Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Dec 03, 2016 11:13 am Hi, I hope I've posted this in the right area. I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me if a static fill test is adequate enough to determine a small leak in the sewer pipes under my house. I've read online that this sort of test can frequently give false readings. A little background on the issue with my house and why I would like to know which is better: my house is 6 years old and has had trouble since day 1 though I was unaware when I bought it from the previous owners. There is a crack from centre heave through the middle of my rectangular shaped house which a structural engineer and building investigator have both labelled category 3 which is apparently a defect. This crack seems to run parallel to part of the sewer system though there are no plumbing plans available so the pipe location has been guestimated using a camera. We can't get into that pipe with a camera. The external expansion joints in this area on both sides of the house have expanded past normal and surveys all point to this area being the highest point. 4 static fill tests have been done on the house - 2 by the builder and 2 by myself. The builder's first one appeared to be losing water so they refilled it and left it for an hour. The water level in one drain went down 20-30mm though the others weren't checked properly at that time. The builder explained that away by saying the drains weren't glued in or something. One of my experts suggested 1hr wasn't long enough for under a house so I did my own over a period of a few days. I had to redo this again as some drains I wasn't measuring dropped more than others. The end result was that the water level dropped around 90mm over three days but not in every drain. The others dropped between 30 - 50mm. Behind the bung I used was dry so there were no leaks there. The builder didn't believe this so did another one but didn't fill it to the top this time and used tape measures to eyeball the readings instead of the static ruler setup I had. Their end result was that there was no leak. Should I be taking their word for it or do I need to look into cutting through the foundation to find out for sure? Thanks for your advice. So far i have not noticed any issues with doors and windows. Builder advised they will organise drainers to inspect 2 weeks ago but no further… 7 17886 can’t tell from the photo, a tie down rod will be 12mm, is it a steel beam? he should be able to work it out 1 4444 i would suggest nothing is unreasonable for PCI. we did all sorts, including checking the hot water, checking all the GPO's had power, testing that the showers were… 9 98623 |