During the meeting, the owner of the engineering firm made several comments that there were errors made in building my house. He laid blame on the framing crew as they were in position to catch this error. He also said it could have been those who installed the beam and maybe the foundation subs.
The issue is that my I-beam the supports the house internally between the living room and dining room was not installed correctly. One side of the I-beam sits on the foundation and is level with the sill. The other end of the I-beam sits 3/4 of an inch above the foundation and sill. The last joist sitting on the I-beam is 3/4 of an inch above the next joist that is sitting on the foundation. The result is a major slant in the floor above in the kitchen.
This is amazing that someone did not catch this during construction. The framing crew should have noticed a gap and that their panels were not level. As the engineer confirmed, they messed this up.
Our house is structurally sound and isn't going to lean or fall over. The issue is that our floor has a section that has a major slate and it is felt along the two joists for 6 feet.
I basically see 4 options for Ryan Homes
1) Do nothing - It doesn't sound like Ryan will choose this but it is still an option we need to evaluate. Doing nothing means I have to live with an unlevel floor and that it will most likely affect the resale valuae of the house.
2) Lift flooring and add leveling compound - This option involves putting something like a thinset mortor down on the floor. This liquid uses gravity to fill in the low sspots and become level. The disadvantage is that the compound means you cant install hardwood floors and if we ever change floors, this leveling compound might get ripped up. It also wont fix the floor under the island or the wall where the Hvac runs in. The floor still wont be level but the 3/4 of an inch over 2 feet would be spread over 8 feet and less noticable.
3) Lift subfloor and add shims to level - This is similar to the adding leveling compound except it would involve removing the tongue and groove plywood. It would spread the 3/4 difference over 8 feet. This would allow us to add hardwood sometime later. This could cause other problems like squeeky floors since the floors will be cut and put back down and not as tight as the tongue and groove. They also wont do the area under the island or the floor in the wall area where the Hvac ductwork is. The house would still have a section not level.
4) Lower the I-beam to match the foundation sill - This is an option they did not seem to like, This would involve lowering the I-beam so the house is level. This would crack drywall above the house and could cause the 2nd floor to now have a dip in the floor. This could also cause doors to stick and windows to break. While this would cause issues, from speaking to others, this is how it should be fixed.
Hopefully Ryan Homes and the Engineer will provide me a report soon and their options.
BASEMENT UPGRADE
So over the past few months, I have been working in the basement. I originally started with some rough sketches for rooms. I figured I could install a storage room, a work out room, a media room, a bar wine room, bathroom and small workshop storage area. I started by buying some lumber each week. I would wall in a panel and wedge it into place. This involved me taking sections of my basement apart which has been fun but disturbing at times. I can see the good and bad of my home builder. 1) I love that they built a drop ceiling section where all the utilities are pulled through, but 2) They stalled their framing for the drop ceiling over the drywall installed.
Here are a few pictures of my work so far.... not bad for a girl eh
