OT - What not to do while building your new house..

[Hartley]

A buddy of mine has a new neighbor who is building his new house....well WAS !

What not to do...

One of our neighbors is building a big new house. They got the walls up, roof is on, plumbing and electrical are done, insulation is in, and the drywall boards were delivered yesterday and stacked in the middle of the floor. Unfortunately, it was not a slab floor, but a floor supported by wood trusses beams. Late last night there was a large noise as the stack of drywall broke through the floor, leaving a 30 foot hole and wall studs hanging in mid air. The cross beams are broken.

The owner lives onsite in a camper and normally supervises everything that goes on, but yesterday he was in Miami on business. He found out this morning when his wife called him.

[gumpy]

Gotta love those building codes in FL.

And people there wonder why their insurance rates trippled last year.

[belfert]

If they truly stacked all the drywall in one stack I'm not suprised the floor collapsed.  The delivery guys might have just assumed everyone has slab homes in Florida.

Here in Minnesota, drywall is normally distributed throughout the house if placed indoors since almost everyone has wood floors.  I've always heard it is due to weight.

Brian Elfert

[Ace]

Craig, I have to disagree with you on that one bud!

Our insurance has not gone up. We have had state farm for the last 15 years and though it has gone up over the years, it has not gone up triple. Now let me add that those that own Mobile Homes have seen a drastic rise in their premium but for block homes, not really that much!

Ace

[belfert]

I've heard rumors of folks paying upwards of $1000 a month for insurance in Florida in hurricane prone areas.  Any truth to that?

Brian

[DavidInWilmNC]

Between standard homeowners's insurance and the 'optional' mandatory wind and hail policy, I pay close to (if not more than) $1,000.  It more than doubled from 2004 to 2005.  This is on a 65 year old house that's seen its share of bad storms without any major damage ever.  We live in a coastal county, but not nearly as hurricane prone as most places in Florida.  BTW, I've had one small claim in 15 years due to wind, and that was 13 years ago.

David

[belfert]

Between standard homeowners's insurance and the 'optional' mandatory wind and hail policy, I pay close to (if not more than) $1,000.  It more than doubled from 2004 to 2005.  This is on a 65 year old house that's seen its share of bad storms without any major damage ever.  We live in a coastal county, but not nearly as hurricane prone as most places in Florida.  BTW, I've had one small claim in 15 years due to wind, and that was 13 years ago.

How can you afford to live in Florida if you're paying $1000 a month for homeowner's insurance, or are you really paying $1,000 a year?

My homeowner's insurance here in Minnesota is less than $800 a month.

Opps, make that $800 per year, not month

Brian Elfert

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

Well thank God no one was in the structure when it collapsed! A 12' sheet of 1/2" drywall weighs over 100#. It doesn't take too many sheets stacked either on edge or flat to overload a wooden floor system (typically designed to allow 40-50 pounds per square foot of what we call "live load" in residences). So a foot-thick stack of 1/2"x4'x12" drywall weighs about what a compact car does and takes up much less space... so this has very little to do with building codes, etc. Would parking a car inside someone's house on their wooden floor system point to lax building codes? 

At any rate, the drywall delivery company is liable for the damage. Their goons should know when they're walking on a wood floor (any monkey can feel the difference) and distribute the drywall sheets accordingly, preferably near the supporting walls of the floor system (and away from the middle spans).

On the upside, now's the chance for your buddy's neighbor to do a re-design if he wants. 

Brian Brown

[JerryH]

A nervous time for me loading a building with rock.  When we remodeled my grandmothers house next door, the original framing was so-so.  We reframed what we could, but still had the original (undersized to todays standards) floor joists.  Before they loaded the building I phone Eddie (my drywall guy) and asked "when" it'd be installed.  Gotta be quick.  The boards were spread all about to insure load was spread and a group of (what?) 6 or 8 spanish speaking chaps installed every piece that day. 

But if the people who loaded your neighbors house put it all in one spot ... I'd be phoning their insurance company or the drywall contractor for sure.

JerryH.