Family finds large void under garage of house built by Ryan Homes

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

This is a situation you need to see to believe.A family says it learned the hard way that contractors built their home's garage over a void.Rusted -out steel struggled to hold up the concrete slab of the garage, as the family continued to park their two cars over top, with kids jumping in and out, heading to sports practices.Now insurance is denying their claim.And they say the popular home builder doesn't want to get involved.

KDK investigator Megan Schiller joins us now to share what the family's word of warning is.Megan.

Well, Chris and Christine, this family from North Huntington says for the past month they have been dealing with something they never expected.And honestly, they say at first maybe you'd think, oh, it's cool to find extra space in your home.But they say that is definitely not the case when you realize that it's putting the structural integrity of your home at risk.Beneath this seemingly normal front facing two car garage is a lot of dead space, but the Holderfield family just found out about it.

I hate to say shocking, but it's not something that we really wanted to be like the first one on the street to find out.We didn't crawl down for safety reasons, but the family shared these videos.So what is down there?Well, some leftover cinder blocks and even a Lowe's bucket.It is.You can actually stand all the way down here on this side.

A lot of backfill and then we did see that it was weatherproofed on some of the walls.

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

We were starting the cosmetic fix and our contractor was here and with a sledgehammer.He wanted to start cuttingwhat he was working with.So he simply pounded down the sledgehammer.

And this is what she found another room in the 30 year old Ryan home they never knew about.It's a large void directly underneath the garage, not accessible from their finished basement.With just one weatherproofed wall, the family says moisture rusted away the single support column and the steel rebar attempting to carry the weight of an entire two car garage.

A couple different companies did stop by and they were in awe of what they found.Even the North Huntington inspector came out, took a look.look was not something th with seeing.

The inspector fields to hire a structur and they received this re the issue was the result and faulty construction.

insurance denied the clai from faulty construction a Knowing that we were parki up until we found this p we do have Children and a could come.I think that's our biggest concern.That's why the family called Ryan Holmes and alerted all of their neighbors with similar builds and floor plans.They really just took a look and took pictures when we did speak to the one gentleman at Ryan Holmes.He said, you know this was 30 years ago.There were different laws back then.

KDK investigates reached out to Ryan homes for comment to ask, is this still the practice of Ryan homes to build these dead spaces?And if so, should other homeowners who live in Ryan homes inspect further?Ryan homes did not respond to our requests for comment.KDK investigates also talked to a cranberry resident who also lives in a Ryan home built around the same time.She sent us these photos showing the wet tire marks where her car drove over and brokethe concrete last year.

When the garage floor failed, it revealed this nine foot void.She said it took four triaxial trucks full of fill and $20 ,000 to fix.Holderfield says that that makes her wonder who else could find this.

I would love for 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 that we could have them stand behind their work or help us get this fixed.

So more than anything, this family in North Huntington says they want people to be aware of this and they want people to know that this is a possibility.And honestly, they say every contractor, every inspector, every building professional that has come out there has said the same thing.They have never seen anything like this before.

Now, Megan, we obviously don't want people to be ruining their own homes and trying to find this on their own.So what can people be doing?

When we talk to the one woman who lived in Cranberry, who also experienced this in the winter of last year, she reached out to her township and she said that you can get the blueprints and you can see exactly how your home was built.She said that this was written there on the drawings that there would be a void space.So that is potential for someone.If you want to know if that void is underneath your garage as well, try to get the blueprints from your township.Also, we did just get an update, though, from Ryan Holmes, specifically from the family in North Huntington.They said Ryan Holmes has reached back out to them and has offered to work with them in order to try to get a fix.

They say right now Ryan Holmes has said that they could share the cost of the fix and as well as manage the project to ensure it's done correctly.The family tells me they feel this is a valid attempt in order to take responsibility and work with them.So we'll of course we'll keep you posted and see how that develops.Back to you two.