What the hell are we building here, Part 1 - Jon Harris
Jon Harris
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What the hell are we building here, Part 1<br>A building inspector's view of housing, cities and the systems that keep failing the people who need them most.<br>Jon Harris<br>May 27, 2026
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Foreword:
I’m a building inspector in the Bay Area. I’ve spent basically my entire adult life in the construction industry and the last decade in building regulation. In that time I’ve watched the duties and burdens of regulation grow on contractors, engineers, homeowners, and my own colleagues. I have one goal in this series: to repeat the question I’ve heard, and uttered, on hundreds of jobs, standing over the foundation for a bomb shelter being built under a bedroom addition: “What the hell are we building here?”<br>A Tale of Two Earthquakes
In 1955 a veteran and his family bought a brand new 1500 square foot, three bedroom ranch house in the bay area. Two years later a moderate earthquake struck the region. No one was injured. But a crack had formed in the foundation. A child’s marble rolling across the floor confirmed that one end of the house had settled a couple inches, resulting in a slight lean. The owners called their insurance agent, who recommended a local contractor. The contractor came, assessed the damage, and began work the following Monday. Three men, a few hydraulic bottle jacks, a sledge hammer, a shovel, a truckload of concrete and a week of labor later the house was level, the foundation repaired, and the job complete. In less than two weeks from the event it was impossible to tell anything had happened save some disturbed soil.<br>In 2025 a new young family purchased that same house. In 2028 an earthquake similar to the last will strike again. The damage will be nearly identical. Earthquake riders are no longer offered on homeowners policies, and like nearly 90% of California homeowners they elected not to purchase a separate policy. Still, they call a contractor for the repair. The contractor looks at the foundation, measures the amount of settling, and breaks the bad news: he can’t give them a price right now, first the family will have to hire an engineer to design the fix, as required by code.<br>The contractor recommends an engineer he’s worked with before, and the engineer gives them a price for design and drafting: $4,500. The family is shocked, but after calling a couple other firms to compare prices they agree. Four weeks later the family receives the plans from the engineer. The contractor reviews the scope and gives them an all-in price of $25,000. Again shocked, the family agrees. The contractor submits the plans to the local building department, who, being overwhelmed with response to the earthquake, promise they’ll return initial comments within a month. True to their word, three weeks later the contractor receives an email - due to evidence of expansive soils in the area where the home sits, they’re also requiring a geotechnical engineer to submit an investigation along with the foundation plans. The family is told the price, this time an additional $2,000, and they agree. The geotechnical investigation reveals that the house does indeed sit on slightly expansive soils. The geotechnical engineer, due to liability, has to recommend drilled piers in addition to the new footing. The building department, due to regulations, must enforce the recommendations of the geotechnical engineer. The structural engineer charges an additional $500 to revise the plans. The contractor tells the homeowners that the addition of the drilled piers will raise the price of the job an additional $10,000. The family, who has now pulled a HELOC to pay for the repairs and is now numb, agrees again.<br>Finally, months after the earthquake, repair work begins. A specialist house lifting contractor is required due to the necessity for drilling equipment under the house. An electrician is required to disconnect and reconnect the power for the lift. A plumber is required to disconnect and reconnect the plumbing. The family is forced to stay with relatives for the duration of the repairs.<br>5 months after the earthquake the family finally moves back into their home. The 1955 family was back in theirs in less than two weeks. The cost then, in today’s dollars, was less than $10,000. The cost now was $42,000, plus months of interest on their HELOC, plus the cost of living with relatives, plus weeks of managing the project.<br>The neighbor’s house, built in 2019 at roughly twice the cost per square foot, suffered no damage at all.<br>The Whole Job
This is not the story of one unlucky family. This is the story of what we’ve done to the simple thing that is a house, and how it impacts us all.<br>First we must answer a question no one asks: what is a house?<br>A house is not a monument. It doesn’t need to last forever. It is used, worn down, repaired, remodeled and neglected. Functionally it’s a simple thing. It keeps the weather outside and the temperature...