Some homeowners in southwest Calgary aren’t happy with their new garage floors.
They say the concrete is cracking, and the builder won’t do anything about it.
Homeowner Scott Mason has been living in his house a year and a half, and feels the cracks on his garage floor aren’t normal.
He says the cracks appeared in his garage floor a few months after he moved in, and progressively got worse.
“I paid $450,000 for a new property, and I expect to have a new floor,” says Mason. “I really don’t want a patch job on my garage floor. I paid a lot of money for this home and expect a little more from the builder and a little more responsibility.”
There are guidelines set defining how much concrete floors in a new home can crack before the builder has to repair them.
Mason complained to the company that built the house, Cedarglen Homes, and was told the cracks are within acceptable guidelines.
Cedarglen Homes says there is nothing wrong with the way the concrete is poured, or with the neighbourhood the homes are in.
“The existence of the cracks in the garage slab does not indicate that anything is wrong with the slab,” says Howard Tse, President of Cedarglen Homes. “In fact, the performance of the slab has not been compromised.”
“Cracking in concrete is part of the natural dehydration of the product,” adds Tse.
The company did, however, offer to fill them with caulking.
Mason turned down the offer, and instead filed a complaint with the Alberta New Home Warranty Program.
They investigated, and found the cracks were 1 millimeter wide.
Anything less than 3 millimeters is considered part of normal concrete shrinkage.
Other Cedarglen homeowners in the community of New Brighton say they aren’t encouraged by the decision.
David Findlay has worked in home construction, and says he doesn’t believe that amount of cracking is normal.
“I’m just concerned that the driveway is actually going to start flaking and pulling apart even more,” says Findlay. “Visually, to me, it’s unacceptable.”
Mason is so worried about water getting into his garage and expanding the cracks, he says he rarely parks in it anymore.
Mason did have the chance of appealing the Alberta New Home Warranty inspection and going to arbitration, but didn’t do so.
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