Independant Inspections - Big Kev Strikes Again

Hi all,

What I am about to say is in no way an attack against our building company as they have acknowledged the faults and are rectifying the issues in a courteous and very professional manner.

What this post is about is to highlight the importance of using an independant building consultant like Kevin McDonald of New Home Inspections, he is worth his weight in gold.

He just completed our pre-handover inspection and found a number of walls were warped, insulation issues, scratches in windows, roof tile issues and a number of other small issues. (All getting fixed which is great)

What he did comment on was the quality of mortar between our bricks. Thanks Kev!! Our SS offered a mortar test and the results in........it FAILED.

Now we have two choices, render or pull all the bricks down and start again...on a house that was due for hand over in three days!!

Kev was right on the money, well done Kev and thankyou for your service to my wife and I as well as a lot of other members on this site.

If we did not use Kev we would have accepted the house as it is as we know no better.

People, use Kev...yes he is busy, yes he is hard to get hold of sometimes and yes he sometimes answers emails late...but trust me he is worth the wait.

Thnx Kev.....and also a big thnx to our building group who as I have mentioned are being extremely professional and rectifying our issues in a timely and professional manner.

Things like this happen, tradies make mistakes, that's why getting an independant inspection is so important.

New Home Inspections
0421646611
97738165
kevin@newhomeinspections.com.au
www.newhomeinspections.com.au

Regards,

Izzys123

I whole heartedly agree with you.

Wow - that is sad at so close to handover but great you have a responsible builder. I assume you are going for render and the builder is paying?

We probably will go with the render, it's the easiest option. The building manager is being extremely open and transparent and will fix our issues including the motar at their cost. They're being very professional, which is good. However, this only came about because of Kev's inspection. If I didn't use Kev we would have accepted the house this way, scary..

We are not in a rush to move in so we have time on our side.

Has anyone else out there had a rendered house or have a rendered house? If so bricks vs render??

Izzys123

Izzys, I suggest you start another thread and call it "bricks vs render" and you will have an avalanche of opinions from people who favour each one

1stly : how well will the render job be?
2ndly : can you afford regularly to paint it over the years ? or at a minimum, keep it clean ?
3rdly : DO you want to paint it again & again, over the years ?

IMO only : too much maintenance - there's more to life than a house !

Does render have to be repainted over the years????????? I had no idea!

I love the look of render, but if it's heaps of maintnance, I'm glad we've got mainly bricks and not a lot of render (and what we do have will be a brown -y clolour) oh, and most of ours is under cover in the Al Fresco, I presume this will help to 'preserve' it a little longer!???!

MMM good point - maybe you should prob do some research (courtesy of our friends here at homeone) as to what type of maintenance is required of a rendered house - if it needs painting and resealing etc after 3 years your builder should foot the bill for that - as it is not what you signed a contract for.

Also if the mortar isn't that good how will it impact the stability of the render - obviously the render is there to protect it from eroding, but if it is predominantly sand based, will it still move and crack your render? If they can't answer that, then maybe draw up a contract to say that they will maintain it for the next 3-5 years, and also if the lack of quality in the mortar is going to affect the finish quality & stability of the render they will also be liable. They might say we would prefer you to re brick.

Ulitmately what you want to ensure is that if another building inspection is done in 5-10years or 20 when you want to upgrade / downgrade you want to PASS and you need to know that it won't be picked up again - as you may never be able to sell the house & the builders would have wiped their hands clean of the situation.

Goodluck & I feel so sorry for you - but also THANKS you opened hubby's eyes to the value of getting a good inspector - now to find one in SYD..... best of luck

If you're going to re-brick, get them to foot your extra rental bill

Render isn't allways painted. It depends on what color you go for - some colors can be done by putting the color into the render. If I was rendering a whole house I'd consider going for eaves all round as one would think this would keep the walls a bit more protected and dry.

Hi Izzys123 just wondering if you might be able to post some photos of the mortar / bricks - is the lack of quality noticeable from the outside - I am only asking as we too are seriously concerned with our brickwork. From the outside the mortar looks appalling, holes, gaps etc and the bricks are not level in some spots.

When I get my camera working again I will post some photos for everyone to have a look at.

Regards
Waterhaven

Yes, I am also curious about what it means by "quality of mortar" problem? Is it cracked? too much/not enough water? Or something else???

Plus, doesn't rendering only sort of "covers up" the problem? The problem mortar is still between all the bricks? Don't quite understand how that fixed the problem??

Hi everyone,

Our mortar test FAILED but only just which means it is still stable & won't effect the structure of the house but it will begin to wash away over 10 - 15 years which will then effect the house. By rendering over the mortar it will seal it and protect it from the weather.

It is not really noticeable however the bottom half of the rear wall was flush and hard where the upper half (after the brick clean) was pitted and rough. It was a lot easier to scratch away than the mortar at the bottom of the wall. This is what Big Kevin picked up on and the rest is history.

This is what I mentioned in the first post as we would have accepted this house if it wasn't for Kevin........

I'll get some photos soon.

Izzys123

Hi Izzys123 you seem quite calm about the whole experience, but I would personally be roaming around like a like a wounded bull full of anger

How many times did you use Kevin? Just at lock up? Reason why I'am asking is that I'am paying alot of money to upgrade my bricks and dont want this stuff to happen to me.

Hi Izzy's,

mmmm yours sounds what ours looks like, I took some photo's on my phone, but came home & realized that I don't have the cable (smart!!!!) our camera isn't feeling the best either - - frustrating, will try some new batteries but I will post some photos prob tomorrow to see if yours is like mine.

I have spoken to my local real estate agent who gave me the name of 2 building inspectors, one he said was reasonably priced and does a good job, and the other person (who he didn't like personally - maybe had a few bad reports of houses he was trying to sell) - said he was really anal in his inspections.... oops that doesn't sound the best
I know he has been mentioned on this site somewhere - so will get my fingers walking!

Can't wait to see those photos!

Cheers

Howard Ryan's website is :

http://www.hnkryan.com/

If you live a long way from him, his rates can be quite steep. We won't be going with him for that reason, unfortunatley.

Hi Snake,

Thnx for your thoughts. Well to be honest at this stage we have to be calm about the whole thing as blowing a fuse won't help. At the moment the builder has acknowledged the fault and is rectifying the problems leaving the decision to render or re-brick to us. Either way they'll fix the problem which is good. If I blow a fuse it could turn ugly and I don't want to end up fighting them in VCAT.

I only used Kevin at Pre handover but I wanted to use him at Pre plaster & Lockup stage as well but the builder was always one step ahead of me ie: he did a reverse build which meant the plaster went up in one day without a brick being laid externally so he threw me. It was too late to get Kevin to do the pre plaster. Same with lockup. Kevin just said wait until Pre Handover. I spoke to Kevin today. I have arranged for him to do another inspection once everything has been completed, just prior to the next handover.

And I will get photos shortly, I promise.

Izzys123

that sounds ** !! Did the builder know you wanted to do a pre-plaster inspection??

Well for once luck is on our side, his office is about 5mins drive to where I am building - so hopefully it will all come together (unlike my mortar!)

Was told that we are 2 weeks from the QA inspection. Should i let me SS know now that we are going to have and indep inspection. And if I do should I mention the mortar or wait until Howard does the insp for him to pick it up?

Cheers

Hi again,

I can only comment on our situation in Victoria as I am governed by our State Statute. I do not know which legislation covers you in NSW? Sorry.

But in Victoria we have to work in with the Building Act, the Domestic Building Contracts Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act etc; all of which dictate how you should deal with your builder and building site access. You'll have similar in NSW just google your legislation webpage.

I do know the courts all work in the same way, natural justice, fairness, transparency etc (so they say). You should notify your SS that you authorise a Building Inspector to access the site (as long as you or they do not impede building works & it's safe to enter the site under OHS) in writing. Do not mention the mortar to the SS, just to the Building Inspector.

Most important - when you get your report from the building inspector, read your contract!! It tells you what to do re - final payments, defects, completion, hand over etc. Do not fall for the trap of being convinced by the SS that your inspector is full of it and the report is full of crap......get advise from your Building Commission, Plumbing Commission etc. Withhold final payment until all is fixed as per your contract. Everything should be in writing (email or fax). Good luck with your mortar.

We'll have a final answer from our builder regarding render/compensation or re-bricking next Monday.....

Izzys123