Shortly after purchasing our new
construction home we noticed that our hardwood floors on our
monolithic slab we separating. After walking the exterior of the home
we discovered that along the same lines/areas that the hardwood
flooring is separating there are cracks visible on the exterior of
the foundation.

We have only been able to investigate
under the carpeted areas in our home as majority is hardwoods and
have located the cause of the hardwood flooring separating, control
joints. We believe the 4 control joints (2 north to south and 2 east
to west) are much to wide and deep (we have pictures during
construction that show their placement). They are approx 1/2” wide
and have large cracks in them that appear to have cracked all the way
down to the vapor barrier (I'm also concerned about moisture as the
hardwood flooring is splintering and separating underneath the top).
This is a huge concern for us as almost every room on our lower level
has a joint running through it.

The builder sent his engineer to look
at the areas under the carpet (since the rest is under the hardwoods)
and the engineer stated the joints should be 1/8” not 1/2” wide.
He said that all the areas under the hardwoods would need to be
stitched in addition some type of underlayment over the joints before
reinstalling the hardwoods and the areas under the carpet would just
need pressure epoxy and that we will continue to have problems unless
it is addressed. He put this all in a report as well. The builder
agreed to fix the issues. A few weeks later the builder and the
engineer showed back up and the engineer stated he was mistaken and
to disregard his state sealed report that the joints are not too
large. Now the builder will not fix the control joints in the slab.

We are concerned as this seems like it
would be very costly to fix in addition the 2000 square feet of
hardwood flooring will have to be removed and replaced. We feel
potentially the value has/will decreased as we would need to disclose
this when we sell our home. This isn't a job we can afford to fix
ourselves. Any other opinions if indeed the joints are too large and
if the engineer's initial remedy is correct?

Thanks!