Bri44

Well my house is not built well. Technical guy was supposed to be here at 5pm today, no show, no phone call, no email to cancel. I agree there will be more faults, especially as it has no render now, open to the elements, cracks, holes, loose lead works etc all happily letting water in. Judging by the finish inside and outside I think it might have been a project build for apprentices. A couple of inside jobs that were hidden by furniture and the wire/hole is the top of the fridge, out of sight etc. There are many more.

I`m with LABC. So my ties are missing as there is a 5 foot gap from the flat tie.

Wall tie at gable end where the gable end blocks go out of sync to the back wall. the gable block mortar is higher than the back wall. The tie is on an angle.

In an expansion gap, how far is the distance between wall ties? In mine if you look at this image, at the bottom is a ruler where there is a flat wall tie. Then there is no more ties to the top elevation, 5foot in legth.

They offered to pay my water bill and heating bill while this work goes on, gotta laugh. I know where most of my pictures are from. I have a bit more evidence which I`m keeping for our next meeting. A cash sum for this bodge could be never ending. The house has been built and doesn`t conform to the LABC technical guide on many issues.

All the blocks are back in place. The insulation company said they can`t put the blown insulation in. The house has 4 different types of insulation as is, gaps and missing parts all over. I could not see ties as I was not looking for them but looking at the placement of the boards I can`t see how a tie could be applied as the top of the board was level with the middle of the block.

I have not got a thermal camera. I have no CIGA certificate, should the developer have a copy of this? I have been informed the cavity wall company has gone bust. Another cavity company came out who blow the insulation in and said they can`t do anything to rectify my insulation. I can`t see any way anyone can butt these boards together or add new boards to missing area`s other than taking down the outer wall.

Here`s one more of the gable which shows it is out and looking dangerous.

The initial title of this post was 40mm mortar joints which mainly related to the vertical bed joints. Looking at the front lower level of my house there is one continuous horizontal 30mm joint that covers the full length of that section, approximately 16ft. There are other horizontal joints round the 20mm area.

Thanks Gus for your advice. This expansion joint which is close to the corner is wide, I can`t see any ties attaching the gable end to the back wall. The gable is bowing out and not plumb. It is a stand alone wall by the looks of it as it cant buttress up to the back wall because of the foam. Here are a few pics. One showing the mortar on gable end, one showing wall not straight.

The back wall that leads to gable end has an expansion joint close to the corner. The gable was cracked and it bowed out. The expansion joint seems to have prevented the gable from buttressing up to the back wall.

I`m waiting on chartered surveyor to confirm if he can attend. My front door surround.

I have found more areas with gaps and missing insulation altogether. They say the insulation company to attend and carry out cavity wall insulation to the affected areas. How will they be able to add more insulation to these gaps? The gaps with the DPC covering them will be impossible. There is debris between the outer wall and existing insulation.

So, the helibars have been fitted. SE not returning until the 21st October. Should all damaged blocks and the ones that were cracked through the middle be replaced? There is nothing to prevent rain going straight into the cavity via the many missing mortar joints and the exposed expansion joints. How the last lot repaired the chips in coping stones too.

The house only has the air bricks below the ground level DPC. There are no weep holes on the house. The SE instructed them that this second floor DPC or whatever it is needed taking out. He did not know there was another at first floor level as only exposed when render off. Any concerns I raise, they try to talk it down .

Some insulation is those plastic covered fibre glass, some is just fibre glass, one piece has a sheet of polystyrene in front of it. It looks as though they just used what insulation they had lying around which is why it`s a mix and match, then they ran out so left some places with none. My insulation wall looks nothing like this one which LABC recommend. I`m waiting on developer to give a date when the SE will return. I`ve said it`s urgent and needs a visit before re pointing. Otherwise all the faults will be hidden away. I know rain got in the cavity as it stormed a few times. I could see the blocks soaked, many had missing mortar. I had no downpipes so water from the roof just ran down the blockwork for the first 8 days.

Just been to look at the what`s behind the blocks. There is different types of insulation all with gaps. I can`t see into the cavity or the inner blockwoirk.

Hi Gus. When the SE was here I was asking him questions like how do we know the inner wall is not cracked everywhere. He said don`t worry your house won`t fall down, it`s the inner wall that holds everything together and keeps the house structurally safe. I have requested him to come back out for another survey with the render off, before they repoint and the developer has agreed. This was Monday gone, still waiting on a date. Should I get my own surveyor out as there is a few local? He inspected inside for signs of cracking and said there were none, however my walls are plaster boarded and the main cracked areas are wallpapered. There was a cosmetic repair a few years ago when they were fixing creaking stairs. The wood attached to the plaster board that runs up the stairs had a small gap where it had detached itself from the plasterboard. They filled thiswith mastic or similar. There are lots of nail pops in ceilings and hairline cracking in plaster and ceilings. Here`s a quick list of issues which may not be in order and some probably missed. Move in Feb 2017 First day roof leaks, site manager blames this on lead replacement. This was a lie as lead was not replaced. water damage to paint, re painted local area only. Second day boiler leaking. No heat or hot water for over a week. had approx 15 more call outs to boiler, various faults such as the hot water temperature at 78 degrees. Onsuite sink plughole cracked. Water leaking through landing ceiling. 3 weeks to fit a plughole and months to repair ceiling when dried out. Dead trees left in 3 foot wide pots submerged in garden. Well clay and rubble, Live electrical cables in garden where they use to run power from my house to sales cabin next door. Electrician came and made safe. I found these when digging out the above dead trees. Could have been killed if I`d touched them. House is cold. House seems to let in lots of noise from street. Bouncy floorboards. 3 attempts and starting to bounce again Creaking stairs. 4 attempts and creaking again Kitchen worktops dropped, lifted and put back on. floor tiles cracked. Missing fence post, then new post (4x2) bolted to end of single skin brick wall. It pulls the wall apart. 2 years and 5 visits later they put a post in the ground and repair wall badly. Think he must have been drunk or cross eyed. No access for internet cable, entry point in floor tiled over. all outside ground levels above the DPC . Air bricks covered, damp on base of outside walls. 2 years to correct after Labc said they had 3 month deadline from Feb 2018. waited in for contractors who never turned up and cancelled on a few occasions. repaired january 2020 Roof leaks again 2017. whole roof replaced, takes 3 months. No one inspects work. I take videos. Roof is still faulty. Flat part of roof is lower than water exit point. Roof tiles and lead work bad. 3 month to complete work. 2017 I complain, developer says it is built to specification and not an issue. I notice cracks and tell developer. They say movement and not an issue. November 2017 I get LABC involved. They say faults need rectifying, roof needs re doing, cracks repaired and ground level sorting. Report dated Feb 2018 giving developer 3 month deadline. April 2018 - ish roof repairs begin again. They take 6 month to complete. no tv service, debris everywhere, can`t open windows all summer, can`t use garden, it was a red hot summer. Roof leaks during repair. Water damage to all upstairs ceilings and some walls. Takes months to dry out and then get painted to damage areas only. September/October 2019. Render repairs begin. Company is not a render company, they make a big bodge of everything. I complain, developer agrees its not good. This company walk off the job. Scaffold comes down December. 3 month it was up for. Work due to begin in March 2020 by another company. I chase developer for start date. Everything stops due to Covid. Developer says original bodgers have to come back to put right. I say no way. June 2020 another company takes job. Work starts 6 july. Guy cuts out render exposing cracks. Developer looks at my pictures and says, it`s nothing, just needs some mesh. 2 guys turn up who speak very little English. I watch them from back lane. They proceed to mix render and simply start filling in the cut outs/ over the cracks without any mesh. I tell them to stop. I say you never used mesh, he says i did, then admits he never when i said i watched him. He rings his boss who cut out the render and hands phone to me to explain. His boss could speak English. I try to explain what they are doing. He interrupts me saying, don`t tell me how to render, then lets fly with a tirade of abusive F words aimed at me, finishes with an F... you and hangs up. I complain. I insist on a structural engineer. He comes out within a week. 5 weeks later this present work begins 23 September. I was quoted before the 6 july it would take approx 3 weeks to complete. now 3 months and counting. I have many smaller issues I`ve had to deal with and lots I just fixed myself. I`ll see what technical stuff I have.

Yes I have a mortgage. I`ll give them a call tmw. With it being a new build and a showhouse I only got a valuation mortgage as I expected everything to be ok with it. I looked at my EPC, it was issued two weeks before i moved in but on the day of moving in the site manager was throwing the loft insulation in. My electrical certificate is not registered with the website and I have no CIGA certificate for the cavity walls.

Thanks guys. I have lots of pictures of faults everywhere. Here are the last three pictures i`ll add, it is depressing. These show sandy joint that rubs away, more broken bits at one movement joint and the square hole that had a piece of block about an inch thick stuck in. You will see the adjacent block has no mortar on the inner back and no insulation at all. I stuck my snake camera in, there is a big fat plastic pipe attached to nothing and bits of debris. I`ll ring them in morning, see if the structural engineer is coming out Monday. If not, I`ll ring a local one to see if they can come straight out. This has been ongoing for 3 years. Originally they said the cracks were nothing, normal settlement.

This is the mortar they are using to replace the blocks that have been removed for the DPC removal.

This shows more blockwork and missing insulation.

A few more pictures. This one shows the DPC hanging over the insulation and touching the outer block.

All the render is nearly off. It has taken over 2 weeks. There were more cracks under the render. 60 Helibars have been fitted so far. There are multiple blocks that are smashed/chipped etc. Quite a bit of mortar is easily rubbed out with my finger. Lots of blocks only have mortar for the first inch or so on the vertical bed joints. It looks like they were pointed only. Some part blocks are only an inch to 2 inches thick Some 50mm square gaps were filled with mortar, not even a part block. There is missing insulation. Other insulation boards have 2 inch gaps between them. The DPC at second floor level is being removed. They are removing every other block. The DPC is attached to the inner blocks, it goes over the insulation board, drops down a few inches, then crosses the cavity and goes under the outer block. So its like one big long cavity tray all the way round the house. They have cut it out from under the outer block but left it hanging over the insulation board and touching the outer block. As far as I`m aware, there should be no connection there otherwise water/moisture can travel up into the inner block. With the render off there is another DPC at first floor level fitted exactly the same as above. I`ve requested the developer send out the same structural engineer to see the state of the building while the render is off and before any repointing starts as this will cover up/hide whats behind. This is the 4th time scaffold has been up. This one has been up since 6th july. What are your thoughts on the broken blocks? Should they be replaced before rendered over? Will new mortar need to be fitted to all joints? Will the DPCs need cutting back to the inner block wall?

Ok thanks. What if the mortar mix is not correct. For example i can scrape it away with my finger.