Frame or Slab issue?
Posted by | Posted in Problems, Structure | Posted on 21-11-2010
So we swung by the house (can’t call it the “lot” or the “land” anymore!) and had a good look around. It’s handy when there aren’t any other houses being constructed around you, which makes it easier to go around the house and have a look at what progress has been made.
All the windows have been placed in, and it seems the frame is at a complete stage, but we discovered that there is an issue with the back wall (in particular, Bedroom 4). Maria took photos of the issue a couple of days prior to us both looking at it on the weekend, here is the pic in question (red circle shows issue).
It seems that the frame for Bed 4 seems to be just sitting on thin air. We’re not allowed to go on site without permission from Burbank, so I can’t display a more close-up picture, but walking around to Bed 3 it’s clear that the frame on that side is square and flush with the slab edge, but further on down it goes crazy and just floats on air by the time your eye runs to the corner of the alfresco and Bed 4. Either the frame itself was pre-fabbed crooked (not likely), the frame itself wasn’t installed square (possible), or the slab itself isn’t square along the back edge (also possible).
I contacted my liaison at Burbank about this and she informed me that our SS is aware of the issue and is getting an engineer around to have a look at it. She also said that the SS would try to call me on Friday to discuss it, but I haven’t received any call from our SS yet. I asked if Burbank deems the frame to be at ‘complete’ stage and she said yes, so I have booked in an independent inspector (not one that has been nominated by Burbank, clearly their inspectors don’t have measuring tapes otherwise we wouldn’t have this issue with the back wall!) and all that’s going to happen at 10am tomorrow (Monday). It will be interesting to see what the inspector report reveals.
There is also an issue with the back door to the alfresco, it seems that entire wall is also floating on thin-air.
Who said building a house was easy!?
don’t worry about the fact that you can’t go on site without someone from Burbank with you – this is utter nonsense, im building my 3rd home and l walk through mine all the time making sure everything is up to scratch.
What Burbank have done with either your slab or your frame is very very poor and l would be extremley angry if l was you. Especially how they are claiming the frame stage to be complete which means they will be sending you an account for this stage which is more money your paying interest on when there is no possible way Burbank can class this stage as being complete. If it takes a little while to fix why should you be paying more interest? I wouldn’t pay until your happy with the frame result.
They have claimed the “base stage” is also complete, but up to and including today, have not received any invoices for payment for either the slab or the frame.
Naturally we won’t be paying a cent to Burbank until this issue has been resolved.
I’m interested to see what our independent inspector finds in his report.
Hey George, what was the verdict?
Also, make sure when the brickies are finished you go on site on a sunday and take some of the left over bricks, they will come in handy for retaining walls, paths, bbq etc, same with the roof tiles, make sure you take a few of these. Burbank will just take them all once the job is completed.
Hi Michael,
I’m still waiting for the inspector’s report. My father in law was at the site during the inspection as well, so he’s told me what the inspector found:
Again this is anecdotal from my father in law, Burbank won’t do anything until they receive the inspector’s report. So we’re still waiting.
i cannot believe what a disgraceful job they have done, assuming what you have said turns out to be fact.
What they should do is rip your slab up and start again.
Can you email me who your site supervisor is? My email is chatt8019@yahoo.com
Hi,
Has this issue been rectified now?? Its very worrying. It’s been about 3 days since they were informed of the issue. Our frame was completed today and hoping go early tomorrow morning to check things out on ours.
As much as it would be nice for them to rip up my slab and start again, I’m quite sure this would only happen in a fantasy world where businesses don’t care about money and can just throw it willy-nilly everywhere.
Unfortunately we have to deal with a poor slab and try to improve it any which way we can. Thank goodness we’re not owner builders otherwise we would have to foot the cost of doing this ourselves.
Agreed that this shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but what’s happened has happened, I can’t turn back time and try to change it somehow.
Burbank have been given the independent report and have agreed to rectify all issues outlined in said report (see my newer post). Also they are giving me copies of all engineering sign-offs in case something happens later on down the track (knock on wood or something better than wood).
Sope1100, I wish you the best in your construction so far, and I hope you don’t have similar issues to what we’re experiencing with our build.