External cracks in brickwork

torch_light

We are now in a position where the cracking on the outside is considerably worse.

The crack underneath the sink in the kitchen floor is opening out and runs about 3 foot from the wall that has the cracked bricks to the start of the wooden flooring. It is about the thickness of a pen.


After hearing numerous delays and reasons why the builder has not been back to take a look and make a start on remedial work we decided to phone the council contractors who signed off the work.


They sent a rep round yesterday and while it isn't really their concern now he was very helpful.


His first reaction was of the Phhhhffff! Don't like the look of that.


His advice was to employ a damage assessor surveyor to come up with a plan of action rather than now leaving it in the hands of the builder. This now isn't just a case of removing a few bricks and re-pointing.


He said that the best thing with the Surveyor was that we would then have an expert fighting our corner with no connection to either the builder, or the original surveyor who has the (10 year?) insurance on the property.


This is all well and good but Mrs T sees escalating costs by hiring an independent guy to fight for us and decide on what the proper course of action will be.


We are now being led to believe that remedial work will not put this right in the long term and that perhaps only going down to the footings and a rebuild will make this corner of the house good.

The guy who visited us yesterday said that unless its done right its always going to be a problem. How are we to know if the builder does it right?

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated. There didn't seem a lot of point posting photos as they are just worse than the last ones.


The property is still only 20 months old from the time of the foundations being put in.

Doozergirl

I can't see your photos at all, let alone new ones.

Your NHBC guarantee is there for a reason. They're not the easiest people to deal with, but they should send out a structural engineer who will monitor the damage. The sooner you do that, the better.

I would certainly consider getting a structural engineer of your own - you've only only had a Building Control Officer around so far and they aren't qualified. Perhaps wait to see where NHBC takes you first.

torch_light

Thanks for the reply Doozergirl.


The equivalant of the NHBC guy is happy for the builder to come along and put it right. He didn't seem bothered about coming to see the house and was happy to bounce it straight back to the builder.


Is a structural engineer covered under the terms of the insurance? Will this be something that we are able to claim back as expenses? We are not really in a financial position to pay for someone as things stand, however if there was a chance further down the line of recouping lay out then we maybe able to cover it.



Again thank you for your input as you can imagine we are very much flying by the seat of our pants here.

Doozergirl

So what company provided the warranty? Who is "the equivalent of the NHBC guy"? Are you saying you have an architect's certificate (a professional consultant's certificate) and not a warranty? They don't give as much protection as NHBC. There is no warranty with them.

Is this a small builder? When did you first ask them to come out?

A builder cannot fix something without proper advice as to what the problem is. A structural engineer is needed. You may not have money, but it sounds like you have no one on your side at the moment at all.

You need to read your paperwork to work out what the process should be and what your rights actually are.

torch_light

I have the Professional Consultants Certificates that shows there is a minimum amount of £500,000 of professional indemnity insurance. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists, and he has signed off 5 of these certificates at various stages through out the build.


The 'builder' (lets call him Harry) is really just the money man in all of this, he is an electrician by trade but fronts the money for the projects. The 'we have no-one on our side' is a worry straight away in all of this, if Harry says that throwing jelly and ice cream at the cracks will fix it how are we to know better, we are not experts and I appreciate this.


Mrs T is keeping a record of phone calls and texts. Harry has already had more than an acceptable amount of chances to take a look and see what he thinks. As soon as we made phone calls yesterday he was around having a look. Unfortuantly he can't come and take a look with his bricklayer because he (Harry) is on holiday but will be with us in ten days.


The guy yesterday said in his opinion (35 years signing off work for the council) it is past the taking a look at it, and moved to needing a plan of action to put it right plan.


Again thanks for your reply.

Doozergirl

So you're covered by his professional indemnity, not a warranty. The certificate signs that it was built according to his plans but it doesn't provide you with a guarantee. I believe you need to prove his negligence.

Let's hope the builder is genuine and fixes this promptly off his own back because I suspect that you will be paying for professional advice if he does not. In fact, I would be getting professional advice right now.

Hopefully one of our other forumites knows a bit more about how to go about getting things done when there is a PCC.

I would really like to see the pictures.

torch_light

https://ibb.co/fqqpsT
https://ibb.co/gxyaXT
https://ibb.co/mNtymo


The first one shows the black line following the cracks through bricks and mortar. The blue boxes are where the brick work has bulged outward.



The second one shows the crack nearest the corner.


Third picture is close up under the window.


We have got in touch with an independent surveyor who because we are paying him will hopefully be fighting our corner, he is coming to take a look tomorrow.


Harry is on holiday this week, but will take a look as soon as he is back and is talking about taking out some bricks to see what is happening inside.


I can't help but think that as soon as one of the parties starts blaming the other for the error/mistake/problem that is when we are going to need Mr Independent the most.


Had a family friend take a look at it this afternoon. Worked in the building trade as an architect and built three homes for himself, his opinion was that none of them will know what is happening until they get to the root of the problem and that might mean going back down as far as the footings if there is nothing obvious to see.

teneighty

torch_light wrote: »

After hearing numerous delays and reasons why the builder has not been back to take a look and make a start on remedial work we decided to phone the council contractors who signed off the work.


They sent a rep round yesterday and while it isn't really their concern now he was very helpful.


His first reaction was of the Phhhhffff! Don't like the look of that.

This is all very confusing, the "council contractors who signed off the work", would that be the Building Control Department by any chance?

If so might be worth getting some more information from them regarding the actual wall construction in that corner and details of the foundation inspections. If it was the local Council that information should all be on public record and available for you to inspect and probably copy.

So potentially you have two routes to pursue, the Architectural Technologist who issued the PCC and/or the Building Control Department if the foundations turn out to be inadequate.

Lorian

I'm only a DIYer but I've seen a lot of cracks in my time (Fnar).

in my opinion it certainly warrants professional investigation.

Doozergirl

Were there any trees removed from the site? What was there before the house? Have you noticed any change now that it's getting very dry?

Like ten eighty, I was going to suggest pulling out the building regulations drawings that were approved and also asking to see the file on what was inspected. I'm not sure if LABC take photos but our Approved Inspectors certainly do.

A question to ask is whether the soil was sampled before the foundations were dug or whether it was just presumed that 1 metre was sufficient.