Engineer reports we paid to have done. This report was very high-level, as I thought that is all we needed for court. That wasn't the case as we found out after our trial started. Structural Engineer 2007 Homes Inspection report

Expanded granular details from initial report. This report shows the actual repairs required. This is the report that should have been initially submitted to court. Structural Engineer 2009 Homes Inspection report Click on images below to see our Structural Engineers report in image form instead of PDF as above. The Structural Engineer we paid to put together the reports and was our expert witness at our trial performed both inspections. NOTE: At NO time did Heartland Homes ever have a Structural Engineer come to our home to inspect our issues and make recommendations on what it would take to resolve our water infiltration issues. Without a doubt I can state that is a fact.   (click for larger image) (click for larger image)

We are not builders or in home construction. IN OUR OPINION: FLASHING and WEEP HOLES are installed for a reason.
Even the window manufacturer Andersen Windows state "UNIT must be properly flashed...". 
Building Code 2003 state flashing and weep holes are to be installed, etc.  Please read our MAIN PAGE link above for details.

Here is 1 of our contractors proposals to repair the issues with our home that was built brand new in 2003 into 2004.
We closed February 2004 on our brand new home, 3 months later May 2004, we started experiencing water infiltration issues into our home.

Hopefully you read the emails on our main page from Heartland Homes stating our "WET BASEMENT remedy to begin..." &
"Due to the EXTREME AMOUNT OF WATER..." &
"We will CONTINUE TO WORK TOWARDS a solution...",
we never see that solution, here is what 1 of the bids we received figured it would take to resolve our issues.

Please keep in mind the following key NOTES:
1. For our trial in December 2008, we got 4 bids. We showed each contractor all of our photos,
showed them around our home and explained that our water issues
started only 3 months after our brand new 1st owner home closing.

2. As I mentioned before, for our trial I specifically told our Structural Engineer our report simply needed to prove we have
water issues with our home, so he did just that.
We were told AFTER we submitted all 4 estimates, we only needed to pick 1 estimate to work from.
They were not going to call all 4 contractors to testify on the
witness stand. So we picked this same contractor we would have picked anyhow.
Once our trial starts we find out, over 3/4 of his proposal is thrown out
because our expert witness, the Structural Engineers report does NOT detail out all of his items in the proposal, so whatever is NOT in the
Structural Engineers report will NOT be permitted as a repair in the proposal or however they worded this.

3. We file our discontinuance for our trial, because we've spent over $26,000.00 already and we haven't done any
repairs to our home other than replacing our electrical panel. We chisel out brick, pulled back vinyl siding and ask our Structural Engineer
and this 1 contractor to come back out and look at what is behind our brick and vinyl siding.
See the photos above, as you will see there is no flashing installed, etc.. 

4. Even though we still have a lot of photos and details to post, however you can easily see, we have
problems with our home that started 3 months after we closed. I don't see how that can be mistaken or contradicted?


In our opinion we did get 4 bids from 4 different contracting companies.
We picked 1 bid because we were told to for our trial. Because 3/4 of his proposal was tossed out we figured there is no reason to go any further with the trial, so we filed a discontinuance.

This proposal below is what we feel is actually what it will take to fix our water infiltration issues.
According to our Structural Engineer, 2000 & 2003 Building Codes and Andersen Windows, our window manufacturer;
FLASHING is to be installed. We removed 5 bricks and pulled back siding and found no flashing.

According to our Structural Engineer and the 2000 & 2003 Building Codes, weep holes are to be installed;
we have no weep holes in our bottom rows of brick or anywhere below our windows to allow water to drain.

Proposal for repairs to correct our water infiltration issues that started 3 months after closing on our Heartland Homes built new home.
Click on contractor proposal below and please review our MAIN PAGE to see our water infiltration issues with our
Heartland Homes built home.
Proposal to repair our water issues with our Heartland Homes built home.
Our Heartland Homes Pittsburgh review starts 3 months after closing.

(click for larger image)

IMPORTANT DETAILS: IN our opinion, if our home was built in 2003 and we have the building permit posted signed in 2003.
International Building Code from 2003 stating "...flashing shall be installed at the perimeters of exterior doors and windows..."
How come in the 5 areas WE REMOVED brick & siding, there is no flashing? See photos below, links above, etc. We have tons of photos showing we have
NO FLASHING installed in the areas where we removed brick or siding. According to our expert structural engineer, flashing and weep holes are to be installed
which falls inline with the Andersen Windows document & the IBC 2003 documentation.
IMPORTANT: Heartland Homes never had any structural engineer visit our home. We would have known and part of our court transcripts state that.

Photos: major trenching (that didn't resolve our water issues) as always on our websites - click any photo to view larger image...
Heartland Homes Pittsburgh was our home builder.	our first Heartland Homes home.   Removed brick veneer from our custom built home to see if windows flashing was installed. Pittsburgh custom built home, view of brick around our front door. Andersen Windows documentation and guidelines stating "..flashing is to be installed..." our custom built home, Pittsburgh, PA.
Heartland Homes-Pittsburgh our custom home builder. Showing how deep our first layer of brick actually is. This photo doesn't really show it - we have no weep holes installed in our brick veneer. (click for larger image)

We always want to make sure we provide all of the details we have, so you have a complete picture.
We are still beside ourselves every single day realizing everything we had to go through and continue. You can click on our Court Trial Details tab above.
You'll see we won the verdict from the Judge.
However we decided to discontinue our case because we will be over $50,000.00 upside down in our case with the monies settlement.
We are just going to pay for all of our repairs ourselves because we have spent some much of everything already trying to get the builder to resolve our issues.

IMPORTANT: be sure to read emails from Heartland Homes Warranty Dept below or READ ALL 58 EMAILS HERE (click here to READ ALL emails)
July 22 2004 - "basement remedy to being in the next few weeks..." & Sept 21 2004 - "Castleview is still a work in progress..."
& January 21 2005 (8 months after our water issues started) - "We will continue to work towards a solution, weather is a factor now..."

IMPORTANT: Please be SURE TO REVIEW our details & photos regarding our Window Flashing below under our 2009 section....
click here to view the Window Flashing information on our Main Page.