Hurricane Alley

D R Horton Profits over Customer Health

Your home may be next to carcinogens and EMF

Hurricane Alley

The following are statements from only two insiders from Florida. There are more. These sources are rightfully paranoid for their safety. The next hurricane or fire might find the referenced homeowners in the hospital or morgue.

In Palm Coast, Florida D.R. Horton built over 200 homes in between '05 and '06, wooden stick frame homes. These homes were finished using 1\4 inch hardi board, nailed right to the studs, on the exterior of course. The only thing between the hardi and studs was home wrap or Tyvek. If you speak to an engineer you may want to find out if this is legal or up to code. That''s right, there is no OSB, Plywood, nothing between the Hardi and studs except Tyvek. I sometimes don’t sleep at night.

These homes were built on scattered lots throughout Palm Coast, and I can't even get into the demucking of the lots and how much dirt they filled in these virtual swamps in some cases. One home had so much dirt brought in the home was still settling after over a year and each week there were new cracks in the drywall. Anyway, the Hardi Board was the finish. That was it, 1/4 inch Hardi over Tyvek over Studs. That is all. The Hardi was nailed, caulked and painted and done. I am not talking about the thick Hardi Plank you see running horizontally, I am talking about 4x8 sheets of 1/4 inch Hardi. Sorry, but that has to be out of code.

All of the hurricane straps are in place, the house is inspected. I am just not sure about this hardi. They are cracker boxes. They drop the framing packages on the foundation the day after they are poured, in Port Orange they drop the block on the foundation a day after they are poured. Time is money to them. I have seen other builders wait at least a few weeks for the foundation to cure. This company does not care that is why their concrete, driveways, garage floors, foundations, etc. are always cracking.

The Hardi is nailed at specific intervals with Galvanized (yeah right) nails. Once you break the membrane the Hardi is compromised which is on every house. They caulk the seams and I have seen the caulk just rot in less than a year. The amount of paint they put on is a joke. They only use PT lumber on the bottom plate and exposed areas. I have never posted this info anywhere before, and I would never recant. 28 Days, 28 hours would be nice for Horton.

Check out the warranty gripes people have, when they lay off, the warranty techs are the first to go. That is not a priority with Horton and they love to tell homeowners no. I am amazed. I am also surprised by the fact that there are not more issues in Florida with the amount of rain we get. The lack of education and class the management has is incredible.

I worked for DR Horton for four years and was asked to do things that I knew were wrong and illegal. I never did unless I got it in writing. I kept everything. DR Horton in Florida sold homes to home owners with toxic levels of Mold, Defective truss engineering, faulty plumbing, and sub standard and below code roofing systems. Windows that could not be operated in the event of and emergency, improper grading that kills any thing you plant in your yard due to no perk in the soil, land development issues where complete 8 plex condos were build below elevation so even in the slightest rain the streets and homes flood. I can go on and on. Options were never install and not reimbursed to the home owner and warranty services refused or never performed. Give me a shout if you want more information.