concrete honeycombing

Malky73

Hi everyone, 

interior concrete honeycombing throughout my middle and lower levels of my house are threatening to make our house worthless and unsellable , our house was build in 2011 we moved in 2017, its over 3 levels, with the middle and bottom level built against the side of a hill, so from the back of the house you can see all three levels but from the front roadside you can only see the top, about seven months after we moved in we decided to change the carpets on the lower level to floorboards, when the joiner lifted the carpets there were patches of black mould all over the floors in the three rooms , not only that but in each room there were squares cut out then sealed back down, when removing one of these squares there was about 3 inch of water under the insulation boards, we asked the joiner to remove all floorboards and soaking wet insulation boards, i contacted a few 'trust a trader' people and a few came out to see the issue, one said it was water ingress and he could fix it with a tanking slurry on the inside of the walls and it would take about four weeks and the cost was 14 grand, we hired him then 7 months later he was still coming once a week from the original 5 days a week to try and complete the job, a week after he left i felt squishing under my feet when i walked on the floorboards in the downstairs area, i called him to come out and lift a bit of flooring and low and behold the water was just as bad, needless to say i removed him and then spent the next few months seeking legal advice and writing to people and other contractors etc, every time i hit a brick wall, i even managed to track down the house builder but he was retired and all he said was it was dry when i sold it and the housing inspector signed off everything, i have tried to manage this myself over the years, by buying a puddle pump and pumping out the water every few days but the bottom level of our house has not been used for years as it has a smell of stagnant water, i dread when it rains, the middle level has also started leaking into the house, i removed the plaster board and the insulation boards and every section of concrete has this honeycombing effect, concrete that has either not been vibrated correctly or not set correctly but either way water is finding its way into the house on 3 sides over 2 levels and collecting at the bottom , i just cant believe there is nothing anyone could have done to help or anyone being accountable for this issue, i have spoke with companies who have quoted me thousands but would involve digging down 30ft etc and trying to fix from the outside

can anyone help or give me some advice as this house is defiantly unsellable and i cant live in it    

GDB2222

So, you have tried tanking. Have you asked a chartered surveyor for advice? 

stuart45

It's difficult to give advice without being on site, but in general with issues like this,  the problems are better being solved from the outside. It's called positive waterproofing, whereas negative is done from the inside. Negative is usually retro and often fails.
Having a house underground makes it a reverse swimming pool, so just as a pool needs careful design and construction to avoid leaks, so does the house.

Section62

stuart45 said:

It's difficult to give advice without being on site, but in general with issues like this,  the problems are better being solved from the outside. It's called positive waterproofing, whereas negative is done from the inside. Negative is usually retro and often fails.
Having a house underground makes it a reverse swimming pool, so just as a pool needs careful design and construction to avoid leaks, so does the house.

^This.

The soloution doesn't necessarily require lots of digging - depending on soil type it might be possible to form an impermeable barrier by grout injected through the wall, or alternatively lowering the water table and/or pressure acting on the wall by using drilled/bored drainage.

A geotechnical engineering consultant is likely to be the best source of advice - ideally someone chartered and a member of a professional institution, rather than a 'damp expert' who calls themselves a geotechnical consultant.