Error in house construction - How did you deal with it?

2019-04-28 15:04:13

Hi Yvonne,

the painter has done the plaster and painting work. Ordered and paid in Q3. I didn’t even know there was a Q4 before.
As I wrote earlier, I’m partly to blame myself. We really went to the general contractor full of trust, said: Look, here is our budget, build us house X. We can’t do anything ourselves, both still working in Switzerland and coming back in just under 2 years. He said to us: No problem at all, we have built for clients who live far away many times, you don’t have to worry about anything, just pack your bags and come. Then we signed and that was it. We had no idea about drywall ceilings, spacing of underfloor heating pipes, or anything else. We just kept hearing: We’ll take care of it. In the end, you’re very, very disappointed about many (admittedly not catastrophic, but unnecessary and annoying) mistakes and small botched jobs. That’s the real problem. As I said, we’re to blame ourselves, too trusting, too little suspicious when reading the extremely vague building description, etc...
I think you already built about 5 years ago or something? Back then maybe it was still better. Not so much aimed at rip-offs and botched jobs.

I can agree with you on almost everything. It was similar for us. The trust I mentioned is not meant as blind trust, but the original basic trust.
We also had no idea what Q2 actually means in the end. Drywall upstairs, etc. We were lucky in our naivety and, yes..., at our age you don’t get so upset about these mistakes (not defects) anymore. I wrote on the first pages that my husband had a minor stroke 2 weeks before groundbreaking. The older you get, the more careless you become about these annoyances.

Our cracks appeared after 4 years. For us it’s clear: sometime acrylic on top and possibly repaint. Our focus is more on looking in the mirror at the first wrinkles and at the cooking pot. We’re looking forward to summer, although our wooden partial facade on the south side has already suffered as well.

2019-04-28 15:05:54

My brother, a master painter by profession, said when we planned the work here in the house that we surely would not manage crack-free drywall ceilings or the stairwell walls made of drywall without fleece wallpaper. However, I was reluctant to take the effort. So we planned fiber-reinforced good filler, Sto levell in fill, joint tape made of fiberglass mesh, stucco molding in the corners, a wooden strip as a botch strip in the transition from stone wall to drywall in the stairwell, painted white or in beech like the stairs. Since on the ceiling, which is the attic ceiling in the bungalow and only has storage space on it, there is little foot traffic, the ceiling remained completely crack-free, while the stairwell has two cracks, which I filled with acrylic and painted over. Works. But without wallpaper, it's a gamble. Karsten

2019-04-28 15:54:11

So you want to tell me that as a customer you just have to live with such cracks?

I don’t know your cracks. Of course, they can have a deeper cause that is not acceptable. Cracks at material transitions can be prevented, as I described and you also confirm that it was done. Yes, everything beyond that must be accepted. Wait two years, there will be more. Most of the silicone you will have to tear out and replace. What is your wall structure? If built monolithically, you will probably also have cracks on the facade. Also normal.

You could actually be a contractor yourself.

Nope.

Is that really so unusual??

No, but unfortunately unrealistic. It simply can’t be done otherwise or only very disproportionately.

You didn’t know that, okay. Someone could have told you that, okay. Move on.

What’s frustrating is the described "system" where the general contractor apparently doesn’t even want to be a general contractor. Of course, you lose the advantage of having a pair of ears to pull when something’s wrong. But in the end, you signed it, what can you say.

If you want drywall joints to be crack-free, that only works with wallpaper or plaster moldings at the angle.

Whereas the cracks are still there, they are merely covered in the case of wallpaper or fleece. If that is enough, still this is no guarantee.

2019-04-28 15:54:23

bernys drywall cracks are not a defect. If you want drywall joints to be crack-free, that only works with wallpaper or stucco moldings in the corner. Unfortunately, that's just how it is. Drywall is always screwed onto wood, wood is not rigid, new houses, especially large ones, settle, embedding mesh often isn't enough. It's like silicone joints, which may also crack and need to be redone. K.

Unfortunately, this is only partly true. Drywall is also screwed onto metal profiles, and there are no problems at all with the drywall panels at the butt joints. I see this every day. It is true that cracks appear at transitions from drywall to masonry. But even here, you can insist on rework within the first 5 years of warranty. Our landlord did the same. The colleagues came and renewed the joints.

2019-04-28 18:24:54

I don't wish anything bad on anyone! At the same time, I personally am already looking forward to the time when the [Handwerker/Hausbaufirmen] come back down to earth. Until then, I watch the "scene" from a distance and shake my head. And if I actually need a [Handwerker] in the "meantime," only the cheapest one will come to the house. I have no desire to be annoyed by poor work AND expensive payment... Sad, but true. Doing it yourself (if possible) is still the best.

2019-04-28 19:38:27

You can do it differently too we have 2 concrete ceilings, all vertical walls made of stone also in the attic, and of course drywall on the slopes. We have no fleece and no wallpaper, the plaster from the plasterer in Q2 and slightly sanded by the painter and then painted directly. but you can see every crack, they all said in horror. Yes, you can see them. And that’s exactly what we wanted. Because we want to know where and how much something settles.

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Error in house construction - How did you deal with it?

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