Thank you, the City of Prince George, Building Department. Yes, this is the right thing to do. If we truly want to improve the houses being built, than they have to do these types of things.

Sure it is hardship on the owners of this development, but I think they knew what they were doing when they ignored the city.

Next, those houses on Tyner...

I must agree, too many issues arise during construction that are hid under drywall and paint that homeowners never see until years after they buy their new house. It is the cities responsibility to stop substandard construction that does not meet code, and prevent nightmares like this, from being patched up and covered with drywall and siding and sold to unsuspecting home owners.

If builders do not have to follow the rules then there would be no reason to provide any building inspection or permits. I hope when other issues like this come up, they dig in their heels and ensure it is done right, not just patched up, so that when you or I go to buy a new home, it will not have hidden surprises.

I would love to see the city take a stronger stance with regards to;
- Quality of building plans, and insuring building is built as per the plans
- Proper soil analysis to determine footing capacity, and potential water issues.
- That building is going to be energy efficient (ex Energuide 70+)
- That workmanship of construction is sound
- That all heating, plumbing and electrical systems are designed to suit the size and use of the house
- That the building shell is properly protected by shingles, siding and flashing to prevent water intrusion
- That the building be designed and built to last 100 years, not the ten they are required under warranty.

"Sure it is hardship on the owners of this development, but I think they knew what they were doing when they ignored the city."

I think they had no choice by that time.

They did not know what they were doing when they started the project.

I still have a problem with what appears to be an inequitable application of this process.

I want to know why the boarded up building at 2023 Laurier that can be seen from 5th avenue as it merges into 4th. is still standing after several decades. Maybe tied up in an estate and the City does not want to fight lawyers. Who knows.

Lots 26, 27, and 28 are assessed $76,100 with the so called "improvements" at $18,200.

Time to tear it down!!!!

What is the real story behind the house on Tyner. I think the one that is half built, ended up to close to the frontage, thus red tagged.

But what happen to the other one, that got up to the scratch coat. Was that one red tagged also, but the owners kept on building? I am assuming it being red tagged, they will not get a occupancy permit. No occupancy permit, means no mortgage or insurance? They would have a construction mortgage, and construction insurance at a premium.

I totally agree with Gus. That building on Laurier has been sitting there in a disgusting state for way too many years now - I would hazard a guess at maybe 15 years????? Let's get that one looked at and removed too. ALSO, I think the houses on Tyner are/were being built by the same guy who made the mess in Westgate....could be wrong

Tyner. The one on the left when approaching from Tyner towards HWY 16 has a trailer with security parked next to it. It had been closed to the weather, but ended up being vandalized and sat a long time with broken glass, but with security.

The glass has now been fixed.

Don't know of any encroachment problems. Just a $ problem from what I hear.

I suspect it is not the only house in PG being built by what I would call amateurs that is taking longer to complete than normal.

It would be interesting to go to City Hall to find out how many are taking longer than the allowed period of time and how many of those have requested an official extension and have been granted one. In these economic times I would think that would be not that unusual and one should take that into consideration as long as all other matters are in compliance.

Development services, or whatever the most recent name might be, should have that information ready to provide. I would think an FOI request would not be required.

"That the building be designed and built to last 100 years, not the ten they are required under warranty."

Wow ... that would get rid of the type of construction we use in this country pretty quickly!!!!

So much for wood first!!!

LOL

BTW, the city building inspection is not a quality control department. They do inspections at specific times of the construction to make sure it meets building code. The building code is a MINIMUM standard code, not a QUALITY standard code. That is dependent on the builder and in those cases where a building is custom built for a specific owner, it also becomes the owner's responsibility. Those owners who do not know anything about quality construction will, at best, hire an architect or, second best a residential designer.

It is the owner's responsibility to check out their consultants/contractors track record, not the City's.

I called the realstate company for the one house (when I saw the broken windowsws) and the phone number was out of service. I ended up calling the police.

The realstate agent for the lots is viable. I called him when I first saw a trailer parked there. I thought it was someone deciding to use the lot fora free mob ile home lot. Found out its the owner of the one house. The realstate agents sounded disgusted as he spoke about the house. Must be getting grey hairs out of stress whenever he thinks about this subdivision.

"Must be getting grey hairs out of stress whenever he thinks about this subdivision."

He ought to. It is a disgusting subdivison!

Disgusting subdivisions will have disgusting houses on it.

Compare what was done to that piece of property and waht was done with the piece of land that was subdivided at the east end of Malaspina. The developer has convenants on the properties. Most of the houses there do not look like the cookie cutter houses to the north of Tyner.

If one wants quality developments it starts with the City's input. Then the developer. Then the builder.

We have one quality detached single family housing developer left in this City and he caused the Malaspina development to happen.

I know of no one else in PG that has matched him in the last 20 or so years.

Anyone looking at purchasing a home built between the mid 70's and mid 80's should consider having the home inspector have the attic insulation tested for asbestos content. Any home of that vintage and has zonolite insulation in the attic has a extremely high chance of having asbestos contaminated insulation. A class action lawsuit was launched the USA over this product. Any claims in Canada had to be filed by August/09. This product was promoted by the federal government under the C.H.I.P. program. Remember asbestos is the silent killer and can take years for symptoms to appear. Goggle zonolite for more information.

That house on Tyner Estates? Why not just build a small motel at the bottom of the hill near the entrance. Maybe someones mother can sit in the window (not broken) in the house.

As an aside,it is kinda good that they didn't name the streets in the subdivision after trees.

I would wager a guess that the house on Laurier Cresent has been sitting in a state of disrepair for at least 30 Years.

Its the strangest thing, the owner must have Grandfather rights or something, as it seems no one will take him on.

In this day and age when you pay $125,000.00 for a $20,000.00 lot, and pay $350,000.00 for a $150,000.00 home you have to know that the game is over.

To make matters worse you pay $60,000.00 for a diesel pick up thats probably worth $15,000.00 plus shipping. All these high costs are going into peoples pockets as profit.

A good example is a so called Quality Driver, (Golf Club) manufactured by a well know company a few years ago was selling for $550.00. I found out later that the cost of this driver when it came off the production line was $65.00. The rest is profit.

Same things apply to high cost running shoes. People pay over $100.00 for a pair of shoes that are produced in China and shipped here. The actual cost of production and shipping would probably be in the area of $10.00 per pair.

We are being suckered every day of the week, and keep coming back for more.

I realize that this story is not the place, but really Palopu, do you really believe that the COST to build a new diesel pickup is $15k?

You bet. The parts are manufactured all over the world and the cars are assembled in Canada or the USA. The actual cost and value of the Diesel would not be that much.

Remember we are talking about MASS production. Shipping costs from China, Japan, etc; via containers, etc; are relatively cheap. The biggest cost would be labour in the USA putting these cars together. Approx $85.00 per hour plus benefits. Costs would be much less in other Countries.

Motors,tires, windshields, etc; would cost an individual a fortune, however when you are buying millions of parts, the economies of scale drive the price down.

As an example the difference in price between Pr George and Quesnel is $1500.00 so obviously they have money to play with.

Once you factor in the cost to run the Organization, all the multie million dollars bonus's the dividends paid to shareholders, etc, there is not a hell of a lot left to build the product, so yes, I suspect that the acutal production cost would be in the range of $15000.00. However this is just a guess on my part.

"I realize that this story is not the place, but really Palopu, do you really believe that the COST to build a new diesel pickup is $15k?"
Yup. Palopu is not far off the mark interceptor. However, Palopu is refering to manufacturing cost. The cost of manufacturing of a diesel is probably closer to $28K but yes, the end user pays the highest total.

Keep in mind that the selling price of a product has to recover not only the direct costs of production (the costs for the tires, the wages for the line workers, the engine, etc.), but also the non-direct costs incurred by the organization (advertising, capital costs, wages for admin staff, R&D outlays, etc.).

Over the short-term you certainly could sell a product for slightly more than the variable costs for the product, but over the long-term you need to recover everything and then some.

When it comes to automobiles and even golf clubs like Palopu has mentioned, advertising and R&D are HUGE contributors to the expenses that need to be recovered but that are generally not allocated as production costs. So when you pay 60K for that diesel truck, you are also helping GM or Ford recover the millions they put into developing the engine technology. When you pay $500 for a driver, you are helping Calloway recover the dough they pay to the pros who endorse the product.

That is exactly what it looks like Harbinger!!

Would have to be a motel without bathtub/shower.

Markups .... the killer of some products.

Everyone who is involved with the production of parts or procurement and processing of material needs to be paid for the "added value" they may or may not produce as they pass the product along.

http://www.articlesbase.com/shopping-articles/markups-on-shoes-1318418.html

Look at promotion, for instance. In the above linked case, Michael Jordon gets $5 per shoe for endorsing that product. It costs $7 to make that shoe in a situation where the people on the production line get $1,000/year.

Jordan has a name. He has others cut the deal for him. He does vitually nothing. So, we are paying some lazy bum while we pay very little to the hard workers.

But hey, that is the famous "american way". So Jordon gets the high five and the foreign worker gets teh shaft.

And we complain about the "lazy" people on the streets around here ....!!!

The other part in this is that the advertising on TV pays for producing programs and sending them over the airwaves when we do not otherwise pay for them. So that car and shoes one buys really pay for access to other services which are subsidized by the cost of those other products.

Even the newspapers are partially paid for in that fashion. If not, they would be twice as expensive, easily. This site uses advertising. When you buy something at the Northern, part of the cost of that product to you pays for this site and the newspaper whether you like it or not.