Glue Chip Buildings failing

[conarb]

Originally Posted by San Diego Voice Homeowners who paid in some cases more than a million dollars for condos in a pricey La Jolla enclave five years ago want their money back.

So do a lot of people who bought new houses in 2005.

But the denizens of Seahaus, a sleek coastal condo and townhome development in Bird Rock, say this is more than just wishful thinking. They're suing the builders of their homes, alleging their complex was poorly constructed and developers concealed water damage on the inner beams. They're demanding developers pay to fix it or else undo their entire purchases.

Instead of sawn wood or steel beams, Seahaus's skeleton is made of "parallel strand lumber" beams -- long strands of wood from small trees glued together to make beams. The homeowners' lawsuits allege that the developers knew the rainy winter of 2005 was exposing the buildings' frames to rain, that they knew the beams could become an unglued mushy mess.

"They told me everything was going to be top-of-the-line, it was going to be nice, it was going to be great," Alkasabi said. "But this place is full of nightmares."

Alkasabi said he was told before he bought that the structure would be framed with steel beams, not the strand lumber. The condos would be soundproof and top-of-the-line, he said.

Alkasabi said he's seen mushrooms grow out of stucco because of moisture inside. He refuses to walk under certain corridors. Inspectors found three colors of mold growing in his living room wall, he said.¹

They allege in the lawsuit that the wood got wet during construction, that may or may not be the case, but whether it was or not, moisture always gets into walls, from the outside through flaws or WRBs that have exceeded their water holdout period, or from the inside, once inside it's trapped in insulation to rot the home out. They talk of mushrooms growing through the stucco, we are seeing all kinds of mold growing in OSB, much worse with the new formaldehyde-free OSB, but this complex was build before the new CARB mandated products. It will be interesting to follow this, it doesn't say but I would be willing to bet a plastic housewrap too. I wish them luck on the lawsuit, the developer was a LLC obviously liquidated by now, the builder Barratt American is in bankruptcy.

¹ http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/housing/article_8a26ee30-7da9-11df-9cd4-001cc4c03286.html

 

[peach]

that isn't even surprising... even if the house never got rained on during construction, water (in the form of vapor) gets into the walls all the time.. vapor barriers on both sides leave the vapor with no place to go.. so it condenses and sits on the bottom plate.