We also have grading issues as well.

Drywall corners:

Oh gosh. No solutions for you. Just wanted to say sorry—must be a real source of stress. Hopefully you get resolution soon.

I see many houses in your area. Are they all about the same age as yours, and do all of them, have the same problems. The corner in the picture above, doesnt show any tape, are you sure, this isnt poor construction. Maybe an engineer come in and make sure its safe and not going to fall on top of you and your family. Grading issues, is the responsibility of the contractor also.

Have a soil test done if that’s your thinking. Nobody on the internet can give you the answer about your soil.

The home is sinking / settling / twisting. The foundation is not proper for the soil conditions. Could be your house was built on 'fill' - and it was not properly compacted. Just my guesses.

Do you have cracks in the basement walls? Or in the outside exposed block walls?

This is a foundation issue, not a soil issue (except very incidentally if foundation type not properly matched for soil conditions). You need a foundation specialist.

Seems it could be either a bad foundation, wrong foundation type, or a foundation on improperly compacted soil.

Looking at the lay of the land, do you think soil was removed to put in your foundation, or was it added to raise the ground level up?

I second the recommendation to have a pro look at it.

cat_ky there are multiple builders who built in our area but this is probably one of the bigger ones. On our street there has been 3 houses by the same builder where their deck heaved. Three of them also have had their front driveway completely redone. All the homes are 2-6 years old approx.

For the drywall, we noticed there wasn't tape either and that when they last fixed it they actually ran caulk down the corners to fix the openings. I don't know if the drywall even ever touched or if they have really settled or what. I can barely make out something that looks like tape in one area but not sure if it is.

toxcrusadr we have a walk-out ranch home. It looks like the area was tamped down first to prep for the build and then was dug out. What's interesting is that more dirt was brought in at a later time and placed where the deck is while the house was almost completely up.

gardengal48 we had a foundation person come in but since they didn't see any obvious foundation wall cracks, he dismissed this as being a foundation problem. The house seems to have telltale foundation issues minus the foundation wall cracks and diagonal cracks in drywall (although we have lots of horizontal and vertical cracks).

Wow and so sorry. Back in the early 90’s there was a development in Southern California that settled so much people had to crawl in and out windows as doors would no longer open. We moved away so did not follow if there was ever any resolution. If there is not there should be a lemon law for homes too.

Melissa, have you had a structural engineer in to look at it all. He should be able to tell you the cause of all this. What a heartbreak to get a brand new home and have to go through something like this, and not even know for sure what is causing it. It sounds like a few of your neighbors have had problems, but, not the same as yours. You should have a warranty, so get them back in to repair all the cracks, etc, and make sure you are there to watch that they are repaired correctly.

Can't believe the code inspectors allowed drywall to be put up with no joint tape at corners. Sheesh.

I doubt there is anything wrong with that soil and probably nothing wrong with the foundation either. The problem is probably not the right prep for that foundation. My guess is the soil was disturbed, not properly compacted and not allowed to settle over winter. I gave been told that in cold climates that excavation and grading should be done in the fall and concrete poured in the spring. Big production builders don't make money by waiting on nature so they attempt to compact the dirt and just hope it all holds together long enough for the fallout to land after they have left.

I don't know what to tell you other than good luck with this. The source of the problem should not matter from the homeowners view...The house isn't right and the builder shouldn't be pointing fingers at anyone except himself

The builder is no longer working with us. Our story is complex. The municipality has no record of a building permit or house plans. Only 5 of 15 required inspections were performed. They have admitted this in writing. We do have a lawyer but they said we have to have experts that tell us the cause of the issue, whether it is not to industry standards or a code violation and then the cost to repair. The problem is getting any expert who is an actual expert at anything. They all seem to not know what is going on and then charge an arm and a leg to tell us this. We get a lot of "maybe" it's this or we should do "further investigation", etc.

How does a construction project get 5 inspections (regardless of how many it should have had) without any record that a permit was applied for in the first place? That's the first thing the inspector would check. Bizarre.

If the builder can't prove they got permits and inspections, that's a nail in their coffin. Regardless of whether the city can.

Credentials mean a lot in terms of 'expert' so if you get someone who is a licensed architect or building engineer, and they put their seal on a document, you got it made.

"How does a construction project get 5 inspections (regardless of how many it should have had) without any record that a permit was applied for in the first place?"

Might have something to do with greasy palms down at permitting agency.

There is a lot of protection for municipalities these days and they tend to say they have immunity and aren't at fault for a thing. Geoffrey, you are completely right, we were not smart and should have had an attorney review the contract.