Subdivision in Hutto Falls Apart Due to Expansive Clay

Andrea Lorenz reported on this case for the Austin-American-Stateman back in 2008:

"The soil that made the town of Hutto a destination for farmers in the 1800s has caused headaches for some of the area's 15,000 or so new suburbanites.

  Homeowners in at least two subdivisions are facing problems so extensive that the builder moved some residents out of their homes for weeks while repairs were made.

City officials say the problems, which might affect all 787 homes in the Hutto Parke neighborhood and several homes in Legends of Hutto, are not serious structural issues. But they have spurred the City Council to consider a more stringent building code.

Some residents say problems are structural, caused by inadequate foundations for the type of soil in Hutto. They say their homes have not been repaired, and they have taken their grievances to the Internet, looking for others in similar straits.

At issue is the black clay that gives the Blackland Prairie region its name. The soil requires extra precautions by builders or homes will shift more than usual. The clay expands and contracts with moisture. If foundations are not designed to handle that movement, the stress can cause cracks, popped nails and separation between walls and ceiling trusses.

Marion Wallace had problems with the house she bought in the Hutto Parke subdivision in 2004. Like most of her neighbors, she agreed to let the builder, Lennar, remedy the problems, which included prefabricated roof trusses attached too tightly to the walls.

"It was the most stressful, harrowing ordeal that I've gone through," Wallace said. "They take your whole house apart and put it back together again."

Last year, the city first heard from homeowners about problems in Hutto Parke and the Lennar-built homes in Legends of Hutto, according to the city's former chief building inspector, Dan McDowell.

The problem stemmed from the nails attaching the roofs to the drywall being too close together, so there was not enough give for the foundation to move without cracking the drywall, according to Kathy Kirtz, Lennar's regional director of customer care.

Kirtz would not say how many homes are affected, but she said the company sent letters to residents of two subdivisions in Hutto explaining the situation.

Kirtz blamed the problems on subcontractors hired by Lennar, but she did not name them.

To fix the homes, workers were reinstalling the drywall, Kirtz said, but after the repairs started last year, the workers discovered a less invasive process. They now make the repairs through the attic, she said, so the residents don't have to move out.

She acknowledged the soil is part of the problem but said the ultimate cause was too little space between the nails attaching the roof to the drywall. "Match that with foundations moving as they should, and that was causing the cracking in the ceiling lines," Kirtz said.

Some homeowners and housing advocates say the repairs aren't enough. One resident, Mike Crump, started a Web site, www.searchhutto.com, where homeowners share horror stories.

Charles Fain, 44, operates a page on YouTube where he posts videos of interviews with Hutto Parke residents and homes still under construction. A former schoolteacher who now works in customer relations at Dell, Fain bought his home in 2004 after seeing a sign for zero down payment on a new home. He has put about $17,000 into his home, he said. The appraisal district last valued the home at $103,000; Fain paid $119,000. He's not sure if it has decreased in value because of what has happened in the neighborhood.

Lennar's Web site prices new homes in Hutto Parke from $137,490 to $161,490.

Fain decided to run for the Hutto City Council in May because he said some members of the council weren't responsive to the Hutto Parke residents' problems. He's running against McDowell, who retired from his staff job to seek a council seat.

City staff members hope the city's new codes, to be developed with public input and council discussion in the next year, will prevent problems. But critics say the city and home builders are being dismissive of the more serious concerns.

Janet Ahmad, president of the San Antonio-based Homeowners for Better Building, said her organization has heard complaints statewide the past three or four years about nails popping out of walls. She said the ones in Hutto Parke are caused by problems in the foundation and extra wall movement, based on her experience working with homeowners.

She says home builders in Texas should be held to stricter codes. In areas with expansive soil, builders should bring in more stable soil on which to put foundations, grade the front and back lawns, and take other measures to make sure foundations are secure.

The dirt below Hutto expands more than that of the rocky land west of Austin, said Mike Risinger, a soil scientist with the state.

The Hutto soil shrinks when dry and swells when wet. If a portion of land below one side of a home gets wet but the other side is dry, Risinger said, the house will shift, and foundation slabs can crack.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service has determined that most of the land in Hutto is made up of the most expansive type of clay. According to the department, the soil is "very limited" for building, with weaknesses that "generally cannot be overcome without major soil reclamation, special design, or expensive installation procedures." The agency recommends several precautions during construction to counteract the soil's weaknesses.

Building plans submitted to the city for Hutto Parke homes stipulated that the foundations be constructed for clay soil with a high movement rate and included instructions such as replacing the clay with a more sturdy filler. Both Lennar and the city said the homes were built according to those plans.

The area around Manor has similar soil, according to soil scientists. The city hasn't had problems with new homes, said development director Tom Bolt. However, the foundations of many homes built in the 1930s and 1940s have had to be replaced.

In Hutto, Fain has been meeting with elected officials to get more help. For most disgruntled homeowners, the process involves filing a complaint or requesting an outside inspection through the Texas Residential Construction Commission.

Twenty-one people in Hutto have complained to the commission in the past three years. Of those, eight complaints were about Lennar Homes, and all eight cases have been resolved or closed.

About 40 Hutto homeowners have hired a law firm in Austin to help them resolve their problems.

Attorneys Amy Welborn and Richard Alexander say no lawsuit has been filed and wouldn't say whether one would be, but they said some things were not revealed to their clients when they purchased their homes.

Several homeowners used government-backed loans to purchase their homes, and in the applications, Lennar indicated the homes were not built on expansive soil, even though the city says they were. Kirtz said marking the wrong box on the loan application was a clerical error.

The federal government investigated five claims in Hutto Parke after prompting by U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, said Patricia A. Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Officials at the Denver Homeownership Center, a HUD agency, concluded that under the home warranties, Lennar is obligated to take care of any defects in two of the homes. In those cases, the government won't be doing anything further, Campbell said in an e-mail.

Two other cases are still under review. One case was dropped.