Building Issues

MsBob

Just wondering if anyone has any advice regarding defects with a new build.

Large cracks (not hairline) going from floor to ceiling. What could be causing these?

Would appreciate any advice.

sydthebeat

photos would be a huge help... from both inside and outside....

a picture tells a thousand words... (and all that... )

kkelliher

also age of building would be of assistance

AckwelFoley

MsBob wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone has any advice regarding defects with a new build.

Large cracks (not hairline) going from floor to ceiling. What could be causing these?

Would appreciate any advice.

Pics, and construction detail, ie block, or timberframe, and the type of foundation, was it a strip or raft foundation..

Start with pics - and also, are the cracks on the inside and outside of the house or only visable on the inside?

MsBob

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

The house was built in 2009. It is concrete block downstairs and stud partition upstairs.

I am no sure if the foundation is strip or raft.

The cracks are in the concrete walls downstairs and are going through to the outside.


Thanks again

sydthebeat

the second picture is definitely a settlement crack.

you can see how its wider at the cill than it is at the plinth. I would be very surprised if there is not a matching crack on the top left hand side of that window travelling upwards. But at this stage it does not appear to be a significant crack... is it reproduced internally?

the first picture doesnt really tell anything, it quite possibly could simply be a stud partition shrinking away from a block wall... is that internal wall stud of concrete? different materials shrink at different rates

MsBob

The two pictures are of the same crack. One outside view and one inside view. It is all concrete blocks. It is going through from inside to outside. It also follows up through and across where the ceiling meets the wall.

Thanks for your help

AckwelFoley

MsBob wrote: »

The two pictures are of the same crack. One outside view and one inside view. It is all concrete blocks. It is going through from inside to outside. It also follows up through and across where the ceiling meets the wall.

Thanks for your help

Unless im missing something completely, they are not the same crack, and in my opinion completely unrelated. The outide crack shows a windo cill, there doesnt seem to be a windo there on the inside photo, only outside the door which is 2 foot away.

The outside crack appears to be a settlement crack as already stated. The second crack is puzzleing me a little, its a crack due to movement, but why, im not sure yet..

What is that discolouration near the wall beside the architrave half way down the door?

sydthebeat

snyper wrote: »

Unless im missing something completely, they are not the same crack, and in my opinion completely unrelated. The outide crack shows a windo cill, there doesnt seem to be a windo there on the inside photo, only outside the door which is 2 foot away.

The outside crack appears to be a settlement crack as already stated.

The second crack in in my opinion is because although it is a block wall the door is on, the portion between the door frame and wall isnt, its likely to be timber that was put in there possibly 4 x 2 behind the door frame and then expanding metal and greay coated.

that would be my reading of the pictures too

MsBob

In the outside picture it is not a window sill it is the overhang of the roof.

Inside where the door is it as all block. I only know this because it was originally going to be a concrete arch and we only decided to change to a doorway after it was built. It was then just faced with timber to match in with the door frame.

It is defo in the same place outside

AckwelFoley

sydthebeat wrote: »

that would be my reading of the pictures too

You might have noticed i deleted the second part of my post as i, on thinking about it, dont think it might be a 4 x 2 infill behind the frame, becaise the crack goes to the ceiling.

But its still possible, ive seen it done.. but im pretty sure without being at the house, that the cracks are unrelated

MsBob

The discoloration beside the archritrave is where I missed a bit when I was painting the walls

AckwelFoley

MsBob wrote: »

In the outside picture it is not a window sill it is the overhang of the roof.

Inside where the door is it as all block. I only know this because it was originally going to be a concrete arch and we only decided to change to a doorway after it was built. It was then just faced with timber to match in with the door frame.

It is defo in the same place outside

Hmmm.... i still dont think they're related though, im not sure what you mean by "faced" with timber.

Did your engineer have a look at it?

sydthebeat

ok, so its an area where a gable meets a pitched roof.. that explains it.

The gable has much more weight than the rear section and is settling faster than the rear section... this is pulling the front section away from the rear, starting the crack from the top.

The risk of any real structural damage depends on whether the crack continues to expand. as the house is only a year old its too early to tell. You can purchase special measuring tools that you stick over the crack, which you then keep account of the width of the crack over a period of time.

i would say that at this stage the crack is not significant, but the house will still be settling for a while yet. The crack internally is only superficial and not structural in my opinion.

i would advice getting one of these measuring tools and keeping an eye on the crack to see when it finally stops expanding. Hopefully its at its limit now. Once it has finished expanding (settling) then i would tackle the superficial cracks internally.

MsBob

Thanks. Hopefully they are not related as I would be thinking that would be a more serious problem

The inside crack also follows acrooss the wall at the ceiling and is starting to come down the other corner. The roof on this part of the house is at a lower different level to the rest of the house as the rest is storey and a half.

K.Flyer

If the room where the cracks are appearing is an extension / annex / single story section adjoining a two story section then it is more than likely settlement but due to weight distribution at different rates. I had the same in my house. As SydThe Beat says it should settle after a while just keep an eye on it then fill them in when decorating.

MsBob

As the block where the door was going was wider than the door frame the citarpenter covered in in timber to match in with the frame.

We had the engineer have a look at the cracks. He seemed concerned about them as it may be that the roof in this room is not supported properly and it may be causing too much weight on the side walls. Wont really know without stripping it back. sound like a messy job if this is the case. He is going to put monitors on the walls to see if cracks expand any further.

MsBob

Thanks for all the advice.

Hopefully it is all just settling

AckwelFoley

MsBob wrote: »

As the block where the door was going was wider than the door frame the citarpenter covered in in timber to match in with the frame.

We had the engineer have a look at the cracks. He seemed concerned about them as it may be that the roof in this room is not supported properly and it may be causing too much weight on the side walls. Wont really know without stripping it back. sound like a messy job if this is the case. He is going to put monitors on the walls to see if cracks expand any further.

Did he look into the attic att he roof? I presume he did.

The weight of a roof is on the wall plate, Its possible that the roof could spread if there were not enough collar ties put into it, but i dont see this affecting the wall as much, if at all, as the rafters are only nailed into the wallplate and the wallplate is only strapped to the wall...

The problem with these things its alot of the time "a best guess" , and unfortunatley, because i dont live beside you and have to try and help you from 2 photos and a little bit of info its even harder!

Monitor it, if it gets significantly worse within the next 12 months, something will need to be done.

Looking at the plans is where id start and work my way up from there.

MsBob

We just had the builder strip back the wall inside and out. The blocks are cracked all the way through.

He says it is a foundation issue. Any advice on where to go from here would be much appreciated.

Will this have an impact on the sale value of our home

dan_d

How is the internal wall attached to the external? Wall ties?

And when you say the blocks are cracked all the way through, do you mean the actual blocks themselves, or the mortar joints?

Can you find out what the foundation is? Did you build the house yourselves, or buy it as a new build from someone?

The likelihood is that it is a settlement problem with the foundations, but without actually seeing the house, I'd be wary of saying anything, particularly over the internet.Has your engineer seen the wall stripped back?

MsBob

Im not sure what way the internal wall is attached to the external wall.

The blocks are cracked all the way through not just the mortar joints.

It is strip foundation. We employed a builder to build the house for us.

The engineer said it was the roof and the builder says it is the foundations.

Every time the builder looks at it he says different things. Tried to convince us for weeks that it was just a plaster crack when it was really obvious even to us that it was deeper than that Then he stripped it back said it was a foundation problem.
We are going to monitor it for 6 months to see what happens.

dan_d

The engineer is qualified. The builder is experienced (hopefully).

Up to you who you believe, but monitoring it is probably your best bet for the moment.

Rethinking the above - I don't know any engineer that investigates structures and offers opinions like that without the insurance and the experience. I'd go with the roof. But as I said, monitoring is probably your best bet right now.

MsBob

The engineer is definitely more experienced than the builder. So we are more inclined to go with his recommendations rather than the builders. I guess the next 6 months will tell a lot...

Thanks for the advice

MsBob

Hi Folks,

We are still no closer to getting the issues with our new build resolved.

Things have gone from bad to worse.

It has been established that the issues are structural faults.

It has been mentioned to us that our house will automatically devalue by at least 20% because there are structural faults. Does anyone know if this is accurate?

Any advice would be appreciated.

dan_d

Possibly it will, but why does that matter to you?

Are you living in it? Will you be living in it for years to come?

If you are selling it, I honestly think you are going to have to try and fix this problem, particularly if it's structural. It's the first thing most people will notice.

If you are living in it - I would suggest you fix it aswell.

I'm a bit confused by what you want us to say, to be honest.You've got a problem with this structure and unless you're prepared to live in it and with it like this, you need to start looking at your options for solving it. Starting with getting an engineer's assessment and recommendations. (you're gone far past the builder's opinion at this stage, I'd guess)

I don't mean to be harsh, but I don't understand why the value of the property has any impact on this. Your bigger concern should be whether or not the whole thing will stay standing.

Just my 2 cents.

MsBob

Thanks for the reply Dan.

We will have to sort out the structural problems as soon as possible.

The builder is no longer an option. We are organising a structural engineer to do a full survey on the house to see what exatly are the problems and then arrange for them to be sorted.

What I was enquiring about is whether it will effect the value of the house even when we have the problems sorted.

It has been said to us that our home will still be classed as "damaged goods" in the eyes of a prospective buyer if we were ever to put the house up for sale.

Just wondering if there is any truth in this?

Thanks again

FesterBeatty

MsBob wrote: »

It has been said to us that our home will still be classed as "damaged goods" in the eyes of a prospective buyer if we were ever to put the house up for sale.

Just wondering if there is any truth in this?

Thanks again

...Put it this way, would you buy it? Could use the crashed car analogy here...but you know what the craic is..

As dan says, and I dont mean to sound harsh - but you've got bigger things to worry about. Nonetheless, I'm sure your engineer (not builder!!) can review the situation and recommend the appropriate remedial works.

dan_d

MsBob wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Dan.

We will have to sort out the structural problems as soon as possible.

The builder is no longer an option. We are organising a structural engineer to do a full survey on the house to see what exatly are the problems and then arrange for them to be sorted.

What I was enquiring about is whether it will effect the value of the house even when we have the problems sorted.

It has been said to us that our home will still be classed as "damaged goods" in the eyes of a prospective buyer if we were ever to put the house up for sale.

Just wondering if there is any truth in this?

Thanks again

If the problems are not fixed - yes, I imagine it would be an issue for sale price.

If they are fixed - I don't know. It's a new build, isn't it? If it's correctly fixed and will not happen again (ie, not just covered up in the hope that it won't open again), I don't see why it has to be an issue. But I'm not an expert on this subject, so don't take my word for it.That's just my opinion.

I'm still not sure why this matters.Either way, you're going to have to fix it.

MsBob

Thanks for the advice folks.

We have a single storey section joining on to a storey and a half. The shared wall is only single block. Then in the attic it is double block. Has anyone even come across this before. I would assume it would all be double block as it is partly an outside wall and also it it supporting the roof.