Damp caused by renovations?

Beedoo

Bendy_House said:

Beedoo said:

Doozergirl said:

Okay.   What is on the other side of that wall?  Can you take photos of that as well? 

How recent is recent? 

Photo of outside.

Where along that wall is this socket?

Around here and it is below ground

Beedoo

Eldi_Dos said:

Although it is understandable you are focused on the plaster problem, you have got to question the safety of that switch at the moment and whether it can remain in that location.

Agreed! That is what I’m worried about.  But I read somewhere it could just be the wrong type of plaster used.  However from what I’m hearing it’s likely a bigger issue.

stuart45

Below ground is often a problem. Once you break through the sand /cement render, even with a nail the moisture soaks through. 

Bendy_House

Beedoo, very good chance you now have your answer - your sparky inadvertently breached whatever tanking had been put in place on that wall. I'm not sure the average electrician would be wise to such a possibility, but I bet an experienced one would have been; "Hmm, this is a wall that's below ground and in contact with damp soil. I wonder if I should channel into this...?"

It looks as tho' the remaining tanking is doing its job, so the fix should hopefully be as simple as shifting that socket to an internal wall, having your builder cut around the hole and channel to a small extent that they can make good the breach in the tanking layer. This should be easily fixable.

Who's to blame? Was your sparky sub-contracted by your general builder, or hired by you directly? Should this be considered any differently to a sparky putting a nail through a water or gas pipe?! Not sure - this was probably a bit more unanticipatable. BUT, they should carry insurance for just such situations.

Beedoo

Bendy_House said:

Beedoo, very good chance you now have your answer - your sparky inadvertently breached whatever tanking had been put in place on that wall. I'm not sure the average electrician would be wise to such a possibility, but I bet an experienced one would have been; "Hmm, this is a wall that's below ground and in contact with damp soil. I wonder if I should channel into this...?"

It looks as tho' the remaining tanking is doing its job, so the fix should hopefully be as simple as shifting that socket to an internal wall, having your builder cut around the hole and channel to a small extent that they can make good the breach in the tanking layer. This should be easily fixable.

Who's to blame? Was your sparky sub-contracted by your general builder, or hired by you directly? Should this be considered any differently to a sparky putting a nail through a water or gas pipe?! Not sure - this was probably a bit more unanticipatable. BUT, they should carry insurance for just such situations.

Looks that way.  Electrician was sub contracted by the builder.  Relocation if switches was not discussed with us but we did not complain as we did not realise until now the issue they created.  I think they knew already as there was a small damp patch which they repainted ‘once dry’.  Clearly it wasn’t dry

Bendy_House

Beedoo said:

Looks that way.  Electrician was sub contracted by the builder.  Relocation if switches was not discussed with us but we did not complain as we did not realise until now the issue they created.  I think they knew already as there was a small damp patch which they repainted ‘once dry’.  Clearly it wasn’t dry

In which case, I reckon the builder should sort this. And it shouldn't be a biggie for them; they ask the sparky to relocate the socket, and fill the hole and channel with a tanking slurry or similar.

If they don't offer to do this, then imo their integrity is in some question. You are informed of what has almost certainly gone wrong here, so they'd be silly to try and fob you off.

(We've just had our builder back to fill some shrinkage cracks in the ceiling of the extension we had built a couple of years ago (the cracks appeared within a few months, but mil had moved in so we said it could wait until she moved back out). He was surprised at how bad they were, and we concluded it was likely down to a couple of factors - the fact the roof timbers got wet during fitting, and that there was a central steel dividing the roof, so each 'timber' half could shrink away from the other. Our builder had done everything - founds, walls, rendering, lining, plastering, floor, and it was all to a very high standard. The only part he didn't do was the roof..! He still insisted he put right all the cracks at no charge, whilst we insisted it should be a paid job as it wasn't his fault. After some (friendly) argument, we settled on 50:50. Had he - or a sub'ed sparky - caused a damp patch like yours, he wouldn't have rested until he'd sorted it. That's what builders should be like...). 

Beedoo

Bendy_House said:

Beedoo said:

Looks that way.  Electrician was sub contracted by the builder.  Relocation if switches was not discussed with us but we did not complain as we did not realise until now the issue they created.  I think they knew already as there was a small damp patch which they repainted ‘once dry’.  Clearly it wasn’t dry

In which case, I reckon the builder should sort this. And it shouldn't be a biggie for them; they ask the sparky to relocate the socket, and fill the hole and channel with a tanking slurry or similar.

If they don't offer to do this, then imo their integrity is in some question. You are informed of what has almost certainly gone wrong here, so they'd be silly to try and fob you off.

(We've just had our builder back to fill some shrinkage cracks in the ceiling of the extension we had built a couple of years ago (the cracks appeared within a few months, but mil had moved in so we said it could wait until she moved back out). He was surprised at how bad they were, and we concluded it was likely down to a couple of factors - the fact the roof timbers got wet during fitting, and that there was a central steel dividing the roof, so each 'timber' half could shrink away from the other. Our builder had done everything - founds, walls, rendering, lining, plastering, floor, and it was all to a very high standard. The only part he didn't do was the roof..! He still insisted he put right all the cracks at no charge, whilst we insisted it should be a paid job as it wasn't his fault. After some (friendly) argument, we settled on 50:50. Had he - or a sub'ed sparky - caused a damp patch like yours, he wouldn't have rested until he'd sorted it. That's what builders should be like...). 

Unfortunately this builder has little integrity.   We already messaged him to ask him to establish the issue and he said he didn’t know and it was likely an existing issue then stopped responding and then left the chat group with me and my husband.  I expect we will be paying to fix it ourselves and taking him to small claims. 😞