About New England Foundations

My story

In 2007, my wife and I bought our first home in Ellington, Connecticut.

It was newly built, and we were exactly as delighted and ecstatic as you'd imagine any couple to be — embarking on the life journey of owning our dream home. I still remember the closing. The developer's representative gave me one piece of parting advice: always keep a dehumidifier running in the basement. I didn't think much of it at the time. But like any dutiful new homeowner, I bought one and ran it down there around the clock.

I don't believe anyone at that closing knew what we'd all come to learn later. This was 2007, years before the word "pyrrhotite" entered the vocabulary of northeastern Connecticut.

But a few years later, the crumbling foundation crisis began to surface. And when I later spent time in Connecticut real estate, I saw just how pressing — and how devastating — this issue was for the people around me. Neighbors and peers facing the possibility that the single largest investment of their lives was quietly failing beneath them, with repair costs that could exceed a hundred thousand dollars and insurance that wouldn't cover it. It caused real worry. Sleepless nights. I understood that fear personally, because I owned a home in the affected region too.

Over the years, I did what a conscientious homeowner does. When cracks appeared in the basement, I had them repaired and addressed. But I'll be honest: I never fully shook my doubts about the builder. The more I learned, the less confidence I had in the work beneath my feet — and that quiet uncertainty, the sense that I was fixing what I could see while never being sure about what I couldn't, stayed with me.

When COVID arrived, it was, strangely, both a hardship and an opening. My wife found a job opportunity in California, and we made the move west — a relief in many ways, and a fresh start.

But I'll be honest about something I've sat with since: if it weren't for the cloud the crumbling foundation crisis cast over that region, I might have held onto that house even after we moved. It was our first home. We loved it. The pyrrhotite issue is part of why letting it go felt less like a loss and more like an exhale.

Why I built this

Living through that — the not-knowing, the dread, the maze of agencies, testing options, claim processes, and conflicting information — left me with one clear thought: no homeowner should have to piece this together alone.

The information is out there. But it's scattered across a dozen government pages, university lab sites, and engineering reports, most of it written for compliance rather than for a frightened family trying to understand whether their home is safe and what they can do about it.

This site is my attempt to fix that — to put the whole picture in one place, in plain language: how to tell if you might have pyrrhotite, how testing actually works and what it costs, how to navigate the CFSIC claims process and state reimbursement programs, and what your options are whether you're staying, repairing, buying, or selling.

What this site is

New England Foundations is a trusted information hub for homeowners facing the pyrrhotite "crumbling foundation" crisis in Connecticut and Massachusetts, with watch coverage for Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

Our job is to give you clear, plain-language information so you can make informed decisions — whether you're worried your home might be affected, actively navigating a claim, or trying to buy or sell a property in the pyrrhotite zone.

What this site is not

I want to be straight about what I can and can't offer.

We are not a lead broker. We do not sell your information to contractors, law firms, or remediation companies. We are not a government agency, and we are not affiliated with CFSIC (the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company), though we explain their processes in plain language.

This is also not professional, legal, engineering, or real estate advice. I'm not a licensed engineer, attorney, or currently practicing real estate agent, and nothing here is a substitute for one. For your specific situation — a claim, a sale, a structural assessment — you should consult the appropriate licensed professional, and I'll always point you toward the official programs and qualified experts who can help.

We are one homeowner's effort to make a confusing, frightening situation a little clearer.

Transparency & disclosure

This site is free to use. In the future, it may generate revenue through:

• A paid comprehensive guide for homeowners navigating the claims and remediation process
• Vetted, transparently disclosed vendor referrals (we only recommend services we trust)

Any referral relationships will be clearly marked. When I recommend or connect you to testing labs, engineers, or contractors, I'll tell you plainly about any relationship I have with them. Our recommendations are never for sale — trust is our only currency.

Accuracy commitment

The pyrrhotite landscape changes. Testing protocols evolve. Legislation moves. We commit to keeping this information current and clearly date-stamped. If you spot an error, tell us — we'll fix it.

If you're worried about your foundation right now, start here — and take a breath. You're not alone in this, and there's a clearer path through it than the scattered mess of links most people first encounter.

— Carlo

Last updated: June 2026