Omnibuswoman

The value of this thread is a legacy for future buildhubbers. I relied on previous such threads, and as a result we now have heating mats going under the bathroom tiles for nice cosy toes in the mornings, which was not in our original plan.

I would have checked the window cil heights and window sizes more carefully. There are several where I can’t easily reach the handle to open them as they are set too high in the wall. I would also have spent more time on site making sure the workers felt accountable. Looking back, they took the piss quite a bit (late starts and early finishes most days), and as neither I nor the building company owner/site manager were on site much this behaviour continued for too long. I’m now resentful of all of the things they didn’t do which there was plenty of time for them to have done, that I’m having to do myself.

Brief update: The builder has returned from holiday and replied to our email. He said that he is prepared to address the issues without arguing the toss (although he did then go on to point out why he thinks it’s all a big fuss over nothing…) He has said that he won’t replace the little OSB packers that sit under the joists on top of the ground floor wall as he believes the compressive strength is sufficient for them not to compress over time (he quoted a measure of 15.4N/mm2 compressive strength on horizontal use). I don’t have a problem with that. Whilst we didn’t much appreciate the tone of his response, which was rather tetchy and a bit defensive, we are expecting him to now put things right. Watch this space!

It’s not OSB on the floor - it’s actually muddy concrete! I think it’s a artefact of the photo that makes it look a lot like OSB.

I did wonder that myself@SteamyTea But I imagined not as it’s a question of negligence which he is unlikely to have been indemnified for.

yes, it looks as though this is the relevant part…

We did, and I may need to fall back on that if he starts developing sloping shoulders…

No I’m not qualified in any way, and am having to learn enough about each element as we go along. I have engaged a plumber, electrician and plasterer for these skilled tasks, but HWMBO and I will be doing battens, plasterboard, second fix carpentry, flooring etc. It’s a steep learning curve, and wouldn’t be possible without the enormous amount of fantastic information here on BH, and on t’internet more widely. I’m managing the work at a pace that allows me to learn enough at each point to take it forward with sufficient confidence, but of course there’s no substitute for experience. What I lack is the knowledge about where to plan 10 steps ahead. Luckily I have some people I can ask for help with that thinking. I guess I’m doing what most builders do at the start - make the mistakes as I go and learning from them. What I’m not doing, which I think is less common, is hiding or covering up my mistakes behind a facade or some expanding foam. I try to put things right as I go along. By the time I’ve finished the house, I should just about know enough to build one 😂

yes, this is the most concerning part as, on a quick review of their new website I was surprised to read that he is a qualified engineer. It didn’t specify what kind of engineer though, or qualified to what level. I will continue to insist that a fully qualified structural engineer is the arbiter of what is needed, and how it must be done.

No, we ended our contract once the house was weathertight - we are doing the internal works and managing subcontractors for the skilled first /second fix work. Dan, the owner of the building company, was the project manager for the build, and was, or at least should have been, supervising his team. The architect didn’t take any role in supervising the build. My husband and I did the air tightness taping ourselves, and the house passed its first air tightness test with flying colours. 0.28ACH @50pa!! 🎉 Thank you! Yes, I’m relieved that this isn’t all hidden behind plasterboard and plaster that needs to come out!! I’m optimistic that these issues can all be remediated, and hopefully without too much argy-bargy ☺️

I engaged the builder, largely as he had undertaken the passive house design course taught by Peter Warm’s team, but also because he seemed to have good attention to the detail necessary for building to passivhaus standard, and was relatively local to us in Devon…

I agree! I certainly have no plans to fund any remediation to correct errors his team made when they built it.

Ps These photos are from Nov 2022 when the structure was going up. The house is now at first fix with all floors complete, roof and windows in place, and eggerboard flooring glued and nailed to the top of the joists, so remediation of some of these issues going to be challenging.

There are about 14 of those joists that have been cut. In the photo below you can see the ones that go across the whole length of the house - those are the ones that were cut. You can also see in these pictures the make up of the ground floor supporting walls with only one top plate, and then the joists resting on scraps of OSB because the walls were built short. The sole plates are sat on the load bearing confrere slab. I agree that these don’t look like load bearing walls, but I can’t find any mention in the structural engineering drawings or building regs plans about having a double top plate. i will send the email I’ve written to the builder, and will request a site visit with him and the architect. We may well bring along an independent SE at that point. Sadly we have no financial hold on the builder as we settled the withheld final payment several months ago after the snagging list was complete. These issues have only come to light in the last couple of weeks.

This is our biggest concern - what can we not see that might have been botched… we’ve pored over the photos we took as the build progressed, just to check that the images match the plans. It has severely knocked our confidence in the builder’s skill and attention to detail (which was the key factor in choosing him!), and his general *sucks teeth* “maaah, should be alright” manner when things are pointed out is even more worrying and annoying. I’m sure many of you will have now read the Grenfell report which is a very good illustration of how badly things can go wrong, in ways people cannot imagine, when there is a lack of attention to getting things right. I am sure that the temptation is to think “it couldn’t happen” when something like joist failure is mentioned, but it could happen, if the right set of failures occur. This is why we pay structural engineers to design things!!