Shoddy buildings

[jpl02]

Arvida roofs shoddy, owners allege

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13167722.htm

Arvida is part of St. Joe. With all of the houses popping up in the Panhandle courtesy of St. Joe, I'm wondering and concerned about the building codes. If you read the story, Weston was a planned community by Arvida, much like SouthWood. Not only that, but it was Arvida that built a good portion of the shoddy homes that failed in South Dade during Hurricane Andrew. With that, I'm kinda leery about living in a house owned by them.

If I'm not mistaken, didn't Arvida/St. Joe also build Celebration, which also had some serious construction problems with it's houses? I'd hate to see a major storm hit the Big Bend and seriously damage some of those nice new St. Joe homes.

[Florida]

Good find. I'd hope they've tweaked their building style since those hurricanes, even without government forcing them to. I've often had concerns because of the speed in which the homes are erected and moved into, but everyone I know who lives in a SouthWood home loves it and has reported little trouble.

I believe Arvida is simply the real-estate arm of the company, I'm not totally sure they actually build anything, but simply manage the sale of real-estate. I'll have to look that up.

[celebrated]

Weston was one of Arvida's early projects and today I feel St. Joe builds quality homes. Celebration was started in 1996. Disney sold the last phase of Celebration to St. Joe in 2004 and they are now building the final phase of several hundred homes in Celebration. The neighborhood is called Artisan Park. Prior to that time they were not a builder in Celebration. The building issues in Celebration occurred at the start of the project during the late 90's.

Here are a few pictures of the Artisan Park club house. It is beautiful place. Prices are outrageous there. Good luck finding anything for less than $300 per sq/ft.

[stjoe]

stjoe (the company, not me) is not perfect...that is for sure...but anyone that has built as many homes in Florida as them are going to have issues in public sight when it comes to hurricanes. It makes much more sense to a lawyer to sue a developer who has built say 5,000 homes than one who has built say 50. Guess who is going to be the target even if another developer does a worse job?

DOn't quote me, but Weston might of been built BEFORE the 93 Hurricane codes changes....in fact, I almost bought a home there in 95 and it was VERY much almost built out then...so I know some were built before the code change.

A big part of that code change is metal clips you see attaching studs to the roof of the house today....all new construction has that and it is a big help when it comes to hurricanes. They often use a 2X4 brace between studs that also helps.

[jpl02]

You're right stjoe. Weston broken ground in 1984, but wasn't built out until 2001 (there was a big article in the Miami Herald about it). So, a good number of homes were built post-Andrew.

It is easy to sue a large developer and they're going to the the brunt of the blame, but if I paid good money for a house, I'd expect it to be built strong.

Arvida wasn't the only one accused of the shoddy homes, either. Lennar had a big part too. For example, they built a development down the street from my home in South Florida on what was formerly a swamp-turned-industrial landfill.

My main concern is people are/will be complacent up here, since a major storm like Andrew or Katrina has yet to hit the Tallahassee area. Look at these student housing complexes around here! They're crap shacks! A little plywood slapped together and that's it. I wouldn't be caught dead in one of them in any hurricane, let alone a major one.

[Florida]

Weston was one of Arvida's early projects and today I feel St. Joe builds quality homes. Celebration was started in 1996. Disney sold the last phase of Celebration to St. Joe in 2004 and they are now building the final phase of several hundred homes in Celebration. The neighborhood is called Artisan Park. Prior to that time they were not a builder in Celebration. The building issues in Celebration occurred at the start of the project during the late 90's.

Here are a few pictures of the Artisan Park club house. It is beautiful place. Prices are outrageous there. Good luck finding anything for less than $300 per sq/ft.

Although I don't know much about St. Joe Construction, I must say I love those two pictures there. Especailly the first. That grass looks delicious!