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Another misalignment foundation in garage

lullerby

Registered User
Joined
Sep 9, 2022
Messages
10
Location
indiana
Another comments and tips please. This is a newly built house. We found that the stem wall and the 2by2 or 4 by 2 is not aligned. As you can see in the picture, it is really obvious they are not aligned. Can the builder redo this job to align them if I ask them to align them? What / how to do it? Will it be hard? For me this does not make any sense because this is a new house. Is it acceptible considering we are buying a brand new home?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KfIrLYQeW5_FBxQSCZWIoVGh7QWvMbbD/view?usp=sharing
 
Egad.
Is that load-bearing? Please tell me that's not load-bearing.
It's times like this that I am reminded of the fact that if people could build properly, I'd be out of a job.
 
Hi Egad,
The 3rd party inspector said that because 2by2 or 4by 2 is on the stem wall (concrete pat), that should be OK. But they are actually misaligned significantly. If this is a load bearing, that should be done again so that they are perfectly aligned? Can I request the builder to redo the whole job due to the safety issue?
 
Here is the picture. I'm trying, and failing, to make sense of what's in the background. A picture from ten feet away might help. Such a narrow stem wall indicates that it is not bearing much. Sure looks ugly.

1111111.png
 
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I think what we are looking at is a partition between two garage door openings. You can see the "eye's" on the metal tracks. I'm guessing one opening is lower than the other? Is this house built on a slope?
 
Hi Joe,
Yes. The drive way of the house has some slope. One car garage is on the right and two car garage is on the left. Concrete is stem wall and 4 by 2 is on that stem wall. Is that a partition or a load bearing wall? Openings are staggered or have different faces. Heights are the same. I want the builder to redo the job to align them. Will it work? How long will it take? No damages to the house? Thanks.
 
My guess is that the bottom plate is on the stem wall, at the right hand edge. No problem there. But then they wrapped it in sheetrock and added base (in the garage?) and it looks bad. It would help to see another view.
 
Hi hilton,
You are correct. inner part for structural support meets (concrete and 4by2 (now shown)) then, drywall is wrapping the whole thing with base. Can the builder do this job again? I did not took another picture. this is the only one.
 
I would guess the wood wall is 90 deg to the front of the building and the concrete is the part that is miss aligned is a a problem not in my opinion, is it ugly yes.

Solution build a wider squarer base around the concrete out of plywood, hold the plywood a bit off the floor to keep it dry paint it white

1662739426682.png
 
That is a good solution, and there are probably other good ways too. Where are you at in the process? Are you considering making an offer? Are you already in escrow? Or do you currently own this property?
 
Hi Joe,
Unfortuantely, we did house orientation. Home deilvery will be next week. Should I postpone closing until all issues are resolved? Or just close and ask builder to do that once we move in?
 
I don't know enough to advise you on that. I was just trying to get context. If you already owned the building I don't think there's much (if anything) you could get the builder to come back and fix. I would assume that each state is different though. Here in CA when you make an offer and it's accepted, there's a small window of time to allow for inspections. Once the inspections are complete the buyer can negotiate terms and either ask for things to be repaired, or ask for a lower price. The seller can accept or counter. Once all that is settled, and escrow closes, it's considered "as-is" and the buyer would not be able to ask for anything else.
 
This is a newly built house. So I expected to ask for repair/retouch/redo before the closing.
 
I hear you. You'll need to talk to your realtor or someone who knows real estate law in your state. In California any negotiations for repairs would take place in that small window of time after inspections.

There are a lot of things that would annoy the buyers that are not code violations. We can only assume that this building had, and passed, all of the required inspections by the local building department. Please keep in mind that building code is a bare minimum of standards and are not intended to address "quality" issues.

The contractor who built the house will probably not be on the hook for any cosmetic issues. If there are true structural issues they may not show up right away, which is why your home inspector said you would need to watch those cracks. There's no way to know if they are minor in nature or if they are a symptom of a much bigger issue. In my experience if you are seeing questionable things there are probably more questionable things that you don't see.

I don't think anyone here will be able to advise you on a course of action. There are just too many factors. Besides the issues you've presented how much do you "love" the house? Are there other options for similar houses in the same area? Is the price good? These are all decisions that only you can make, and if you need advice and guidance, it's going to need to come from somebody who can physically see it. No amount of pictures and explanations here will provide the kind of information needed to give you good advice.

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!
 
Hi Joe,
Unfortuantely, we did house orientation. Home deilvery will be next week. Should I postpone closing until all issues are resolved? Or just close and ask builder to do that once we move in?
The approach we will typically see for issues covered by the contract is to estimate the repair costs and keep it as a hold-back to ensure the work either gets done by the builder, or they can afford to pay someone else to do it. Talk to your lawyer on this item and they can help you.

If not covered by the contract, you might be stuck with it.
 
This is a newly built house. So I expected to ask for repair/retouch/redo before the closing.
Once more, egad.
You can ask, but he’s going to laugh at you. It’s a cosmetic issue in the garage, not a structural proble, and not inside the house.
If the builder was so dang slipshod as to let this go by, what else did they not give a damn about?
 
No you cannot require the contractor to redo the whole building because of a local deficiency. The courts would not support such a claim. In general you can get a local fix to the local problem.

Suggest that you hire an engineer to look at the problem to determine if there is a safety problem. If there is, I suspect that a small local fix could resolve this problem. This approach will likely be faster and result in less aggravation than efforts to get the contractor to do what you ask. It may even be cheaper especially if you get lawyers involved.
 
I would guess the wood wall is 90 deg to the front of the building and the concrete is the part that is miss aligned is a a problem not in my opinion, is it ugly yes.

Solution build a wider squarer base around the concrete out of plywood, hold the plywood a bit off the floor to keep it dry paint it white

View attachment 9483
While I agree in principle with your idea I would definitely prefer it to be concrete instead of plywood! You could Dwl it into the concrete and add whatever is Req to make it symmetrical!

I probably wouldn't delay the closing but I would make sure sufficient funds are held back until this is repaired! It may not be a true issue of support for the structure but it certainly would fall under the "Quality Workmanship" clause!
 
"Quality Workmanship" clause!
We are only allow to inspect to code. Our State wouldn't even try to puss workmanship due to everyone has a different idea of what is good. Do get me wrong it is ugly, but code complaint. As stated by other most likely a civil maybe contractual issue.
 
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