Difficulty deciding between Frisco & Castle Hills(lewisville)

[TriumphOfTheSprint]

Originally Posted by longhornswin

As far as schools, Frisco ISD >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lewisville ISD. Not. Even. Close.

At the Elementary level, it's probably a wash, but look out for the middle schools and high schools in Lewisville. Ugh.

Hebron High -the HS serving CH, along with a significant portion of West Frico, including Stonebriar Country Club - is rated Exemplary. Frisco has great schools, but so does Lewisville.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by TriumphOfTheSprint

People may have told you that - doesn't mean it's true. The Denton County Fresh Water District (the equivalent of a city government for Castle Hills) has strict codes around soil testing for home building sites in CH. I've lived here for 3 1/2 years and don't personally know *anyone* that has had foundation-related issues, so it is apparently not as widespread an issue as "people" say.

Most of the rumor-mongering about Castle Hills dates back to a problem that occurred 10 years ago with one of the custom builders that did not do proper foundation preparation for the local soil composition. A water main break nearby caused the soil to heave and those foundations could not adjust. Other builders on the same block had no problems. The builder at fault is long gone from CH and was never a major builder here.

Three electricians, a roofer, a painter, a driveway guy (boy, did he have a lot of work) and two garage door guys (one of whom I trust implicitly and is not a drama queen by any means) have told me about this. It has something to do with not having to comply with Carrollton codes and going with the Denton County codes instead.
Newer homes have been built better (something about a post-tension slab foundation) and have fewer issues with this.

[TriumphOfTheSprint]

Originally Posted by stan4

Three electricians, a roofer, a painter, a driveway guy (boy, did he have a lot of work) and two garage door guys (one of whom I trust implicitly and is not a drama queen by any means) have told me about this. It has something to do with not having to comply with Carrollton codes and going with the Denton County codes instead.
Newer homes have been built better (something about a post-tension slab foundation) and have fewer issues with this.

Since CH is no relation to Carrollton, that's no surprise. We are part of the Lewisville ETJ (extra-territorial jurisdiction), and we have our own codes as part of our municipal water district (I believe they are based on the Lewisville codes). Regardless of what they told you, builders here have to comply with the codes. The homes in CH are often a combination of post-tension slab and P&B foundation types (depending on the soil composition of the lot). Like I said before, there was a specific builder that had problems early on, but all of the builders here are well aware of the soil composition and build accordingly. I can believe that your driveway guy might have seen some issues, since driveways are much thinner and not engineered like a slab, so would be more susceptible to soil expansion/contraction.

[stan4]

The codes had to do with the soil types. The codes in Carrollton reference that particular soil issue while general Denton County codes (what the builders originally went with because they were under no obligation to follow Carrollton codes, even though they were more specific to the area and conditions) do not.
The garage door guy said he had to reset a lot of tracks because the foundations would move and the doors would go off-track.

But, yes...new building has supposedly addressed this issue.