My sister in law has had a house build by a volume builder. Its a P class site. Concrete piers supporting the concrete slab.
The house has had problems from day 2. Cracked tiles, Floor wastes lifting tiles, cracking and dropping plasterboard and cornice and continual shifting after repair.
It was quite apparent that the foundations are moving and causing the problems.
Is the builder responsible to make sure that water cannot pool up against the building? She was told that they had to provide a skirt around the house at her own expense.
Her husband is a concreter and so he obliged and put in the pathway/skirt around the house.
The house is still cracking.
Upon inspection by the engineer that designed the foundation, he suspects that when the slab was poured, the void former (50mm cardboard) covered the piers and in effect the piers are not touching the underside of the slab.
So they are going to bore through her slab in convenient locations to see if this is the case.
But, I think there is no way they can repair this. I know you could 'inject' grout or polyurethane into the area where they think that there is no contact, but:
- I don't think this will guarantee that the slab is supported. How can you control where the grout is going to go?
- Wouldn't they have to level off the slab first any way? How would you do that?
I think let them drill one hole, and then game over.