What would you expect company to do?

ANGLICANPAT

Bought a fairly large playhouse with mezzanine floor, in kit form. Erected it as per instructions, several coats of good waterproofing preservative as directed. Sealed all joints with silicone. Two walls still leak right across the shiplap up to a height of about 30 inches . Company says it will provide new panels ( although cant offer explanation as to why old ones leak) . This would mean a complete dismantle and rebuild, and buying more preservative etc. A visiting member of family built this for us. He wont be here to do it again, and we are not physically capable. Doesnt seem fair we will have to pay at least a couple of hundred pounds more for dismantling and rebuild , just to get back to where we should have been- and even then all the filling, siliconing and painting would still have to be redone. Is is just a matter of tough luck?

cattie

I personally would think it's just tough luck though others may disagree.

Are you sure it would cost a couple of £ hundred to dismantle and rebuild, all you really need is a handy man and with high unemployment you should be able to find one offering day rates of less than £90 per day, especially if you don't live in London or the SE. Or you could ask them what they would charge on a job rate.

phill99

The company that supplied it only have a legal liability to replace the damaged parts, not for fitting them.

It may not be fair, but then many things aren't.

leveller2911

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

Bought a fairly large playhouse with mezzanine floor, in kit form. Erected it as per instructions, several coats of good waterproofing preservative as directed. Sealed all joints with silicone. Two walls still leak right across the shiplap up to a height of about 30 inches . Company says it will provide new panels ( although cant offer explanation as to why old ones leak) . This would mean a complete dismantle and rebuild, and buying more preservative etc.


Can you clarify this, "All joints sealed with silicone".What do you mean by all joints?..Would be helpful if you could post some photo,s. Apart from possibly around any window frames there shouldn't be any need for using silicone sealant.

It may be a case of poor design/manufacturing.Does the company have a website?

ANGLICANPAT

http://www.waltons.co.uk/waltons-snowdrop-cottage-with-loft-7x5

(We didnt use the free treatment as it was a horrible colour and said on it 'not suitable for planed surfaces' . We started with it on the back but it wasreally patchy and gloopy looking. )

There is no 'trim' covering the corners hence the mastic top to bottom where the frame of each panel sits against the one at rightangles to it and also where the individual end pieces of t&g are nailed against its own frame (hence sealing over ends where you can see the tongues inside the grooves. )
It looks easy, but its deceptive,(also has a second floor) it took about 5 hours to build with one worker and one 'helperr' and would take about 3 hours to carefully dismantle. Thats around 8 hours at I was guessing probably around £25 an hour between them?
On top of that , the Cuprinol preserver and colour would be another £20 to buy .
More I think about it though, I think its going to be a matter of getting the gutters done , and then just mastic and paint the thing to death until it just cant leak! :eek:

leveller2911

Its poorly designed, the T& G boards should be set back from the ends of the panels on 2 sides.Then you have room to fit a wide cover fillet across the joint which would keep out moisture. It wouldn't have cost any more money to have made the panel the correct size.

My advice is to pop down to the local timber merchants and buy 4 pieces of 70mm x 12mm planed redwood (softwood) and nail them across the joint where the panels meet.This should weather the joints.Don't plaster it with mastic/silicone ,its the worse thing you can do.

capeverde

So are you saying the water ingress is coming from the bottom up, ie transferring from the ground, through a corner section or simply through the shiplap?

We build high quality garden buildings and I will say, one of the most common problems people have is by using wet shiplap or cladding. It may be wet after coming out of the tanalising plant or from being stored outside, but if its used without being dried properly, each board can shrink upto 5mm on the width. Appreciate this can leave a joint open to driving wind and rain. We stack and dry our timber for at least 3-4 weeks before using it, obviously depending on the temperature.

Unless its through shrinkage which I mentioned above, I wouldnt have thought its a 'faulty panel' they have probably just said they will send you a new one to get you off their backs. More likely a design or installation problem. It is what it is, a mass produced product made from flimsy thin materials, but its also not rocket science. If you post a picture of where the water is coming in, no doubt myself or someone else will have a solution.

ANGLICANPAT

Havent worked out how to post photos yet!
'CapeVerde 'The wood panels were definitely bone dry before we erected them . damp appears to be straight through laps -but of course water can travel. As yet there appears to be no shrinkage, with all tongues well tucked into grooves.
'Leveller' will put the extra pieces on as suggested. Why do you say silicon is worst thing to do though because I would have gaily mastic'd those down the sides as well once fixed on?

ANGLICANPAT

Hoping Ive got this right and am not pointing to any dubious images!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meadowsweet5/

The floor is bone dry.

capeverde

Ok Ive seen those type of marks before. If shiplap is stained with a brush and presevative is pushed into the underside of the lap, it shows as stains like this. Therefore if its not the preservative that you have used coming through it is as a result of driving wind pushing rain water up hill through the joints. As I mentioned before, a 12mm shiplap like this is so thin on the join, unless a barrier type preservative is used, water will soak through anyway. I would say this is an exposed side of the shed and a new panel wont particularly help matters.

ANGLICANPAT

Its not preservative defo. Could well be that water is forced in up and over the lap, because quite honestly I fail to find any other explanation. However, its got three coats of this http://www.cuprinol.co.uk/products/garden_shades.jsp
on it , all done with a block brush working it well under each lap for each coat -- so if it is water getting in directly through the laps, it doesnt say much for Shades product. However, I particularly want the colour they do, so Ill stick with it , put new corner pieces of wood on, gutters, and then another whole tin on just the worst side.
If that doesnt sort it , lord knows what will!