Acrylic Rendering with new Clarendon Home

Don't leave it up to Clarendon to decide. It's up to you and Clarendon and if there is not agreement, the Department of Fair trading will decide.

Plenty of excuses there huh?

This is my render

Doesn't look like yours
Make them fix it

An external building inspector, followed by a discussion with the builder that you have the building inspectors report, followed up with suggestions of building dispute tribunal resolution and a consultation with a lawyer if that got you nowhere. An escalation of antagonism seems to be the approach that worked when we had major builder disputes, following the above framework.

Good luck with resolving this and hopefully amicably. However, resolving it less than amicably is still an option if you are not happy with their service

Rendered finish is not equal to bagged finish. If you paid for a rendered finish, and if they can't guarantee to fix it properly, and if a bagged finish is cheaper than rendered, they should refund you the difference.

(Having said that, I quite like the bagged finish and when bricklines show through - although this was not supposed to happen for you.)

Hi guys,

Thanks you all for you advice and support.

Unfortunately for me, the house has already approved and handed over from Clarendon and we are in the warranty period. Not sure why we didn't notice the acrylic rendering issue then.

Anyhow, got a call from Clarendon and they are going to fix the problem with the rendering ... finally!
Not exactly sure what they are going to do but expecting a render to be calling me to arrange an appt.

I will post pics of the fix in due course. Hopefully this problem can be resolved once and for all and I won't feel embrass when I turn on my up and down lights !!!

That's really great news,atx. You must be relieved if fight is over .
Good luck. Would love to see some pics after they fix the rendering.
Cheers

Great to hear that Clarendon are doing the right thing. (A little quicker would have been better.)

"A little quicker would have been better."


Anyway, it's so nice to hear that Clarendon is doing the right thing here. I'm sure articles like these get stuck in people's minds and people remember very well all the good (as well as bad) publicity with each individual builder when they are searching for their house design and the builder.
And, since they spent quite some time discussing about this (essentially non-structural) issue, hopefully it means that they treat actual structural issues far more carefully and act much faster.
As they say, a good story is heard far, far away, but a bad one is heard even farther!

Hi guys ... I'm back.

It has been a long 2.5 months to get to here and what a hassle it has been.
To continue where I left off ... Clarendon has agreed to re-render and paint the front pillars, balcony and porch areas.

In summary, it turns out the same render and painter are contracted for the job. I asked the rendering boss what happened the first time and he blamed it on the rain and Clarendon. He mentioned that he was under pressure from Clarendon to get the job completed ASAP that he had to take a risk and work on a cloudy rain. Unfortunately it rained and the rain must of have removed some of the rendering with it.

Three blokes came to do the re-rendering and I noticed that they used ladders instead of scaffolding to reach the higher areas. Not sure if this was good thing? At least with scaffolding you would have at least a level platform to apply a consistent render.

Anyhow, the renderers finish and left. Next were the painters. The painters came and applied one coat of paint and took off saying it was going to rain soon. Sure enough it was cloud but it didn't rain. Waited another 2 weeks before the painters came back to apply the 2nd coat of paint.

In the end, the re-render and paint was completed. Are you guys ready for the result:


As you can see from the image, its a better job from the first but I'm still not happy.
I have circle the areas which I'm not happy about. These circled areas are more visbile at night than day.
I have since been back to the Clarendon display homes and they are also using the up and down lights but their rendering is flawless. No bumps or wavey patches.

I have also consulted another renderer who has inspected this finish and mentioned that he can see where the 'stopped and go' areas. They haven't applied the acrylic render on consistently escpecially if they were using a ladder.

I have sent another email to Claredon regarding this issue. Chances are, Clarendon will come and inspect this problem in the day and see nothing wrong and blame my up and down lights again. If thats the case I'm not sure what else I can do?

I feel ripped off since I'm not getting what I paid for. But, its takes alot of time and agruing to try and get this resolved. Should I accept it the way it is or consult Fair trading? Your thoughts?

This is big cow manure, the issue is the bricks are cumming through. The problem here is they have used acrylic render for the base. Instead it looks like they used acrylic top coat. This is why it looks like this.

That is almost a DIY product.

Have they used metal corners on the piers??

If they haven't then they have done as I suspect.

Clarendon have to keep coming back until it looks as good as the display home.

This is starting to get very frustrating!

I havesent Clarendon an email and they have not replied. I have also tried calling them to no avail.

I feel like I'm fighting a win-less fight !

If I go to fair trading, what are their expectations and tolerances for arylic rendering?
Has anyone dealt with them about a building rendering defect and what was thier experience?

Is there anyone else that I can refer this matter to apart from fair trading?

Thanks

I think if you take a photograph of the display home and a photograph of your home, go to the Department of Fair trading and show them both it will be resolved in your favour quickly.

Clarendon are wrong. And they know it. The only solution is to rip off the render and put down a good 10 to 13 mm render.

Keep the issue simple.
Just stat you want it like the display.

If they dont want to at least get them to put there excuses in writing.

Also you may even ask them who the supplier of the render is and speak to them.

Hi all,

Clarendon has finally responded to my email today after 4 weeks of waiting and the warranty officer and site area manager have confirmed that no further work will be carried out to fix the rendering issue. They don't see a problem with it in daylight. Problem becames obvious when I have the lights on.

The main problem I have is that the Waterfall display home I built doesn't have this facade and since has been sold. The Waterfall previous displayed at Eldersie had the New Port facade. The current Clarendon display homes don't have the Waterfall displayed anymore. I can only reference and go with the acrylic rendering done on the newer homes.

Not sure what I should do. For me the next thing to do is to take this to Fair Trading. Is this my only option?

Has anyone been through fair trading about a arylic rendering defect and what was the experience? What tolerance does the Fair Trading allow for arylic rendering?

It seems like I'm going around in circles. Any advice or help will be great.

Thanks
Andy

Next step, Department of Fair Trading. You may want to get an independent inspectors report stating whether the problem is acceptable or not.

Hi all,

Just sent another email to Clarendon escalating the issue and the area site manager has agreed to meet onsite next Friday to discuss this further.

My only problem with this acrylic rendering issue is that is not clearly visible during the day. The issue is only visible during the night when the up and down lights are on (refer to second pci with circles indicating the defects). Chances are during the appt next week, Clarendon will say I can't see anything wrong with the acrylic rendering under natural light hence no fixing is required. The issue is caused by the up and down lights so please change the lights if you want to fix the issue.

Can you please help me out by recommending what I can say or do to streghten up my case and order Clarendon to fix this issue. Also, another problem is the Waterfall display home is no longer available and is the wrong facade anyway. The Waterfall display home had a bagged finish, whereas we went for the acrylic rendering finish.

Thanks in advance,
Andy

atx, did you get a PCI inspection done? if yes, has your inspector picked this issue and included in his report? If the issue is in the report, then the builder has to fix it or provide an acceptable answer to why they wouldnt want to fix it.
Good luck man..hope this all gets sorted out soon

Isn't the PCI inspector working for Clarendon!!!!

Thanks guys!

I have been trying to sort out this acrylic rendering issue since handover back in Sept 2010. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the problem until after handover when I installed the lights and turn them on. I was completely shocked by the poor quality finish on the acrylic rendering. I reported the problem to Clarendon and they agreed to fix it after a lot of hassling. Their first attempt was to apply 2 coats of paint but that obviously didn't fix the problem. I complain again and the area site manager came to inspect the problem and decided to re-render the front facade. Refer to the before and after shots.

I'm still not happy with the re-rendering. There are four areas where the rendering is inconsistent as indicated by the circles. These rendering defects can only be seen at night when the up and down lights are turned on. In the daytime, the problem is barely noticeable. Refer to daytime picture.

http://bigbo.com.au/Daytime.jpg

In summary:
I have another appointment with Clarendon next Friday and want to strength my case to get Clarendon to rectify the issue. I can't use the Waterfall display home as it was built in the new port facade and had a bagged finish but it did have the up and down lights! The Clarendon display homes in Parklea have some houses with the acrylic rendering finish and also the up and down lights but don't have the inconsistent finish. Can I use these findings to support my case?

I guess if Clarendon doesn't agree to fix it the issue then my next steps will be Fair Trading. Do you guys think I have a case or am I wasting my time!??!?!?

Any help will be appreciated.

Andy