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Booklice, cowboy builders and a whole lot of hassle
Jose1990
Posts: 14 Forumite
Hello
I'm looking for some advice. We moved in our house in Feb 2020, in March/April we had mould and plaster beetles on the window sills. I was told this is normal and to keep clearing this up. I did and after a month of cleaning twice a day it cleared. We then had a leak in the roof, condensation leaking down from the saturated loft. We were told this should clear up on it's own and it was left for a week as advised by builders. When this didn't clear up they installed some vents. I've never been completely up into the loft however put my hand up and had a feel, from what I can tell, the insulation around the hatch is dry, the rest I don't know ( was saturated, you could see the water on the top of the insulation). Now in October 2020 we started getting a booklice infestation all over the house, finding around 30-50+ every day in every single room. I cleaned the cupboards out and found 3 in the whole of the house that weren't on the wall, the rest of the amount were on the wall. The walls have also been 'sweating' (bubbling inside 'sweat'). We contacted the builders and they provided an industrial dehumidifier which was emptied every day in the first 2 weeks we had it. They then sprayed the house and left the dehumidifier for another 2 weeks, by the end of the total 4 weeks we were still emptying the dehumidifier every 2 days and seeing a great number of booklice. The builders said they would undertake a structural survey at 1/2 cost to them and 1/2 cost to us to find the problem. After I consulted 3 independent structural surveyors they told me that a structural survey wouldn't be good, we would need a damp specialist. I told the builders this and they offered to pay the structural survey in full, unless something wasn't found and then we pay half. We did not feel this was fair as we'd been advised that a structural survey wouldn't be right and we felt that they'd deliberately do the wrong survey to get a negative result so our concerns would be made null. They also offered to buy the house back from us, which I kind of saw as an admission of guilt of something wrong. We have paid a lot to have carpets put down and decorate the house, it's our dream home so not something my partner or me want to do right now. We told them we would keep an eye on the booklice and see if they increase once dehumidifier gone as we had no other options. It would also give us time to gather opinions/evidence. I should point out too: we've always followed their advice to the letter since moving in, regarding ventilation, drying out the house etc... we have even gone above and beyond to reduce moisture in the house from moving in. We have put the extractor fan on (and continue too) to take the steam away when boiling the kettle. We reduce showers to less than 5 minutes, we have relatives drying our clothes for us. We have done everything and more to keep moisture down so we are positive it is nothing we are doing.
The builders have come up with a list of reasons why the moisture in the house is high: (It's a 3 bed detached large house): This is a list of their excuses
1.The dogs in the house create too much moisture (we have 2 greyhounds, there is myself and my partner... I wouldn't have thought this would be too many people in a 3 bed detached house to cause a problem?)
2. They've said my Tortoise is attracting them and must have brought them in. (My tort has a hygrometer which stays at a reading of 20-30% so the booklice couldn't survive & the temps are too high, & he hasn't been outside, in fact the room where he is, is the place where I've seen less). When I told the pest control guy (that the builders hired) that the eco-system of the tortoise (in a vivarium) would not support booklice he told me booklice would live in any humidity. ?!? What? He also went on to tell me he basically works for them...
3. It's not an infestation and they're not visible to the human eye.... I beg to differ when they're all over my house and I can see them, the guy who said this needs glasses as he's long sighted, he didn't have them on when viewing them.
I am now looking to get a damp survey however they don't come cheap. I have contacted my warranty company - Ark - as they did not put the house with NHBC, they have advised the builders should be sorting out this problem. Can anyone give any advice?
I'm so fed up of seeing weird bugs crawling round my walls, having to battle builders.
I'm looking for some advice. We moved in our house in Feb 2020, in March/April we had mould and plaster beetles on the window sills. I was told this is normal and to keep clearing this up. I did and after a month of cleaning twice a day it cleared. We then had a leak in the roof, condensation leaking down from the saturated loft. We were told this should clear up on it's own and it was left for a week as advised by builders. When this didn't clear up they installed some vents. I've never been completely up into the loft however put my hand up and had a feel, from what I can tell, the insulation around the hatch is dry, the rest I don't know ( was saturated, you could see the water on the top of the insulation). Now in October 2020 we started getting a booklice infestation all over the house, finding around 30-50+ every day in every single room. I cleaned the cupboards out and found 3 in the whole of the house that weren't on the wall, the rest of the amount were on the wall. The walls have also been 'sweating' (bubbling inside 'sweat'). We contacted the builders and they provided an industrial dehumidifier which was emptied every day in the first 2 weeks we had it. They then sprayed the house and left the dehumidifier for another 2 weeks, by the end of the total 4 weeks we were still emptying the dehumidifier every 2 days and seeing a great number of booklice. The builders said they would undertake a structural survey at 1/2 cost to them and 1/2 cost to us to find the problem. After I consulted 3 independent structural surveyors they told me that a structural survey wouldn't be good, we would need a damp specialist. I told the builders this and they offered to pay the structural survey in full, unless something wasn't found and then we pay half. We did not feel this was fair as we'd been advised that a structural survey wouldn't be right and we felt that they'd deliberately do the wrong survey to get a negative result so our concerns would be made null. They also offered to buy the house back from us, which I kind of saw as an admission of guilt of something wrong. We have paid a lot to have carpets put down and decorate the house, it's our dream home so not something my partner or me want to do right now. We told them we would keep an eye on the booklice and see if they increase once dehumidifier gone as we had no other options. It would also give us time to gather opinions/evidence. I should point out too: we've always followed their advice to the letter since moving in, regarding ventilation, drying out the house etc... we have even gone above and beyond to reduce moisture in the house from moving in. We have put the extractor fan on (and continue too) to take the steam away when boiling the kettle. We reduce showers to less than 5 minutes, we have relatives drying our clothes for us. We have done everything and more to keep moisture down so we are positive it is nothing we are doing.
The builders have come up with a list of reasons why the moisture in the house is high: (It's a 3 bed detached large house): This is a list of their excuses
1.The dogs in the house create too much moisture (we have 2 greyhounds, there is myself and my partner... I wouldn't have thought this would be too many people in a 3 bed detached house to cause a problem?)
2. They've said my Tortoise is attracting them and must have brought them in. (My tort has a hygrometer which stays at a reading of 20-30% so the booklice couldn't survive & the temps are too high, & he hasn't been outside, in fact the room where he is, is the place where I've seen less). When I told the pest control guy (that the builders hired) that the eco-system of the tortoise (in a vivarium) would not support booklice he told me booklice would live in any humidity. ?!? What? He also went on to tell me he basically works for them...
3. It's not an infestation and they're not visible to the human eye.... I beg to differ when they're all over my house and I can see them, the guy who said this needs glasses as he's long sighted, he didn't have them on when viewing them.
I am now looking to get a damp survey however they don't come cheap. I have contacted my warranty company - Ark - as they did not put the house with NHBC, they have advised the builders should be sorting out this problem. Can anyone give any advice?
I'm so fed up of seeing weird bugs crawling round my walls, having to battle builders.
0
Comments
-
Might save a bit of repetition if you just continued one of your previous threads about the same problem instead:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6222525/new-build-booklice-bulging-plaster-help#latest
2 -
Yeah lots of replies on your previous thread there.
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