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Its all about the cheaper, crappy construction. You can say its because of water, clay, whatever... its about cost.
Its way cheaper to dig down 2' slap in some footers and lay a few rows of block. You HAVE to dig deeper up north to get below the frost line.
As someone who is frequently in crawl spaces, I WISH the builders wouldn't of been so cheap. Now the price of the job automatically goes up once I have to crawl under your house to fix something. I dont go face to face with camel crickets and snakes for free or cheap.
Builders stink, plain and simple. I was in a very high dollar cool subdivision in Carrborro/Chapel Hill the other day. Pretty new place. I was replacing ALOT of rotten wood and the houses need repaint after only 2 TWO! years! They are still banging them up. All illegal labor, short cut city over there... I am familiar with the builder from another Carrborro 'hood. I have spent alot of time fixing those houses too. Totally rotten wood from cheap materials installed improperly. Many, many flat roof balcony problems. Fingerjointed interior trim on the outside. No primer.
As a professional in the building trades, I wouldnt buy or even live in 1/2 the homes built here. Cheap crappy homes they slapped a 200,000, 300,000 price on. They put in some fancy appliances and a granite counter and that all you people buying see. Underneath your fake hardwoods or behind your pretty paint job is what you should be concerned about.
I was going to trash that builder on here a couple days ago. But he is no different than most of them. It ISNT about your pretty new house. Its about how much the builder can make u spend for the same crappy construction.
There are crappily constructed houses everywhere. Many of them DO have basements. Not sure how the two relate.
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Saying that builders won't build basements because of the cost isn't totally accurate. Builders pass along costs to the buyers. If buyers won't pay for the basements, builders won't build them. Plain and simple. Like I said, basements just aren't that desirable in this area.
As for one of the posters claiming builders are hiring "illegal labor", I'm not sure how you would know this.
Saying that builders won't build basements because of the cost isn't totally accurate. Builders pass along costs to the buyers. If buyers won't pay for the basements, builders won't build them. Plain and simple. Like I said, basements just aren't that desirable in this area.
As for one of the posters claiming builders are hiring "illegal labor", I'm not sure how you would know this.
Vicki
I think you know how they assumed it, though.
Why can't we get past that already?
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When in doubt, check it out: FAQ
Saying that builders won't build basements because of the cost isn't totally accurate. Builders pass along costs to the buyers. If buyers won't pay for the basements, builders won't build them. Plain and simple. Like I said, basements just aren't that desirable in this area.
As for one of the posters claiming builders are hiring "illegal labor", I'm not sure how you would know this.
Vicki
Maybe I know because I just dont look at them while riding by. I KNOW them, their familys and some of their situations. I talk to them. I deal with them daily. I eat lunch with them, I work along side of them. I know their kids names. I have alot of respect for them. Get your head outta the sand.
I am not passing judgement on them. I am passing judgement on builders. The builder KNOWS what the deal is. The builder knows he can hire a guy that wont question safety, wont want overtime pay ect. The builders are paying LESS money now then 10 years ago. . Why? Because when you dilute a trade with a cheap workforce, labor prices are driven down. They couldnt send all the construction jobs TO mexico, China or whereever like they did with manufacturing or mill jobs. So they brought the workforce here.
If illegals could sell the houses, THEN maybe a real estate agent may get upset. Or a Doctor, or lawyer. But untill its your job and career getting ruined, who cares right......
I am sitting in my basement right now. Nice and cool... no water issues here and I am literally 25 feet from a pond.... The basement SQ ft price to construct is cheaper than a bonus room... but people will overpay for a bonus room. I didnt say builders were dumb... but its all about the bottom line.
Clay soils like what's in Central NC put an enormous amount of pressure on basement walls when the soil becomes saturated. Others have talked about water table being high but the real reason we usually only see walkout type basements is that the costs to engineer four walls of a basement to resist the wet clay soil pressue is extremely expensive vis-a-vis the value that a basement provides.
Older homes all have basements, so I don't think soil or water have anything to do with it.
I think builders were able to sell homes WITHOUT basements, and so they did.
When I was looking 20 years ago, I wanted a basement and was told by my real estate agent: "Basements are dark, dank, awful places with bugs and mold -- you don't want one of those! Thank goodness new homes don't have them!"
I bought a house with a walkout basement. (Thank goodness.)
I agree with your real estate agent, they are dark, dank awful places. I would never want one.
Does anyone remember all the air raid shelters symbols that used to be on buildings in Raleigh? I bet they could have been used as tornado shelters. But in my 50+ years in Raleigh I have never personally seen a tornado or even worried about them.
Not all basements are dark, dank, awful places. We love ours. My husband uses it as a workshop for his PC repair business. He also has some full-size arcade machines there. We have our freezer, treadmill, and extra things (Christmas, etc.) stored there as well. Our basement is fully underground, and connects to our garage, which is partially underground.
We run a dehumidifier, and have 10' ceilings in the basement. While it's unfinished, it's bright, roomy, and very comfortable.
Thanks for all the replies. Up here (Ohio) alot of us use our basements as rec rooms, extra storage, etc. For example, our full finished basement contains a guest suite with a full bath, a second family room (media room), a kitchenette, and a play area. We also have about 600 sq feet of storage. You've sort of answered the question of what to do for the extra space (bonus room/attic), but I was wondering where you went in case of storms.
I did a search of tornados in the Raleigh area and found several people were killed there in 2011. It did seem that basements might have been handy, but then I also noted that there were few tornados there in the last 20 or so years.
While I've lived in tornado prone areas all my life, I've never actually seen one, but have heard several. We've never been hit, but have been grateful for our basements.
I guess, if we move there, we will join the ranks of those who hope it never happens there.
Maybe I know because I just dont look at them while riding by. I KNOW them, their familys and some of their situations. I talk to them. I deal with them daily. I eat lunch with them, I work along side of them. I know their kids names. I have alot of respect for them. Get your head outta the sand.
I am not passing judgement on them. I am passing judgement on builders. The builder KNOWS what the deal is. The builder knows he can hire a guy that wont question safety, wont want overtime pay ect. The builders are paying LESS money now then 10 years ago. . Why? Because when you dilute a trade with a cheap workforce, labor prices are driven down. They couldnt send all the construction jobs TO mexico, China or whereever like they did with manufacturing or mill jobs. So they brought the workforce here.
If illegals could sell the houses, THEN maybe a real estate agent may get upset. Or a Doctor, or lawyer. But untill its your job and career getting ruined, who cares right......
I am sitting in my basement right now. Nice and cool... no water issues here and I am literally 25 feet from a pond.... The basement SQ ft price to construct is cheaper than a bonus room... but people will overpay for a bonus room. I didnt say builders were dumb... but its all about the bottom line.
I don't think basements are wet due to being close to a pond. It has to do with the clay soil and lack of waterproofing.
It sounds like you are BLAMING the workers for working cheap and the builders for hiring "cheap labor". I'm not sure how you figure this all adds up to poor construction. You do realize that we have city/county inspectors that require that the construction codes are met. If you have an issue with the construction codes, perhaps you can work towards correcting them?
As for referring to people as "illegals", I find that disrespectful. Although I am not a fan of anyone doing anything illegal.
ANYONE that wants to become a RE Agent or a doctor or a lawyer should be able to do so. That doesn't upset me, at all. So, again, I'm not really sure what your posting is all about. Competition is good! With the housing market getting stronger every day, there are more and more people getting their real estate license. As with every business, some will be successful and some won't.
Vicki
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