pick up after.
None of these subcontractors could communicate to me when I had questions for them and there
were no representatives from our builder overseeing or checking up on them.
The communication from the builder was lacking.
The work the subcontractors did was shoddy
and substandard.
When trying to ask them questions, some actually
turned their heads away and ignored me. In fact, one
gentleman working a bulldozer was so upset I had
interrupted him and rude to the point of spouting out profanities, while getting off the vehicle to
walk over and talk to me. A short time later, I got a nice bulldozer hole in the side of my house that
the workers neglected to tell me about and just left there for me to discover. The impact of the
bulldozer hit so hard it broke through the hardy plank, and v'd out my drywall, busted through my
baseboard into my master bedroom wall. That was a warranty nightmare of FOLLOW UPS for
them to complete repairs on. This was the time when I discovered that the people they send to
homeowners’ properties do not have criminal background checks done on them. As a stay at
home mom, I was made to feel very uncomfortable when two young gentleman of questionable
character and mannerisms showed up to fix the interior of my bulldozer wall damage. They were
in my house all of 5 minutes laughing and giggling and didn’t even finish the job they were sent
there for.
Finally, months later, my back yard was completed. Here it was, Christmas 2006 and my family
was finally going to be able to utilize the back yard since moving in in fall of 05. Well, it seemed to
be completed until it started holding more water than ever before.
It turned into a lake in my back yard and they had just finished laying down the new sod. (Texas
Water Code Section 11.086) Guess what I was told when I first complained about this? Yep, the
old line about the sod not having settled yet, and straight from an engineer's mouth. WHAT?#@
I was also further informed that the company that installed the drainage systems was coming out
to open the flush out valve and would be running a test to see if the drainage systems was still
working. I informed the builder's engineer that the flush out valve was gone and hadn’t been there
for quite some time and had in fact been sodded over and wanted to know how they would be able
to test it if it wasn’t there anymore. (obviously the drainage system had failed (remember yard
being wet during drought and water restrictions and now a lake) and was not working so didn’t
understand the need for testing it)
After complaining some more, my warranty supervisor came out to take a look at it. That same day
I had men in my back yard digging up the new sod and making trenches to drain the vast amount
of dammed up water in my back yard against my foundation and up behind my new rock wall.
Happy New Year to me! It was a mess.
It took days for it to drain and they even used a pump to help get all the water out. Meanwhile, you
can imagine what this was doing to my foundation right? I mean, it doesn’t take an engineer to
figure THAT one out. But no, the damages to my house weren’t caused by water affecting the
expansive soils my foundation sits on, and in turn affecting my foundation, but merely it was a
problem with my truss system in the framing of my house. Huh?
It’s now January/February 2007 and we were finally getting that perforated PVC French drainage
system their engineer recommended over a year ago. My poor house had interior/exterior
damages popping up left and right now. I told them I wanted the outside of my house fixed before
they even thought about coming inside to fix my interior damages again. Especially since most of
the damages kept returning after being repaired. What is the use of repeated temporary
cosmetic patches on/in my house if they are unable to address and correct the core issue of
my house’s problems that create them? Water! Water! Water! (From houses above me) and
Drainage! Drainage! Drainage! Thanks for the PVC piping French drainage system that my HOA
now has to maintain, that my neighbors now have to pay for. View Document
I am not even going to go on about the fence work they attempted to put in after all this that was
questionable and a nightmare of follow ups to make them do the right thing. Again, shoddy work
with no builder supervision or check ups.
So, here's my family...we live in a broken house with numerous interior/exterior damages. My slab
has a crack in it that runs from one end to the other.
How am I to sell it? The foundation is shifting, my walls are repeatedly cracking, and the warranty
department doesn’t want to do anything beyond band aid repairs. I am tired of letting them in
my house to do that. Even if they were to agree to fix the core issue it’s kind of a little too late now.
It really should have been completed before they built this house. I am tired, (but not so tired I am
unwilling to fight for what I feel is right and just and fair) and I will not let this builder threaten my
family’s financial security and take away our quality of life.
and the warranty they sold us. In the course of over a year and a half, that faith has been broken
and we have been lied to. Their engineers & warranty department have failed us. The Centex reps
said it best at the July 10th City Council meeting with the statement to the effect that there were
problems with that land before they bought it. And, with every day, it becomes more apparent to
me that my house had been set up for failure since before it was even built. Water is a destructive
force when allowed to run amuck.
When we moved in, we immediately noticed in fall/winter 2005:
• A huge hole (at least 3ft by 3ft if not bigger) that was eroding out from under our front driveway
area. They packed it with soil, it eroded again. They then took a wheelbarrow full of wet cement
and slopped it in there. Did that fix it? I don’t know.
• There was water drainage runoff of a huge amount and velocity from the properties above and
behind us through and over our railroad tie retaining wall. Video: Waterfall We reported that on
11/12/05.
• Pooling of water in the back and side of our house.
Shortly after moving in we contacted the warranty department regarding concerns over the
retaining wall and the pooling of water against our foundation. We were told that the retaining wall
was fine and that the water problems were because the new sod hadn’t settled yet. Huh?
After a couple of weeks when the problem still hadn’t resolved, they finally decided to address it by
putting in some form of (I call it substandard) French drainage system in fall of 2005.
(Aerial shots show the scars in
the yards from the first attempt
to install the drainage system).
The heavy construction equipment left huge rutted tracks that tore through our front yard. We
complained about this drainage system not only because it sat up above the topsoil
and looked unsightly for months but also because it did not
seem to be working. My back yard sat wet through drought
and water restrictions. What was the point of it?
When we started noticing interior/exterior damages Centex
sent an engineer out to do a survey of our property . I assumed
& trusted that it would be a third party engineer and not the one
who had engineered my foundation.
(They attempted to fix my LR wall and ceiling separation twice. The first time they caulked it and
tried to nail it down but it ripped open again shortly later. One of the workers fell through my
master closet ceiling and had to do repairs on that and the repair job isn't a great one either-- The
second time someone from the warranty department came out they took one look at it and said
they couldn't help me and walked right back out of my house).
The engineer stated in beginning of January 2006 that there was minimal damage to our
foundation but that it was important that the water problems be corrected as soon as possible. It
was recommended/suggested that they use a French drainage system that had perforated PVC
piping. This was not utilized until their 3rd attempt at fixing my yard over a year later in 2007. (Why
didn’t they follow their own engineer’s advice and utilize it immediately in January of 2006?)
In June of 2006 I hired a house inspector to come out to go over our property because of more
damages showing up and my concern over the drainage system installed. He suggested that we
get flood insurance due to the severe sloping of our back yard. He felt that the drainage system
installed would not be able to handle any heavy surface rain coming down our backyard from
above properties and suggested the possibility of it running straight into the back of our
house. He recommended that we get a structural engineer or foundation repair company to come
out since he saw separation of our siding, and brick
veneer separating from our front window and cracking
down the other side through the mortar, along with our
interior damages.
Sometime during all this, my neighbors’ received the same beautiful substandard French
drainage system that had not been working in my yard. Predictably, it caused more problems
instead of lessening them. Some neighbors were lucky enough to have miscellaneous trash
thrown in with their systems. In the summer of 2006 after all these systems were installed, the
neighbors got together at my house and we talked about setting up a meeting with our builder.
Lack of communication & competence of work was a horrible repeated theme throughout the
whole process and one we all were upset about. We expressed our concerns at this meeting (and
at a subsequent meetings as well as impromptu visits from representatives), but left feeling our
concerns were not fully addressed.
The builders still refused to address the water drainage run off we were getting from the
properties above and behind us and thoughtfully gave us a 10 year warranty on our railroad tie
retaining wall. (Even as other railroad tie retaining walls were having integrity failure
in other areas of our community.
Retaining walls shorter than some of ours).
They did however concede that the severe sloping in some of our back yards was a problem.
They stated that some yards would be re-graded to correct this and that a rock wall with patio
would be put into place. They sold us the rock wall as an idea of an upgrade but it was a
nightmare of a project that we should never have allowed.
It also serves a purpose in that it puts weight up against the railroad tie retaining wall. Was it
really an upgrade, or rather, a necessity? Hmmm...
They stated that the re-grading and rock wall wouldn’t take long to implement. I believe they stated
it could take as little as 2 weeks. It didn’t. It dragged on for what seemed like forever. It was a
nightmare. We were forever waking up early in the morning to the sudden sounds of starting
diesel construction vehicles Video: Wake Up Alarm, men talking loudly all a sudden on the side of
our house or in our back yard. We listened to loud music being played on radios at all hours of
the day while strange men worked in our yard leaving trails of trash that I had to pick up after.
None of these subcontractors could communicate to me when I had questions for them and there
were no representatives from our builder overseeing or checking up on them.
The communication from the builder was lacking.
The work the subcontractors did was shoddy
and substandard.
When trying to ask them questions, some actually
turned their heads away and ignored me. In fact, one
gentleman working a bulldozer was so upset I had
interrupted him and rude to the point of spouting out profanities, while getting off the vehicle to
walk over and talk to me. A short time later, I got a nice bulldozer hole in the side of my house that
the workers neglected to tell me about and just left there for me to discover. The impact of the
bulldozer hit so hard it broke through the hardy plank, and v'd out my drywall, busted through my
baseboard into my master bedroom wall. That was a warranty nightmare of FOLLOW UPS for
them to complete repairs on. This was the time when I discovered that the people they send to
homeowners’ properties do not have criminal background checks done on them. As a stay at
home mom, I was made to feel very uncomfortable when two young gentleman of questionable
character and mannerisms showed up to fix the interior of my bulldozer wall damage. They were
in my house all of 5 minutes laughing and giggling and didn’t even finish the job they were sent
there for.
Finally, months later, my back yard was completed. Here it was, Christmas 2006 and my family
was finally going to be able to utilize the back yard since moving in in fall of 05. Well, it seemed to
be completed until it started holding more water than ever before.
It turned into a lake in my back yard and they had just finished laying down the new sod. (Texas
Water Code Section 11.086) Guess what I was told when I first complained about this? Yep, the
old line about the sod not having settled yet, and straight from an engineer's mouth. WHAT?#@
I was also further informed that the company that installed the drainage systems was coming out
to open the flush out valve and would be running a test to see if the drainage systems was still
working. I informed the builder's engineer that the flush out valve was gone and hadn’t been there
for quite some time and had in fact been sodded over and wanted to know how they would be able
to test it if it wasn’t there anymore. (obviously the drainage system had failed (remember yard
being wet during drought and water restrictions and now a lake) and was not working so didn’t
understand the need for testing it)
After complaining some more, my warranty supervisor came out to take a look at it. That same day
I had men in my back yard digging up the new sod and making trenches to drain the vast amount
of dammed up water in my back yard against my foundation and up behind my new rock wall.
Happy New Year to me! It was a mess.
It took days for it to drain and they even used a pump to help get all the water out. Meanwhile, you
can imagine what this was doing to my foundation right? I mean, it doesn’t take an engineer to
figure THAT one out. But no, the damages to my house weren’t caused by water affecting the
expansive soils my foundation sits on, and in turn affecting my foundation, but merely it was a
problem with my truss system in the framing of my house. Huh?
It’s now January/February 2007 and we were finally getting that perforated PVC French drainage
system their engineer recommended over a year ago. My poor house had interior/exterior
damages popping up left and right now. I told them I wanted the outside of my house fixed before
they even thought about coming inside to fix my interior damages again. Especially since most of
the damages kept returning after being repaired. What is the use of repeated temporary
cosmetic patches on/in my house if they are unable to address and correct the core issue of
my house’s problems that create them? Water! Water! Water! (From houses above me) and
Drainage! Drainage! Drainage! Thanks for the PVC piping French drainage system that my HOA
now has to maintain, that my neighbors now have to pay for. View Document
I am not even going to go on about the fence work they attempted to put in after all this that was
questionable and a nightmare of follow ups to make them do the right thing. Again, shoddy work
with no builder supervision or check ups.
So, here's my family...we live in a broken house with numerous interior/exterior damages. My slab
has a crack in it that runs from one end to the other.
How am I to sell it? The foundation is shifting, my walls are repeatedly cracking, and the warranty
department doesn’t want to do anything beyond band aid repairs. I am tired of letting them in
my house to do that. Even if they were to agree to fix the core issue it’s kind of a little too late now.
It really should have been completed before they built this house. I am tired, (but not so tired I am
unwilling to fight for what I feel is right and just and fair) and I will not let this builder threaten my
family’s financial security and take away our quality of life.
