Jimmy Carter is as bad a homebuilder as he was a President

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This is typical Drive-by news reporting.

How does someone file a news story like this without including info about the Building inspections done on these houses?

In my area (and most I would think) soil compaction tests and visual inspection of the footing would have revealed that a house was built on unstable soil... not to mention 5 feet of trash.

While it's true a lot of the work is done by unskilled hands, still there are on-site professionals (paid) to monitor and assign low skill people to low skill jobs.

Seems like a news story taking shots at HFH without even checking basic facts.

While I delight in sticking my thumb in the eye of ungrateful people who suck off the good will of others, I am not ready to say these few crybaby home owners are indicative of most people who have received housing this way.

If a high number of these projects across the country, seem to slide into slum hole like, conditions due to home owner neglect-abuse THAT would be a story worth reporting on.

Well said, Danno.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

This is typical Drive-by news reporting.

How does someone file a news story like this without including info about the Building inspections done on these houses?

In my area (and most I would think) soil compaction tests and visual inspection of the footing would have revealed that a house was built on unstable soil... not to mention 5 feet of trash.

While it's true a lot of the work is done by unskilled hands, still there are on-site professionals (paid) to monitor and assign low skill people to low skill jobs.

Seems like a news story taking shots at HFH without even checking basic facts.

While I delight in sticking my thumb in the eye of ungrateful people who suck off the good will of others, I am not ready to say these few crybaby home owners are indicative of most people who have received housing this way.

If a high number of these projects across the country, seem to slide into slum hole like, conditions due to home owner neglect-abuse THAT would be a story worth reporting on.

i can't disagree with that above, but come on, how smart does someone have to be to know you don't build on a garbage dump due to the soil being unstable?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

how smart does someone have to be to know you don't build on a garbage dump due to the soil being unstable?

smarter than jimmy carter?

[DeadPoolX 9]

This is typical Drive-by news reporting.

How does someone file a news story like this without including info about the Building inspections done on these houses?

In my area (and most I would think) soil compaction tests and visual inspection of the footing would have revealed that a house was built on unstable soil... not to mention 5 feet of trash.

While it's true a lot of the work is done by unskilled hands, still there are on-site professionals (paid) to monitor and assign low skill people to low skill jobs.

Seems like a news story taking shots at HFH without even checking basic facts.

While I delight in sticking my thumb in the eye of ungrateful people who suck off the good will of others, I am not ready to say these few crybaby home owners are indicative of most people who have received housing this way.

If a high number of these projects across the country, seem to slide into slum hole like, conditions due to home owner neglect-abuse THAT would be a story worth reporting on.

i can't disagree with that above, but come on, how smart does someone have to be to know you don't build on a garbage dump due to the soil being unstable?

Well... to be fair, Washington DC was built on a swamp and many cities in California are built over fault lines. That's not quite the same as a garbage dump, but I think it shows that some people just don't take their surroundings into consideration.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

This is typical Drive-by news reporting.

How does someone file a news story like this without including info about the Building inspections done on these houses?

In my area (and most I would think) soil compaction tests and visual inspection of the footing would have revealed that a house was built on unstable soil... not to mention 5 feet of trash.

While it's true a lot of the work is done by unskilled hands, still there are on-site professionals (paid) to monitor and assign low skill people to low skill jobs.

Seems like a news story taking shots at HFH without even checking basic facts.

While I delight in sticking my thumb in the eye of ungrateful people who suck off the good will of others, I am not ready to say these few crybaby home owners are indicative of most people who have received housing this way.

If a high number of these projects across the country, seem to slide into slum hole like, conditions due to home owner neglect-abuse THAT would be a story worth reporting on.

i can't disagree with that above, but come on, how smart does someone have to be to know you don't build on a garbage dump due to the soil being unstable?

Well... to be fair, Washington DC was built on a swamp and many cities in California are built over fault lines. That's not quite the same as a garbage dump, but I think it shows that some people just don't take their surroundings into consideration.

Actually I think the problem with building on landfill is that as the garbage decays you get toxic gas releases and underground fires.

You can build pretty much anywhere so long as you compensate for the environmental conditions. You can drain swamps, reinforce foundations to resist earthquake, build flood defences to prevent / mitigate flooding from building on flood-plains, remove toxic waste etc. Certainly there are some places (particularly flood plains) where building residential accommodation is a bad idea, but generally speaking its cost-cutting that causes problems.

[tallcoolone 102]

The reason builders build on bad soil or old dump or swamps is:

Usually all the good land is built on first in a city, and in older cities these are the only places left to reclaim land.