Extreme Home Makeover Depression Edition (From Mish)

[petertribo]

Re: Extreme Home Makeover Depression Edition (From Mish)

I'm an electrical contractor and probably half my business now is fixing code violations. Over the years I have finished up several bank owned properties, and yes, they are usually much worse than average. And more than one was sabotaged by unpaid sub contractors. Watch out for that.

I find your comments and those of kescwi most interesting. I have felt for a long, long time that much of US economic activity is of such a nature, that is repairing things that were not done properly in the first place. I have never heard of any economic analysis of this topic. From the two comments made, it would seem there is a significant economic impact.
(It would seem we have a Big Repair Job to do on Banking.)

As an example of this type of construction gone bad on a Big Scale, there is Boston's infamous Big Dig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig_(Boston,_Massachusetts)
For the years when that was being built, I remember going through a certain part of Boston by train and, I SWEAR, the area under "construction" seemed to always look the same with the same number of workers standing around. But, of course, it was economic activity and happily added to the GDP!

[flintlock]

Re: Extreme Home Makeover Depression Edition (From Mish)

Well I'll add that in my line of work, I almost never see ANY electrical work done after the home was built that is up to code. I mean almost none. So that tells me its all being done by hacks, not licensed professionals. I know a good bit about construction in general having observed it my whole life. Generally speaking, new homes are built BETTER than older ones. But only because of stricter codes and code enforcement. But the minute people think they aren't going to be inspected, they cut every corner possible. In my area very little remodeling is ever inspected and it shows. Some really funny stuff.

[don]

Re: Extreme Home Makeover Depression Edition (From Mish)

I'm an electrical contractor and probably half my business now is fixing code violations. Over the years I have finished up several bank owned properties, and yes, they are usually much worse than average. And more than one was sabotaged by unpaid sub contractors. Watch out for that.

I agree with both you and kescwi that construction defects can be very costly. I've been doing CD litigation defense as a forensic/expert witness for 15 years. Both you guys know there's more missing information in that video report than given. I expected a tsunami of CD cases following the bubble. There has always been a ton of poor work in every boom I've seen. That's when the no-nothings jump in. This time around we had the government assisted illegal labor tsunami to deal with as well. No small thing in the CD area. I did want to make note of the "rush to judgment" made by Mish and others that the bank had to pull the plug due to over-regulated building codes, which I thought was the implied, shoot-from-the-hip, message. In 30 years in construction I have never heard of a building owner extolling code-violated construction as a buying bargain. The construction codes are not an area of over regulation. Plaintiff claims are another matter ;)

[pwcmba]

Re: Extreme Home Makeover Depression Edition (From Mish)

Add another-

"Trashed townhouses: New homes in Oswego develop into trash heaps after developer vanishes" Seasons at Southbury development is left partially finished, without landscaping and trash-filled

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,3224239.story