Bri44

Is this acceptable having a small bit of brick under the lintel and the insulation board does not fill right back to the inner blocks and has gaps.

There are no render beads that go in the gaps. I took a picture of the other expansion joint that is a uniform 10mm wide. The render bead sits over the foam, across the blockwork but not in the gap. What is the point of building regs if it does not matter about the size of gap? The guidelines state certain widths and never say above 16mm or to fill with mortar to make up any shortfall.

Is this too wide then? It`s different widths between blocks with a thin sheet of foam held in place with mortar. When looking in the gap the end of the blocks are not straight, they are angled as though they have been cut and some packed with mortar on the ends.

A quick question. How wide should the gap be between blocks for the expansion joint?

Yes they are fitting the helifix bars. They have to remove a DPC which is halfway up the building as well. The cracks are still happening because of the expansion joints are incorrect. The render is being removed to see if any other issues are hidden. The render is Weber Mono that`s not suppose to be painted but the front and side of the house had been painted prior to purchase with the paint hiding hairline cracks.

Thanks AliG. I`ll point out the issues again to the developer.

It`s a picture of the inside wall I believe in the cavity. I have slugs enter the house from under the skirting board next to the door. There is a gap on both sides of the door skirting. So i slid a snake camera under the skirting gap and into the cavity. I believe insulation is not required below the DPC. here is said skirting board where the gap is. same on other side of door. You can see the slime on carpet and a picture of a big cellar slug making its way round the wall. I get a lot of small slugs and woodlice coming through. As for air tightness, I can see daylight all around the front and back doors. They are wood. Developer says this is to allow expansion because it`s wood. There is a seal around but it does not stop the light and i guess air coming through. There`s a good chance the only barrier from the cavity on all my skirtings is the mastik.

They are removing all the render as I type. On the section so far I can see the mortar joints between the blockwork are all over the place. Ranging from 40mm down to 10mm. Some 20mm etc. There are part blocks in there. I`ll try to get better pictures later. Not a single piece of mesh in the removed render. I managed to get an image of the internal blocks via underneath the skirting board where there is a gap straight into the cavity. There appears to be no mortar at all between the block. What do you guys think?

I agree it should all be taken off to see what other problems lie beneath. On the gable end where the house is attached to a lower property the render was cracked just above the lead, its been cut out waiting for repair but when you look at the gable end I can see it bulges out a bit.

Thanks guys. The developer is paying as i reported all the faults within the first two years, approximately 6 months after moving in for the render cracks. November 2017 and they were told by LABC Feb 2018 to have all repairs done within 3 months. How would they go about removing the DPC they inserted halfway up the house? For all i know they have installed more elsewhere. There are hairline cracks in a lot of places. I`m sick of the house now, I can`t visit family as I`m trapped here. I can`t leave them to do repairs without me checking, otherwise bodge job number 3 could happen.

I was not able to remortgage because of covenant restrictions on the deeds. I had to pay the developer solicitors to add someone to the deeds, it`s freehold. My offer expired due to the time dealing with said solicitor. Then my house was bodged up with first repair attempt, left 3 different colours and devalued so I could not ask another lender as they do a pre lend inspection valuation. I will speak to my existing lender to see what they say. Any thoughts on the work suggested as repair and will this devalue the house/make it harder to sell?

Finally had a copy of the structural report. Waiting on the developer to advise on what they will do and how long the work will take. What are your thoughts on whats wrong? RECOMMENDATIONS The vertical cracking which is evident in parts of the external walls has resulted from shrinkage of the blockwork in the outer leaf of the cavity walls. This requires repair using a crack stitching repair process but additional works are also required to the existing movement joints. The crack stitch repair involves the installation of bed joint reinforcement using Helibars by Helifix or similar. The repair process should be carried out by following the guide provided by Helifix ref. CS02 – Crack stitching a rendered cavity wall using Helibars, a copy of which is appended to this report. The Helibars will be 1.0m long extending 500mm from the crack on either side. These should be placed at a minimum of 450mm centres, every other bed joint. To facilitate the installation render will need to be cut out from the repair area and replaced with stainless steel eml reinforcement in the render to strengthen the repair across the old crack line. A complete re-rendering of the external walls may be considered appropriate and if implement the render should be reinforced across the old crack lines. The existing movement joint in the side wall should be extended through the recessed panel between 1st and 2nd floor window openings. I would also recommend introducing flat stainless steel ties across the joint, debonded on one side to allow movement. The vertical movement joints should also be extended through the cast-stone band at 1st floor level and at parapet level, and through the parapet-wall coping at roof level. There is a horizontal crack in the side wall at 2nd floor level and this has been caused due to a DPC in the outer blockwork leaf. This DPC needs to be removed and the wall made good. Re-rendering across the repair introducing stainless steel eml to reinforce the render across the old crack line. The other horizontal crack at 2nd floor-window-cill level in the side wall requires crack stitching as specified above but using Helibars placed vertically across the crack placed at 450mm centres. If whilst undertaking the repairs in becomes apparent that there is a horizontal DPC in this location as well then this will need to be removed. The defective cast-stone window cills should be repaired.

There is too much insulation thrown in to see if any large beams. Where the hole was left in the roof when a vent was not fitted looks like whatever they used to cover it has come away. Here are a few pictures of the curved part of the roof with big screws sticking through and the hole from inside.

I`ll get my ladders and check the loft. There are two expansion joints on the render that start and stop at windows and doors so they are not continuous from top to bottom. I know the blockwork should have them as well. I was wanting to know if there is a way to find them or would that involve pulling all the render off? There is no open plan areas Inside everything is covered with plaster board and wallpaper. I think my house should be renamed fawly towers.

It looks better after the 2nd repair but my point was i bought a house with a fully tiled roof and they had to change it because it has been constructed wrong. The structural engineer called out. He said it`s not subsidence but there are some issues. I`ll wait for the report to see what these are. Is there anyway I can find out if my expansion joints have been fitted to the blockwork and if so, where hey are located?

Just looked at that link. It would appear my roof beams/joists are incorrect then as the whole roof was suppose to be tiled and the repair roofers could not get them to fit so used lead.

Hi Gus. Thanks for the reply. I have legal cover with my home insurance if I go down that route. I`ve already checked with them and they confirmed I`m covered. A technical team member and a SE are attending today to give me their opinion. If I think I`m being led up the garden path I have made enquiries to have my own inspection. My warranty is with LABC. A smaller company. The Architect who designed this development is listed as an award winning blah blah company. Every house on the development that has the same roof as mine has had them replaced/repaired prior to me purchasing my house so my developer knew there was issues/design fault with it but sold it to me anyway when it was not fit for purpose. When I purchased the whole pitch was tiled. Now it has lead on the curve as they said it is built incorrectly and tiles won`t fit. There was a hole under the tiles where they were going to fit a vent, then never, lead hanging off, the water build up. Looking closely in and outside the house I can see where they have touched up faults. Here are a few more pictures of the roof before it was repaired. It still has the lead corner.

I`ll see what their technical rep and the structural engineer have to say tmw. I have a long timeline. I`ll request a SAR from them. I`ve been advised these repairs will always show, something i`m not happy about. Originally to try to get out of doing the repairs they wrote to the warranty provider saying i accepted a discount to buy the house sold as seen with faults. I have this email. I then have confirmation from their recommended solicitor I used for the sale to say this is not true. In the past i have sent letters to all the directors via recorded delivery and have escalated faults. I never get a direct answer from the directors and they`ve never come to see me for a meeting when i`ve requested it. They refer back to customer services who say what they are told to say.

Did they buyback these properties or just do a repair job? If my repair is unsatisfactory or i have issues that will take a long time to monitor what are my chances of getting them to buy it back? When they were building next doors house they built a wall in my garden which i pushed over after a week. The fork lift/site manager could not communicate with the brickies as they spoke no English. He got their attention by shouting bozo and pointing to what needed doing.

The house had been a show home for 4 years. I`ve lived in it just over 3 years. Roof replaced twice in those 3 years as well as it leaked first day i moved in. The fork lift truck driver, recently promoted to site manager said it was because they had just replaced the lead. This was a lie as when it leaked again for the first repair i went up to take pictures and videos. Lead was hanging out the mortar. All my window frame, window sills and quite a few windows have been damaged by the previous company who attempted to repair the render back in Nov 2019. Paint ripped off, windows scratched, stone sills chipped and paint splashes. Below is bodge attempt at fixing cracks.

They are a big developer. I found out the site manager while my house would have been built was busted for owning a large herbal plant farm in his house, they sacked him and upgraded the fork lift truck driver to site manager.

How successful are people in making them buy a faulty house back? There`s no denying i`ve had all these issues and probably a 1000 emails between us.

Yes I`ve had issues from day one. I have had to fight them every step of the way to get them to fix faults. Three quarters of the development have wrong DPC levels, air bricks covered etc. My concern is these repairs will show even after painted, will devalue the house and make it hard to sell. Here is another image of the crack in another part.

I asked a builder who lives round the corner to have a look. He said there is no expansion mesh i think between the layers of the blocks and no mesh under stress points like windows.

It has a pitched roof with a flat gulley around. The gulley was lower than the exit point for the rain water so it pooled up like a moat. I was told the pitch roof was constructed wrong. First roofer took 3 months to replace roof. It was not done right. LABC said not correct. Next roofer ripped everything off first roofer did and took a further 6 months to complete. Whilst second repair was in progress it rained heavy on a Sunday afternoon. Water is pouring through my ceiling. I`m there with buckets catching it to stop it going through the next floor. I ring emergency developer number, no one answers. finally get an answer after 40 minutes only to be told because it`s raining no one can be sent out due to health and safety reasons. Could not make this up. I have another thread on here about all my DPC ground levels wrong. Most has been rectified now after a 2 year battle with developer. Floor tiles are cracked at base of door frames. Skirting boards not meeting in corners, filled with bodge and painted over. Lots of other issues.