New home shifts in new development

One of the new owner-occupied houses in the Devonleigh Homes subdivision in north west Alliston has shifted and its foundation has cracked. But John Miller, New Tecumseth's chief building official (CBO), told Free Press Online this afternoon, the problem at 20 Stoneham Street appears to be an isolated incident.

Mr. Miller said the Town became aware of the situation on March 12th and a site audit was conducted. It concluded "the house has incurred a shift that caused the south foundation wall of the house to crack and the front veranda foundation wall to crack. The owner contacted Devonleigh Homes and advised them of the situation. Devonleigh Homes responded immediately by means of having a engineer evaluate the foundation. A report from the engineer was submitted to the Building Standards Department on March 16.

"Further, a site meeting was held on March 18 between Devonleigh Homes, Haddad Geotechnical Inc., (the owner) of the house and the Building Standards Department. To the best of my knowledge there is no underground creek in the vicinity of 20 Stoneham Street. There is a sewer lateral located immediately south of the house."

Mr. Miller said the owner suspected a problem last week when he had trouble opening his front door. The family is still living in the home. Devonleigh Homes will begin remedial work to correct the deficiency next week.

"The house itself has not moved in or out or up or down. The veranda has shifted and the reason for that is there's a foundation around the veranda but inside it's filled with dirt. And more than likely, unless the structural engineer comes up with some design for that, I have informed Devonleigh Homes the veranda foundation will have to be removed and replaced," said the CBO. "The joists have not moved. It is safe to live in the house."

Devonleigh Homes is presently wrapping up phase two while it commences with phase three, which will require more attention to ensuring stable foundations.

"In phase three that they're building in right now, we have a soils engineer on the site because the ground conditions over in phase 3 are worse than in phase one and phase two," he said. "By their bore holes, the bore holes showed they would need to have engineered fill."

But Mr. Miller isn't anticipating any more problems with the foundations.

"I wouldn't be surprised there might be one other, anything is possible, but I can't see it happening."

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