Daily Breeze

Judge forces halt to construction of home on The Strand

By Andrea Woodhouse Staff Writer
Posted: 08/24/2009 07:11:24 PM PDT

Work on this house on The Strand in Hermosa Beach has been stopped by court order. A neighbor contends her house was shifted when the basement of the house under construction was built. (Sean Hiller Staff Photographer)

Work has stopped on an oceanfront Hermosa Beach home whose unique construction method is alleged by a neighbor to have caused about $375,000 damage to her property next door.

Under a judge's order issued last week, the house will remain unfinished until experts can better assess how excavation to create its unusual ub-Strand basement might have prompted the home next door to tilt, the plaintiff's attorney said Monday.

Almost immediately after construction began in November on the lot next door, Teresa Dickey noticed cracks in her home's drywall, windows that didn't shut properly and doors that would open without aid, her attorney Adam D.H. Grant said Monday.

Engineers hired by Dickey determined that her home at 2120 The Strand had shifted four inches toward the construction pit next door, likely endangering the integrity of the home's gas, water and electric lines, Grant said.

Work on the home at 2126 The Strand is about 60 percent finished, its basement below completed and approved by inspectors and the three-story house above framed, said its developer, Kim Komick.

Though traditionally less common in newer Southern California construction, basements are becoming a more common feature in residential building in the area, said Komick, who said she's developed nearly a dozen in the South Bay recently. "It's a trend, and more and more people are doing it," she said.

Subterranean building allows homeowners to maximize the value of expensive property by increasing a home's square footage while avoiding city-set restrictions on building height and footprint, Komick said. Also, below-ground developments provide privacy from neighbors, and are ell-suited for home media centers, she added. "It's because of all the high-tech gadgets and Wiis," Komick said. "It becomes a logical place to put it. You can blast Terminator and your neighbors aren't bothered."

But in the case of this property, the neighbors were irritated even before its owners, Jeffrey and Katherine Kernochan, moved in. Dickey's complaint, filed in May, alleged that the Kernochans' contractor did not properly shore her home against the excavation required to dig the basement below Hermosa's water line.

Such a project requires contractors to pump out water from the surrounding earth and store it. Once the home's foundation and basement's walls are built and waterproofed, the treated water is added back into the ground, Komick said. Though relatively unique to Hermosa Beach, the work is certainly not uncommon along coastal cities, she added.

Dickey's complaint alleged the work next door compromised lateral support to her home, resulting in damages estimated at about $375,000 - a figure that Grant said had likely increased since November.

Dickey is also seeking compensation for personal injury, as she apparently suffered carbon monoxide poisoning during construction and lost wages because the home is an income property, Grant added.

The house is currently vacant, Grant said, adding that Dickey grew up in the home, and is the trustee of the trust that owns the property, but lives outside Los Angeles County. Property records show the three-bedroom, one-bath home was built with 968 square feet in 1909, with 753 square feet added in 1929.

And the home's history alone might explain some cracks, Komick said. "We're talking about someone with a 90-year-old house that has cracks in the wall," she said. "That's crazy."