In September 2004, about a month after heavy equipment started digging through rock behind three neighboring houses in southeast Austin, the owners began finding cracks. One family saw the front facade separating from the rest of the house. A second homeowner noticed a large crack in her front entrance. The third, whose house stood about 20 feet from the work, found cracks in her house and mud sprayed on her exterior walls, court records show.
The work was a new 550-home subdivision built by KB Homes Lone Star, L.P., with C. C. Carlton Industries, Ltd. as general contractor. For a culvert near the houses, Carlton’s crews used heavy machinery to excavate through 12 to 13 feet of limestone and hard clay.
In December 2004, behind schedule and facing $1,000 a day in liquidated damages owed to KB, the crews went “around the clock,” with three or four large bright lights set directly behind the houses so work could run until 1:00 in the morning…