Pittsburgh-area family finds large void under garage of house built by Ryan Homes

A Westmoreland County family wants to warn others after they said they found a large void beneath the garage in their house built by Ryan Homes.

"More than anything, we just want folks to know that there is potential that other homes could be built like this and just to be aware,"  said homeowner Nicole Holderfield.

Beneath their seemingly normal front-facing two-car garage in the Altman Farms neighborhood in North Huntingdon is a lot of dead space that the Holderfield family just found out about. They said having a secret room is not as cool as it sounds when you realize the structural integrity of the 30-year-old home is at risk. 

"I hate to say shocking, but it's not something that we really wanted to be the first one on the street to find out," Holderfield said.

Holderfield said there are leftover cinder blocks and even a Lowe's bucket down there.

"You can actually stand all the way down here on this side, a lot of backfill, and then we did see it was weatherproofed on some of the walls," Holderfield said.

This all started because Holderfield wanted to fix the growing number of large cracks popping up across her garage floor. 

"We were starting the cosmetic fix, and our contractor was here. And with a sledgehammer, he wanted to see what he was working with, so he simply pounded down the sledgehammer," Holderfield said.

The large void directly underneath the garage is not accessible from their finished basement. Only one wall appears to be weatherproofed, so the family believes moisture rusted away the single support column and the steel rebar attempting to carry the weight of the entire two-car garage.

"A couple different companies did stop by, and they were in awe of what they found. Even the North Huntingdon inspector came out, took a look, and it was not something he was familiar with seeing," said Holderfield.

That inspector encouraged the family to hire a structural engineer. They did, and received a report that concluded the issue was the result of "poor workmanship and faulty construction," Holderfield said.

The family's homeowner's insurance denied the claim, saying defects from faulty construction are excluded from coverage.

"Knowing that we were parking our cars in here up until we found this problem — we have children and animals, and knowing that a catastrophe could come, I think that's our biggest concern," Holderfield said.

That's why the family called the builder, Ryan Homes, and alerted all of their neighbors with similar builds and floorplans.

"They really just took a look and took pictures. When we did speak to the one gentleman at Ryan Homes, he said this was 30 years ago, there were different laws back then," Holderfield said.

KDKA Investigates reached out to Ryan Homes for comment to ask if building these dead spaces is still its practice. And if so, should other homeowners who live in Ryan Homes inspect further?

Ryan Homes said they do not comment on news stories.

In an update on Thursday, the Holderfields told KDKA Ryan Homes reached out and said it's willing to work with them on this, share the cost of the fix, and manage the project to ensure it is fixed as they would expect.

The family feels that's a valid attempt to make it right.   

KDKA Investigates talked to a Cranberry homeowner who also lives in a Ryan Home built around the same time. She sent photos showing the wet tire marks where her car drove over and broke through the concrete last year. When the garage floor failed, she said it revealed a 9-foot void. She said it took four triaxle trucks of fill and $20,000 to fix.

Holderfield says that makes her wonder who else could find this.

"I would love people to be held accountable, but I also understand the laws and that we could potentially be out of the warranty period is what they say. I do wish we could have them stand behind their work or help us get this fixed," Holderfield said. 

More than anything, the Holderfield family says it wants people to know there is potential that other homes could be built like this and to be aware.