When things go bad.

I love going for walks around the neighbourhood to see what people are doing. Every street has some house doing a reno or new build. But one place I go past a lot is this one below. They did the underground car park then everything just stopped. It's been like this for atleast a year and a half so i'm guessing the GFC got them. Just thinking of the thousands of dollars already put into it with excavations, concrete and plumbing. Possibly ruined now. Crazy how plants can thrive on nothing but bare concrete.

bit of an eye sore

Underground garages to be avoided unless you have an experienced architect and loads of $$$,$$$'s to spend on something that is not even at street level. All the money has been sunk into the foundations etc Basements , unless designed by an experienced architect and built by a builder who specialises in basements will always (or most likely) have damp and water issues. An acquaintance recently sold a stunning high tech home that has been featured in numerous magazines solely due to the 'damp problem' in the basement/underground carpark.

I hate seeing anybody's development go belly up sometimes people have all these grand ideas but reality is often a different story. Hope the owners start building again D@n

Mrs B

Yeah I'm with you...when I see things like this I often wonder what's going on too.

There's a hideous house at the bottom of our street that has recently had temporary fencing wrapped around it ready for demolition to commence I suppose. I asked a friend who lives opposite what the owners were planning on building and she said she had no idea. The reason being that the DC was issued before my friend bought her house.

The owners have taken nearly 5 years (the limit around here) since getting their DC to commence. In that time, this little house has been sitting there looking more and more sad each year.

Pix

What's the cause of the dampness. Poor drainage?... bad airflow?


So is the place next door (to the right out of view). Looks derelict.

Looks like a good hangout for local scumbags...

sad

looks like a lion den

Make them an offer to grow mushrooms down there untill things pick up.

A lot of people went to the wall with the GFC, riding high on any wave always has risks.

Moisture ingress can come from many places but if, as was mentioned in a prior post and the correct approach is taken on design and care is employed by the construction crew, then there is no problem with moisture ingress.
Waterproofing is a big consideration and should never be overlooked.

Yep, our first house was built 30 years ago on a block of land that had a similar-looking construction that had been abandoned for many, many years. We incorporated it into our plans as an underground garage/workshop and built the house partly on top of it.

Now this was in the wettest part of the Adelaide hills and there was never a hint of dampness in that garage.

Must try to find some pics....

Cheers
zeke

BTW, an architect who came to have a look at it called it a "white elephant" - but the house we built (without an architect ) ended up winning a HIA award for the best custom house of that year. We were pretty chuffed.