Interior walls cracks

I've built a double storey house with Metricon and it's been roughly 2 years since it was handed over. There've been cracks forming in the interior walls and most of them are either at an angle or horizontal to the corner of the windows. The wall shown in the photo was cracked inside and the bricks outside on the same wall were cracked which Metricon fixed. The room on the first floor above this wall is also cracked. There are also interior doors not closing properly.

1. Should I be concerned about the structural integrity of the wall?
2. Could this be caused by slab heave?
3. Metricon stated that if the cracks are less than 1.5mm wide, they can only offer to patch up the cracks. Should I get a structural engineer to have a look at this instead?

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Get an engineer to take a look. That's significant. Also if they keep patching, the cracks will never be bigger than 1.5mm.

Remind them about the softley case in your next chat.

Should I get a private engineer to have a look at that or push Metricon to get their engineer to do it. And who should bear the cost for the inspection?

Get your own and you pay for it. Metricon's engineers are conflicted.

Hi

I am just wondering if you are in Sydney. If so I have a great cost effective engineer that would be perfect to do an inspection.

I am a bit worried about the one that is going at a 45 degree angle away from the window as this can be typical of a lintel failing.

Is there cracks in the external brickwork?

if you are in Sydney PM and and I will send you some details

Cheers

Simeon

Hi Simeon

I'm in Melbourne. What are rough prices to get a structural engineer to do an inspection?

And yes these were the cracked bricks outside the same wall. Metricon already replaced the bricks



And here is another example of cracks to a door which leads to the garage

Lucky Metricon offer a "life time structural guarantee" as I think you are going to need it! sorry to say

I would expect to pay roughly $1000-1500 for a structural inspection and report, but in my opinion it is serious enough to warrant spending the money. I also have a really excellent construction lawyer who works out of Sydney & Melbourne and I think you are going to need him.

Just wondering, is this in a new estate subdivision and did they pier? I know Metricon likes to use screw piles in P rated soil I had problems with one here in Sydney that settled way too much.

So my pro tip of the day would be to call a company called Intrax ( engineers based in Melb & Sydney), don't tell them its a Metricon build, just get their report and then show it too Metricon. Intrax are a fantastic company and in my time there ( left in 2016) they did Metricon's structural work, not sure if they still do. So you could potentially use their own engineer against them.

I can give you one of the directors details if you like.

If I were you, I would get onto this ASAP

Cheers

Simeon

Hey asahi_home
Many engineers also have building licenses that do structural repairs (booming business)
Track down one locally .. BTW, that's an easy fix ask the engineer for the causes, data/proofs
And you'll feel relieved that you got someone you can trust to fix it.
Cheers
Chris

Hi Simeon

It was Intrax who did the report for soil test and structure for the house. Would that be a conflict of interest if they are still working with Metricon and they will know that it's a Metricon house if they ask for house plan.

I'm not sure if they used screw piles. How do I check that? And from the initial report from Intrax my land is of classification H2. And yes it is a new estate, most likely 5 years old.

It you can provide me the directors' details, that would be great, And I've also been looking at Darbecca who did my building inspection. They offer a post maintenance inspection. Do you have any experience with Darbecca?

Thanks

Hi Chris

Thanks for the advice. Should I be searching for a "Structural Engineer"?

I will PM you all the details

Hi mate, would you know of any structural engineers in Melbourne that also do the repairs?

Do you have issues opening and closing windows or doors?


If so it's your slab. The engineers will install a tall tale to measure the movement and crack and will draft a report.

http://thehelpfulengineer.com/index.php ... ell-tales/

Was your house constructed in 2018-2019 ?