40mm Gap between blockwork

[Bri44]

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?

 

[AliG]

Is that a picture of the back of the outside wall? I am no expert on bricklaying, I am more concerned as to how you could take the picture.

 

Am I missing something, or where is the insulation in the cavity? Also if you can get access into the cavity from behind the skirting board you are going to suffer from very poor airtightness boosting your heating bills. Was there something specific that lead you to know you could access the cavity from here?

 

 

[Bri44]

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.

 

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Bri44

[AliG]

OK, I get it. I think it is not required, but recommended nowadays. I would be making sure any such areas are well sealed as they will be a considerable source of cold air. Where we have tiled floors I had then silicon the edge to the skirting board as it looks neater anyway. I also went around the house with an IR camera to see if there were any places where cold air was getting out under the skirting, thankfully there were only a couple of points where I used a thin straw to seal it up with foam.

 

Sorry I cannot help on the cracks. Hard to say if the mortar is totally missing from those joints, or it is just how the picture has been taken.

 

 

[Mr Punter]

When they redo the render are they still looking at the Helifix crack stitching?  It seems well OTT and if these are soft blocks I don't think they will work well.  I think any settlement has already happened.  The old render looks fairly well bonded.  Maybe just a coat of RendAid and finish with OCR and masonry paint.

[Bri44]

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

[Bri44]

2 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

When they redo the render are they still looking at the Helifix crack stitching?  It seems well OTT and if these are soft blocks I don't think they will work well.  I think any settlement has already happened.  The old render looks fairly well bonded.  Maybe just a coat of RendAid and finish with OCR and masonry paint.

 

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.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Bri44

[Bri44]

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

[Mr Punter]

10-16mm is normal.

[Bri44]

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

10-16mm is normal.

 

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.

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Bri44

[Mr Punter]

No it wont matter as they will have render beads for the gap.

[Bri44]

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. 

[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.

[Mr Punter]

You normally have compressible material in the movement joint.  The render bead sits centrally on the joint with a wing either side fixed to the substrate.  There is no big issue with the bit of brick.  The gap could be filled with mortar, render or whatever.

[Bri44]

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

[Bri44]

On 27/08/2020 at 18:26, Declan52 said:

All the render off and see what is really going on. Not much point in fixing one section and then cracks appear else where.

Let them do all the remaining work and put the first coat of render on and let it sit a year and watch to see it's all good. If it's good then put the top coat on. If it's not then they fix it until your happy.

Will depend on if the dpc is folded up to the inside skin. Only option is to burst a hole and have a look and then take it from there.

 

 

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?

 

 

[Bri44]

A few more pictures.

This one shows the DPC hanging over the insulation and touching the outer block.

[Bri44]

This shows more blockwork and missing insulation.

 

 

[Bri44]

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

 

 

[PeterW]

Ok. I would stop now. 
 

Have you got a mortgage on the property ..?? You need to let your lender sort this along with your insurers as that is some of the worst building I have seen in years. 
 

That says to me the building is unfit and I would basically be spending £500 on a surveyor and solicitor to issue proceedings against the developer as that is not acceptable by any

way shape or form. 

[Mr Punter]

I agree it is crap but lots of mass developer housing is.  Missing insulation, incorrect DPCs.  They normally go for very simple designs but when they try something more challenging it does not work with the monkeys they use.

[Declan52]

Without doubt that is rotten work. You would expect to damage some blocks removing render but to find that many means that's how they where built. 

Gaps, broken blocks, very poorly fitted insulation and who knows what else is yet to be found means you have no other option left apart from what @PeterW has already said. No amount of patching is going to fix that. 

Honestly your really looking at a taking it down each side at a time and doing a full rebuild of the outer skin. That's the only way your ever going to fix the gaps, broken blocks and the insulation. Probably not what you wanted to hear but it's realistically the only solution to fix that mess.

[Bri44]

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. 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Bri44
Add pic

[Bri44]

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Ok. I would stop now. 
 

Have you got a mortgage on the property ..?? You need to let your lender sort this along with your insurers as that is some of the worst building I have seen in years. 
 

That says to me the building is unfit and I would basically be spending £500 on a surveyor and solicitor to issue proceedings against the developer as that is not acceptable by any

way shape or form. 

 

 

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. 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Bri44

[Gus Potter]

Hello Bri.

 

Sorry to see you are still having problems, I appreciate your frustration.

 

I have a case on my books that is much like your own, although it's worse (and more expensive I think) if that is any reassurance.. your not alone. You may feel that this is a war of attrition and that they are grinding you down.. a bit at a time.. nothing looks like it is a proper and lasting repair. The other posts are spot on so thank all.

 

When stuck a bit / hitting a brick wall one tactic I use is to look at the whole construction and how all the elements of the structure are supposed to interact with each other. The design codes require that a building should be "robust" for example. Masonry walls are designed so that each brick, block interacts and works with the other elements of the structure. Once you start to make numerous repairs the walls can loose their strength and the overall stability of the building can be compromised.

 

Can I suggest that you go back to the SE and ask directly if they have considered the overall stability of the structure given the number of interventions / repairs / damage to the block / bricks by removing the render and so on. Ask about the masonry. The render has been stripped, the block / bricks in places have lost locally / extensively? some of their effective thickness. Many mortar joints have been raked out and repointed. Pointing does not have the same bond/ compression / adhesion as the original mortar bed that underpins the design values in the codes.

 

What we need to know, is for example; is the building still capable of resisting wind loads and so on? Ask the Engineer to say what codes they are working to and how these codes account for the numerous repairs. Also ask if they can show if the manufacturer of the helifix bars has considered the overall structural stability ( how the floors are tied in and so on, does the stability rely on the inner leaf only or both the outer and inner walls? ) if not who has. Have they also considered where the cavity trays / dpc's are and the possible associated loss of bond.  If you get a reasoned justification with references to the relevant clauses of the codes backed up with the manufacture's data and your case review (which accounts for the recent interventions) then please post these here as this would be informative.

 

We start out by designing a safe structure to say the original designer's requirements. What you can/should do as part of the remedial works design package is to review and check that any repairs are compatible with the original design intent before you embark on the works.

 

Much of the issues you point out are what are called "serviceability issues" .. sorry to be blunt. You don't like the cracks, bad workmanship on the finishes, leaks, draughts and so on but once you get to this stage many developers start to run rings round folk and kick the can down the road. Hence your thousands of emails.  In their mind it's often just you moaning and they get can get entrenched in their view as they know it's really hard to argue your point if you are a lay person. You can make a case on serviceability but it can be hard, like chasing cats.

 

Turn this into a safety issue and in particular a public safety issue. Any SE (Engineer) will become very focused. Any confined brief they may have been given by a developer (developer's do this to keep the cost down), and any caveat they (the Enginner) will have put on their brief (you don't  see that) will be binned as all SE's, Civil and other Engineers have a statutory duty to consider public safety. Your on your way then to getting some straight answers. Also, if it is a safety issue then this is a matter for the HSE!

 

You can find that if you can pin them down on the structure and get them moving then rest can start to fall into place. It may need more extensive work / surgery but at least you'll be more confident that all is good.

 

Bear in mind that the developer has been undertaking remedial works so they are responsible for the structural stability as they have, it seems, been instructing the remedial works and been responsible for these. See the CDM regulations and also ask if they have carried out a design review that has been passed to the SE who came to see you. If not, did they ask the SE to carry out a design review.

 

The developer can have the rug pulled from under their feet as they should be able to show that what they have done is equal or equivalent to the design codes and followed the CDM regulations which include for making an adequate allowance for paying an SE for example who will consider the overall safety of the works. What I'm saying here is look at the whole picture, not the one the developer wants you to look at, this is how some developers close people down. If you can lift the bonnet then you can open up other avenues such as compensation /offset and so on.. for another day.

 

You maybe can test run a two track approach, carry on doing what you are doing but open up another front, focus on the structural safety / stability aspect, ask the questions and let the developer pay for and show that SE has been properly instructed and that the CDM regulations have been complied with.

 

If you do adopt this appoach then be careful not to burn your boat! Be canny, just ask questions and request justification as a lay person. I can be (has worked for me) that if you can nail them on a structural point then they need to remediate the structure and in doing so the other issues (insulation etc) are fixed anyway as all the work has to be compliant...

 

You can then decide how to progress.

 

All the best.

 

Oh and please can all excuse my grammer /typos etc. Thanks all in advance