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This article appeared in the Sacramento Bee

Here is the original article

Soggy soil causes homes to crumble

New houses in Rancho Murieta are built on a shaky foundation: clay that expands when wet.

By Michael Kolber -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Thursday, January 29, 2004

A few dozen homes in Rancho Murieta literally are coming apart at the seams. The home builder is scrambling to repair them, but some families there believe the builder isn't doing enough.

Matthew McGuire, a homeowner who says he feels like he's been jilted by the builder, has developed a Web site that portrays the builder as an incarnation of the devil.

"They're kind of pulling the wool over people's eyes," said Melissa Telford, McGuire's wife. "I feel like other young couples that are moving in should know."

Francis Furtado, president of home-building operations for Sacramento developer Reynen & Bardis, said his firm is doing whatever it can to remedy the situation, particularly because a track record of bad workmanship could hurt future business.

"People don't want this to happen," Furtado said. "We're giving it our all."

Dozens of cracks - some of them feet long and a few centimeters wide - have appeared in Rancho Murieta homes since 2001. The cracks appear in homes that are built on Ione clay, a type of soil that expands to an unusual degree when wet. During the rainy season, the soil pushes up foundations and causes the cracks, which appear in corners and wherever two pieces of wallboard join.

In 17 homes built on the clay, Reynen & Bardis has agreed to repair the damage and take steps to prevent it from recurring - such as building new drainage systems around homes to keep the foundation dry.

And since the problems began appearing, the home builder has been installing a different type of foundation that is supposed to be less likely to damage the house when the soil beneath it expands.

During repairs, Reynen & Bardis moved the homeowners into model homes at Rancho Murieta that have not yet sold.

"We're not happy about upsetting people's lives," Furtado said.

However, in recent months, even some homes with the new foundations have been producing cracks, including McGuire's home and others on Abierto Drive that were built in the past year.

Furtado said his firm intends to repair those homes, but McGuire, whose house was the first on the street to have problems, has not allowed workers to fix it as they see fit. He has hired an engineer to make recommendations about how the house should be repaired and said Reynen & Bardis won't abide by those suggestions.

In November, McGuire launched his Web site, reynenandbardissucks.com, which he is trying to use to organize homeowners. McGuire said he is considering organizing pickets at Reynen & Bardis projects.

"We're at a standstill," Furtado said. "He's got the Web site. What are you going to do?"

At least one other homeowner with the new foundation, however, said he had cracks that he is having trouble getting repaired.

Allan Ezell, who bought a house on Abierto Drive in February, said workers keep canceling appointments to examine his home.

"I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt," Ezell said. "They sold us this home every bit well knowing that this was a problem they were having."

Reynen & Bardis, the only firm building in Rancho Murieta South, continues to construct new homes there. Furtado said he hopes the next batch of homes will have fewer cracks because the soil they are being built on is less expansive.

"It's an unusual formation. It doesn't crop up very often," Furtado said. "Development has managed to miss these formations."