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Builder shot my car

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derek116

Junior Member
Texas

There's a builder next to my house building a new house. When they were putting up the frame of the house, using nail guns, i discover a few dents on the roof of my car that I have no idea where but suspect that it's from the nails. I found nails on my properities, they are about 2 1/2 long. Standard for frames i guess. I called them, and basicly got the answer that i don't know who did it, and that's it.

I didn't want to go to court or fuss about it, so i just let it go.

few months later, they are putting on concrete on the outside of the house, and i found some concrete on my car.. Now i'm pissed. could have at least told me they are doing it so i can move my car. Although it's only minor dots of concrete.... and i found that the dent from the "nails" are showing signs of rust....:mad: :mad: :mad:

So i want to know, how much prove (eg, probably, or beyond a reasonable doubt... etc.) do i need to win such case in court. or basicly, what are my chances in getting them to at least fix the dent in my car. thanks:)
 


Ohiogal

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
derek116 said:
Texas

There's a builder next to my house building a new house. When they were putting up the frame of the house, using nail guns, i discover a few dents on the roof of my car that I have no idea where but suspect that it's from the nails. I found nails on my properities, they are about 2 1/2 long. Standard for frames i guess. I called them, and basicly got the answer that i don't know who did it, and that's it.

I didn't want to go to court or fuss about it, so i just let it go.

few months later, they are putting on concrete on the outside of the house, and i found some concrete on my car.. Now i'm pissed. could have at least told me they are doing it so i can move my car. Although it's only minor dots of concrete.... and i found that the dent from the "nails" are showing signs of rust....:mad: :mad: :mad:

So i want to know, how much prove (eg, probably, or beyond a reasonable doubt... etc.) do i need to win such case in court. or basicly, what are my chances in getting them to at least fix the dent in my car. thanks:)
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To fix the dents? I dont know because since they are rusting you could have taken steps before now to prevent the rust. That poses a problem. You should have filed a formal WRITTEN complaint with the builder regarding the dents at the time (as well as contacted your insurance). Suing will probably cost more than fixing the dents though you only have to prove by a preponderance of the evidence. You still have to mitigate your damages though. Which you haven't done if the car is rusting now where it is dented.
Where the heck are you parking your car in reference to the house being built?
 
T

Trucking Mad

Guest
Dents

derek116 said:
Texas

There's a builder next to my house building a new house. When they were putting up the frame of the house, using nail guns, i discover a few dents on the roof of my car that I have no idea where but suspect that it's from the nails. I found nails on my properities, they are about 2 1/2 long. Standard for frames i guess. I called them, and basicly got the answer that i don't know who did it, and that's it.

I didn't want to go to court or fuss about it, so i just let it go.

few months later, they are putting on concrete on the outside of the house, and i found some concrete on my car.. Now i'm pissed. could have at least told me they are doing it so i can move my car. Although it's only minor dots of concrete.... and i found that the dent from the "nails" are showing signs of rust....:mad: :mad: :mad:

So i want to know, how much prove (eg, probably, or beyond a reasonable doubt... etc.) do i need to win such case in court. or basicly, what are my chances in getting them to at least fix the dent in my car. thanks:)
Click to expand...
:cool: Nearly every air or electric nail gun now-days has a safety mechanism that doesn't allow it to fire a nail unless it is pressed against something. Most construction Co. used air compressed nail guns, with the safety trigger to prevent (physical) accidents. It would be extremely difficult to prove that your vehicle was damaged by one of the nail guns.:cool:
 
justalayman

justalayman

Senior Member
Trucking Mad said:
:cool: Nearly every air or electric nail gun now-days has a safety mechanism that doesn't allow it to fire a nail unless it is pressed against something. Most construction Co. used air compressed nail guns, with the safety trigger to prevent (physical) accidents. It would be extremely difficult to prove that your vehicle was damaged by one of the nail guns.:cool:
Click to expand...
Many of the safeties can be defeated. As well, I have known more than one carpenter who would manually hold the safety and have target practice with whatever is close.

To the OP, I hope you washed off the concrete (without rubbing) ASAP. The chemicals can damage your paint.
 
T

Trucking Mad

Guest
Point taken

justalayman said:
Many of the safeties can be defeated. As well, I have known more than one carpenter who would manually hold the safety and have target practice with whatever is close.

To the OP, I hope you washed off the concrete (without rubbing) ASAP. The chemicals can damage your paint.
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:cool: Thats a great point...Still hard to prove.
At what distance does this carpenter have target practice (20 to 30 ft.)?
Now at what distance would the poster state his auto is from the home being constructed?:cool:
 
H

HappyHusband

Senior Member
justalayman said:
Many of the safeties can be defeated. As well, I have known more than one carpenter who would manually hold the safety and have target practice with whatever is close.

To the OP, I hope you washed off the concrete (without rubbing) ASAP. The chemicals can damage your paint.
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I agree.
Most of the pros in home building would tell you "We don't need no stinking safety mechanisms", and I would bet that you wouldn't find one nail gun on the neighboring project with the safety mechanism still intact.

And to the OP, send the written complaint to the builder's main office, and call the owner/president/ceo every two hours until they give you a satisfactory resolution.

I can't count how many new tires and paint jobs we've had to pay for, in my 10 years of residential and commercial construction, most of them not nearly as obvious as your damages appear to be.
 
D

derek116

Junior Member
Thankyou for your suggestions.

The car is approx. no more than 7 yds from the building, on the driveway next to the developing property.

And I have pondered upon the nail gun safety, but finding nails in front of my door (approx. 25yds from the construction) convince me that, someone's safety might not be working very well.
 
H

HomeGuru

Senior Member
Trucking Mad said:
:cool: Nearly every air or electric nail gun now-days has a safety mechanism that doesn't allow it to fire a nail unless it is pressed against something. Most construction Co. used air compressed nail guns, with the safety trigger to prevent (physical) accidents. It would be extremely difficult to prove that your vehicle was damaged by one of the nail guns.:cool:
Click to expand...

**A: it is easy to override. And have you ever heard of a nail hitting the intended object, then bouncing and hitting a second object?
 
T

Trucking Mad

Guest
You're right

HomeGuru said:
**A: it is easy to override. And have you ever heard of a nail hitting the intended object, then bouncing and hitting a second object?
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:cool: I have..In my previous post I responded to justalayman as to how he brought up a good point..I agree that I didn't bring up every possible scenario..I left room for others!:cool:
 
justalayman

justalayman

Senior Member
HomeGuru said:
**A: it is easy to override. And have you ever heard of a nail hitting the intended object, then bouncing and hitting a second object?
Click to expand...
I had one where the carpenter was trying to nail in to the crotch where two boards met at about a 90 deg. angle. He couldn't get the gun directly against the wood. It hit the rafter hanger (metal), bounced and hit me about 10 feet away. Luckily it wasn't point end first. It wouldn't have stuck but it would have broken the skin.

As well, I don't know how powerfull the guns are now but about 20 years ago I saw a guy stick one (not deeply but it did stick in) into a telephone pole about 15 feet away.

If one wants to play all you have to do is pull back the safety with one hand and pull the trigger with the other. very easy. as far as securing it, I thought most newer guns had anti-repeat mechanisms ( the safety would have to be engaged and released and them re-engaged to fire a second time) to make this useless but I don't know all the guns out there.

Now I can't see one going 25 yards but who knows, maybe there are some that will.
 
H

HappyHusband

Senior Member
justalayman said:
I had one where the carpenter was trying to nail in to the crotch where two boards met at about a 90 deg. angle. He couldn't get the gun directly against the wood. It hit the rafter hanger (metal), bounced and hit me about 10 feet away. Luckily it wasn't point end first. It wouldn't have stuck but it would have broken the skin.

As well, I don't know how powerfull the guns are now but about 20 years ago I saw a guy stick one (not deeply but it did stick in) into a telephone pole about 15 feet away.

If one wants to play all you have to do is pull back the safety with one hand and pull the trigger with the other. very easy. as far as securing it, I thought most newer guns had anti-repeat mechanisms ( the safety would have to be engaged and released and them re-engaged to fire a second time) to make this useless but I don't know all the guns out there.

Now I can't see one going 25 yards but who knows, maybe there are some that will.
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The anti-repeat mechanisms that I have seen are included with the gun, but must be installed by the buyer.

For someone who uses the nailguns all day, the safety mechanisms are just a hassle and they are usually removed from the guns.
 
justalayman

justalayman

Senior Member
HappyHusband said:
The anti-repeat mechanisms that I have seen are included with the gun, but must be installed by the buyer.
QUOTE]

That' a heck of a safety feature. That would be like selling the conversion kit to swap a semi-auto gun to full auto with the gun.
(yes I know-the gun thing is illegal, the nail gun apparently isn't)
Click to expand...
 
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