54°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

Shoddy repair work creating new problems for flood victim

4 years 5 months 1 week ago Thursday, October 10 2019 Oct 10, 2019 October 10, 2019 6:32 PM October 10, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

DENHAM SPRINGS - Rebuilding from the 2016 flood was complete for one Livingston Parish homeowner, but then a new nightmare began as all the repair work started to unravel.

Henri LeBlanc says his Denham Springs home was officially repaired following the August 2016 flood when he noticed an issue with the flooring.

"The first thing we noticed that was wrong was the floor started buckling, like, it literally had warped, waves in the floor," LeBlanc said. "We thought it was just the top layer but we figured out the plywood itself was buckling."

He called his contractor back out to take a look and they proceeded to tear up the floor, the kitchen, and the bathroom. LeBlanc has been living without a properly functioning bathroom for about a year.

"We're basically using a kiddie pool, and I put a cheap shower head up so we can shower," he said.

The brand new material used to repair the room is stacked in a storage room waiting to be reinstalled. It's been that way for a year. Now LeBlanc fears his $51,000 remodeling project was done wrong. He found out no permits were pulled for the job at the Livingston Parish Permit Office.

Thursday afternoon, 2 On Your Side received a return call from the contractor and he says permits weren't needed for this job. He also says the reason the floor buckled is that the wooden beams under the house never quite dried out from the 2016 flood and are expanding and contracting.

It's clear the contractor and LeBlanc aren't seeing eye-to-eye and a release clearing the contractor from all past, present, and future damages stands between them. LeBlanc fears that if he signs it his problems will only grow bigger.

The release offered by the contractor was offered to LeBlanc a year ago and still stands today. As a second option, the contractor agreed to pay LeBlanc cash to hire someone else to finish the job, but estimates LeBlanc has sought wouldn't come close to being covered by the amount proposed. 

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days