Loveland homeowners are suing Loveland Councilman Larry Heckel and his construction company for negligence. According to a source close to the case, Heckel used temporary support posts to suspend the floors that are now slowly collapsing despite being warned by the lumber yard and manufacturer not to use those posts. Where were the city building inspectors?
Read the full story and feel free to post any comments.
I heard today about a guy who bought a house where all the concrete was poured with not a single piece of rebar in the foundation!
You got it right another home by Heckel. That joker has no business being on the city council or trying to build homes in this community.
I imagine nobody has complained to the newspaper yet and that is why they never reported the story. Just my guess though.
Jim Rose, you may be right about one reason the newspaper doesn’t report on these things…maybe nobody complains directly to them.
Another reason is they don’t really want or reward any investigative reporting.
But even more, I think they’d NEVER put in a negative word against one of their friends in the local elite establishment. In fact, they just seem like boosters for the builder/developer crowd who’ve run this town as their private larder for many years.
No one directly complains to them – The Reporter-Herald? Oh, yes. They have, and for their trouble they have been threatened, bullied, hung up on by Amundsen and Kapperman, lied to, and had their telephone number blocked from calling The R-H line.
ummm that picture of the post looks like a better quality than the ones he used. Did you check to make sure that is the right one in your graphic?
Quality posts costs bigger bucks and the ones Larry used I believe go for around $33 at the Home Depot.
Can you imagine seeing the floor collapsing in your new home because a creepy councilman decided to cut corners and use $30 posts?
Wow that is incredible!
Larry “what the Heck” Heckle, Tom Hawkinson, Dave Clark, Greg George are all see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil guys. Tom Hawkinson is the worst; always late to propose new building codes, not obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars by not checking up on final building costs, and not promoting green building practices with residential and commercial construction codes.
John2 is right. I have been tracking this situation for years and most people in Loveland have no idea what was going on. It is also ironic that Don Williams is buying a retirement house in Missouri where he is from. I wonder if he isn’t related to the Branson city officials who were guilty of the same favoritism and ignoring real code violations while throwing the book at builders who didn’t “support” them and their dirty politicos on council.
Larry Heckel has no business building any more houses in Loveland until all the victims are compensated who bought the places he already built.
It would be like the federal government authorizing BP to start tapping new deep water wells in the same area as the disaster before even plugging the hole gushing oil today. We really need a newspaper in this town that will report the real news instead of us having to read this crap on websites.
You need to clarify that you are talking about the Harvest Gold 2nd Addition stucco duplexes on Glen Isle Drive 4700 block.
The Jack Posts are only part of our problem. Include the fact a foundation was poured without using re-bar and many other things no city inspector should ever pass on no matter what.
The 1st Addition Harvest Gold Homes also have problems but Loveland’s Housing Authority controls the board i hear so it isn’t easy since Larry still has influence with that board via his council position over Loveland’s housing people.
You also forgot to mention that Larry wasn’t just sued. He could have just fixed the problems and nobody would have done anything. I feel the important part of your story is missing. Larry had a very easy way to fix all this (okay very expensive way) but he decided to not do what he was supposed to.
We understand the credibility of this website is being attacked regarding this story especially as we referred to the Jack Posts used by Heckel as “temporary” supports and not permanent columns.
We do our best to investigate what is reported to us by industry insiders to ensure we are not publishing erroneous information that someone reported just because they don’t like another person in their industry. In the case of this story, it appears as though our sources raised legitimate questions that will be ultimately adjudicated in the current negligence lawsuit between Larry Heckel and the people who bought his homes.
The following link to a well researched article on the topic clearly states that telescoping posts or “jack posts” (like those used by Heckel Construction in Harvest Gold) are not suitable for permanent construction.
Home Inspection Magazine
If you don’t have time to read the entire article, here is the introduction;
“If a column has been used inappropriately, if it is improperly installed, or if its condition has deteriorated, the column may be unsafe. Common defects include the permanent use of temporary columns, improper installations and severe exfoliating rust, all of which can lead to a sudden collapse of the column and the structure it supports. This, of course, can lead to injury and property damage.
This article will help home and building inspectors to recognize these conditions. I will also argue that telescoping columns designed for use in the United States are designed to be temporary columns which ought to be replaced and that their presence may alert you to additional building defects.”