By Joyce Kryszak
Amherst, NY – The town of Amherst is putting developers to the test in an effort to stop its "sinking homes" problem. Cracked and heaving foundations have left more than 1,000 Amherst homeowners with huge repair bills. And poor soils are suspected to be the cause. But a new building code revision requires rigorous soil testing before homes are built.
The soil testing revision went into effect on June 10th. That's one day after a hotly contested state law expired. The law, requested by Amherst, required builders to install steel bars in all new foundations to help keep homes from sinking. But that wasn't popular with the building industry. So, the state Code Council voted to halt the law.
Amherst Building Commissioner Thomas Ketchum issued a plan B. He says builders may still have to install the bars -- or do even more -- if soils fail new stricter soil requirements.
"If they're going through their calculations and they exceed those parameters, then they are going to have to come up with some solution to bring the settlement down below those acceptable parameters," said Ketchum. "And it may require reinforcing steel in the foundation. It may require different backfill around the foundation. It may involving piering down through the soft soil layers down to bedrock, or something like that. There are any number of alternatives you could use to conquer the problem."
The problem for Amherst, however, may be state objection to the code change. But Ketchum doesn't think so. He described the action as a procedural matter, rather than establishing a new code.
"We've just sort of identified the code sections that they need to pay attention to, and we've also gone on further to describe how we want them to address certain items that are brought forward in the code," said Ketchum.
Before, developers could opt to use a chart with pre-determined limits for load bearing under different soil conditions. But now, developers will have to conduct extensive geo-technical studies, sampling soils at least fifteen feet down. Ketchum says if that pulls up the so-called soft "peanut butter soil," builders will have to dig deeper -- and build stronger foundations.