Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 20:12:25 :
I got some more info today on the house that fell down. There were quite a few things wrong with the way I first heard the story. It turns out the guy actually was under it when it fell and dig get hurt, but not badly. The homeowner, with the help of a plumber, were putting in the new foundation. They did not jack the house up (I'm not sure what the cribbing and jack in the front yard were for), but rather they got under it with a bobcat and dug the dirt down. The house was built on a post and pier footing. To hold the house up while they worked, they left columns of dirt underneath the piers, but didn't crib it up. Unsurprisingly, one of the dirt "posts" collapsed. What do you bet that somewhere at the beginning of the project the guy said something like, "Why should I pay a professional when all it is is a little digging? I can do that myself."
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