Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 02, 2016 9:57 pm Hi, We quickly drove past the place that we are building today and saw that the garage door was left open and that on the garage floor there was a large puddle of water in the garage. Upon further inspection, it appeared water had seeped through one of the kitchen walls internally and into the garage. It appears that this seeped as far as the front door and side garage walls of the house as well. We are at lock up stage so we can't get into the house and we then walked around the back to see that the water had seemed to originate from the butlers pantry (which has a sink) and had spread out through the walls (including the plaster board and skirting boards). We notified the sales office immediately and showed the sales person who came over but couldn't get into the house as they didn't have keys to get in. They have got in touch with an employee from the building company who managed to turn off the water at the mains until they investigate the issue. From what we could tell, it looks like that a leak come from the butlers pantry which has a sink that may have just been installed. There may have been a tap leak or other plumbing issues in that butlers pantry. As we don't know how long that leak has occurred for, we are very worried that this has caused significant damage to the skirting boards, plasterboard and kitchen cabinets. Whilst we were assured by the salesperson that any damage would be fixed by the builder we are concerned that any thing the builder does to rectify the damage may not address any long term water damage issues. Here are a few further questions I have that I'm hoping for feedback on: - what type of action should we expect the builder to take to rectify this problem? - how would we know if the builder fixes this properly and not just provide a cosmetic solution? - should the builder be replacing the skirting boards, plasterboard and kitchen cabinetry or are there other steps that the builder can take to sort this issue out? - are there risks of damp, mould, expansion or other long term structural issues that we might face? As you can tell we are pretty stressed out about this and are worried about this not being fixed properly and causing us long term issues down the track. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated as we're not quite sure what to do. I've attached some photos so you can get an idea of what has happened. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thanks! Re: Water Leak During construction of new home 2Oct 03, 2016 7:13 pm I'm sorry to see that. The builder will have to fix it and any associated damage. Hopefully they're fair and reasonable and just do it properly. I'd try to get something in writing from them acknowledging the defect and how they're going to fix it. What type of soil is it, if water has been running outside and you're on crappy clay soil, there's a risk of foundation damage from abnormal moisture conditions caused by a leak. Don't forget you're probably paying for all that water that has leaked. Re: Water Leak During construction of new home 3Oct 04, 2016 10:59 pm Get your own inspector whom will know from experience what needs to be done , or builder will fix cheaply and you will be left to do costly repairs in the future, builder will fix properly once he knows you have someone with building expertize to assist you, its money well spent, good luck. Re: Water Leak During construction of new home 4Oct 06, 2016 5:50 pm Jokers are you recommending a unregistered person with no legal qualifications to advise on water leaks? Can you give advice on how to get missing certificates needed for a form 21? Our bank requires us to provide one but we are missing 4 building certificates from our first… 3 71811 1 62023 If you make sure all taps inside and out are turned off, what does the water meter show if you leave it for a while. 2 20235 |