House cracks - what do I do? Archicentre?

Hi All,

I live in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The last few years, cracks have started appearing in the walls of the house, inside and outside. The house is 30 years old.

It looks like the house is moving and causing cracking. I know the tile roof is in some decay and needs repointing and cementing - I am organising this now.

I have started to become worried, but am not sure of how to fix the cracking problem. I have considered Archicentre to do a report but they want to charge $500+.


Should I organise a report from Archicentre and act on their recommendations?

Does anybody know of any other organisation that can help me fix my problems?

Does anybody have any advice? What should I do?


Thanks in advance, much appreciated.


We purchased a property with large cracks at the front of the property above windows from top to bottom. Scary stuff.

We called everyone and anyone to assess this including archicentre, more people that got involved in the process the more confused we became.

As it turned out the house was tearing itself apart, the limestone footings had rolled out slightly, the problem was caused over a period of 25 years, water was flowing into the limestone footings allowing movement. There were no soakwells on the property, gutters were inadquate or deteriorated/useless.

We were told to place glass strips? place over the cracks this allowed us to monitor movement, if the glass broke it was still moving. I can tell you this did my head in.

We got rid of the water issue, large soakwells were installed and gutters were replaced, ensured driveway slopped away from house.

We ended up taking the cheapest option which was to rip front part of the brick walls on each side and rebuild using steel rods with mortar and this was wrapped a fair way around the corners. We then had the front tuckpointed, looked perfect.

The combination of all the above solved the problem, no more movement and certainly did not cost a fortune.

As mentioned by others don't do anything until your foundation/structure has been sorted. I personally would get a structural engineer to look at it.

Cheers, MTR
 
We had cracking up to 15mm in the 25yo brickveneer at one stage.

Its since closed up to under 2mm.


Solved by digging holes against the house near the foundations, and filling the holes with water almost daily. Modifying the drainpipe to deliberately leak water against the bottom edge of the house may have also helped.

Swelling the clay solved all the problems.
 
We had cracking up to 15mm in the 25yo brickveneer at one stage.

Its since closed up to under 2mm.


Solved by digging holes against the house near the foundations, and filling the holes with water almost daily. Modifying the drainpipe to deliberately leak water against the bottom edge of the house may have also helped.

Swelling the clay solved all the problems.

Hi Ruddprime

I have similar crack to yours... And I just removed the big tree close to the area where the crack is..
I am confused as one advised me to dig out holes and pour in water...
The other told me not to do as it's a wet season with the hope the crack can get smaller by itself.


Whom do you engage to advise you about filling holes with water? Structural engineer or geotechnician? Any soil test or moisture test done?
And are you in Melbourne?



- BTG -
 
Hi Ruddprime

I have similar crack to yours... And I just removed the big tree close to the area where the crack is..
I am confused as one advised me to dig out holes and pour in water...
The other told me not to do as it's a wet season with the hope the crack can get smaller by itself.


Whom do you engage to advise you about filling holes with water? Structural engineer or geotechnician? Any soil test or moisture test done?
And are you in Melbourne?

- BTG -

Nope just a builder friend made the suggestion. I'm in Melbourne.

It took about 2 years for the gap to pretty much completely close.
 
Nope just a builder friend made the suggestion. I'm in Melbourne.

It took about 2 years for the gap to pretty much completely close.

Hi Ruddprime

How deep you dig into the soil and the how big is the hole?
How much water did you pour into the ground on the daily basis?

You mentioned it's almost completely close now..
Are you still pouring water on daily basis?

- BTG -
 
Hi Ruddprime

How deep you dig into the soil and the how big is the hole?
How much water did you pour into the ground on the daily basis?

You mentioned it's almost completely close now..
Are you still pouring water on daily basis?

- BTG -

Roughly about a foot. 30x30cm, about 1m apart.

just filled the holes with water daily or whenever we remembered to.

No longer pouring water, filled the holes now with stones, but the holes we drilled at the bottom of the drain piping allow a bit of extra water to still get down there when it rains.
 
Hi MPmelb, we've used John who is a builder with an engineering background and specialises in these kinds of problems a number of times and he has really looked after our clients. I am happy to give you his number of the other way around if you like.

Wishing you every success,
Ana

Hi Wondering if I can have Johns contact details.
 
Scarey Uretek Fire Story

I just came across this from a guy on another forum who has had a really bad experience with this company for whatever reason. The link is below and I have pasted in the text. Hope this is allowed as it sounds like something really important to be aware of when organising underpinning. I had no problems with chemical underpinning (by another company, see above), as I think it is called, but the treatment of the couple by the company was just outrageous. Some people just don't get that an apology can go a long way in the direst of circumstances. I'll let him know I have cut and paste here. JBG


http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewtopic.php?p=316928&sid=be584845a8cec75f068d5a40a218116f


Yes, my wife and I almost lost our house thanks to this organisation and what they conveniently omitted to tell us about their product, Uretek, which is used to stabilise buildings and other structures as a result of subsidence issues. The company deliberately failed to inform us that, when the substance - think hair mousse - is exposed to oxygen and cracks open, it spontaneously ignites causing a fire! Well, ignite it did, and it took an MFB fire unit to put out the fire, after having cut a huge square hole in our lovely and impossible to replace floor-boards. I have the photos to prove it! Uretek were complete *******s to us - they never even apologised to u - ultimately threatening injunction proceedings against us if we tried to warn other consumers about the dangers with their product. Nasty, nasty! JDC.
 
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http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewtopic.php?p=316928&sid=be584845a8cec75f068d5a40a218116f
Yes, my wife and I almost lost our house thanks to this organisation and what they conveniently omitted to tell us about their product, Uretek, which is used to stabilise buildings and other structures as a result of subsidence issues. The company deliberately failed to inform us that, when the substance - think hair mousse - is exposed to oxygen and cracks open, it spontaneously ignites causing a fire! Well, ignite it did, and it took an MFB fire unit to put out the fire, after having cut a huge square hole in our lovely and impossible to replace floor-boards. I have the photos to prove it! Uretek were complete *******s to us - they never even apologised to u - ultimately threatening injunction proceedings against us if we tried to warn other consumers about the dangers with their product. Nasty, nasty! JDC.

Its not that I don't believe it ,it just that I want to see proof before I spread the gossip??:eek:
 
Hi Painter,


I may be an easy pull, but I pasted this post because it sounded totally genuine to me, and the writer offers photographs. I cannot see how anyone reading it could construe it as gossip. In the scheme of building and property, there is always something, somewhere that goes wrong. You have to get past it, and on with things.


What does matter, and what shocked me, is that this couple seem to have been threatened by the company on several occasions. Legal retribution is a no-go area for most of us because of the cost, and I applaud them for trying to get some kind of justice online by recounting their experiences with Uretek not just on the day, but over time.


The site Not Good Enough is "Australia’s largest and longest running online consumer community, with over 60,000 members", is fully transparent to the point of not allowing posts to be edited. "Members seek information from each other on what to purchase and are often more willing to trust the experiences and opinions of fellow members than a sales pitch from a company", a bit like here really.


Cheers, JBG
 
Buyer Beware

PS for Painter.
The least the post does is alert the punters. In that sense, it doesn't matter what it is, for in future anyone going down the underpinning road has another few questions to check out when getting the quotes in that they would not otherwise have thought of. Buyer beware, and it would not have occurred to me to ask about fire safety on my job. JBG
 
Uretek - Buyer Beware

Hi, I'm the person who posted on the Not Good Enough web-site regarding his experiences with Uretek. I've come across the discussion regarding Uretek, and my comments and experience regarding the organisation by a simple accident. I'm glad I found the discussion. I reiterate my views that, any person considering engaging this organisation must ask some direct questions of the organisation regarding the spontaneous combustibility of the product under certain circumstances. If the organisation fails to disclose such information to you - and bear in mind I did some high-level due diligence into the organisation, including engaging a senior structural engineer to ask questions of the organisation's representative, and the combustibility issue did not arise at any stage - or denies any knowledge of what happened to my wife and I, my only advice is to avoid engaging the organisation. Not to sound overly dramatic, but, after the fire that ignited under our home, and the fire brigade almost severing the gas line - the gas was still on at the time the Uretek was being injected - my wife is lucky to be alive, and I'm lucky to have my wife and my home. You wanted proof ... here are some of the pics I took on the day of the fire. The pics show the 2 MFB units that arrived, the hole in our floor that the MFB had to cut, and some of the exposed and hardened Uretek material. To date, the organisation has failed to apologise for the pain and suffering - including three months of living with the stench of burned material and with a large hole in our floor - it inflicted upon us. You have been warned!
 

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Cracked walls.Foundation Injection stabilisation

Hi JDC, thank god I read you comment.
This is my first post and am a newbie to this site.
Was going to contact them today! Did you have to have your house re-done.Have double storey commercial property in Avondale Heights, Melbourne with external and internal wall cracking(Upstairs).Water seems to be the problem. External perimeters all concreted and boardering on adjacent properties so injection stabilisation appeared ideal.Might contact "Urethane Solutions" in South Melbourne. Any other members with comments would be welcomed.
 
Hi, im a builder and here is some info.

The first thing to understand is that all buildings move due to expansion and contraction as well as wind loads and other forces that occur naturally to the building.

These are some of the reasons why houses crack:

-Poor Drainage (Footpaths must have fall away from the building at least 50mm in a first meter, blocked gutters and downpipes, if its sloping block you must have agricultural pipes installed to collect any surface and ground water, footings MUST be dry even when it rains. If you can make this happen you wont have problems ever).

-Large trees (Trees located less than 5m away from the building, Tree’s root system will extend for a horizontal distance equal to its height. A large healthy tree can extract up to 300 litres of moisture from soil per day, if your soil is reactive type, than this is a major problem).

-Sloping Land (If your house is built on sloping land it is likely that it will slip down over the period and can cause cracks, some areas are well known for slippery land).

-Second storey extensions (I have seen a lot of house where the second storey was added onto the existing footings, i have done some as well, and engineers let this go without upgrading the existing footings, and than of course in 6 months time you see all these cracks appearing where the second storey was added.

-Reactive soils (clay) soils that expand and contract over time as their moisture content increases or decreases. To find out if your soil is classified as reactive soil you need to obtain Geo Technical report. This is a killer for most Australian houses.

-Bad Footings (I have seen many older homes with no foundations at all, they just laid bricks onto the dirt and same for piers as well.

It could be one of the problems above, or could be the combination of some of them.

Before you do underpinning you need to find out why did it happen in the first place, rectify that, leave it for some time, and than go and inject concrete of chemicals if you really have to, but in most situations you wont have to, but people go and do it anyway because Engineers tell them too, to cover their ****.

I definitely wouldn't water around the house, or go and cut expansion joints without knowing what the problem is in a first place.
Expansion joints are required, and most old houses don't have them, if you cut your brickwork it can fall down, brick ties are probably all rusted and nothing is holding those walls if you cut them. Nowdays when we build expansion joints we use expansion brick ties which must be installed vertically along the joint, and that is whats holding the bricks together.


This is general understanding only, i cant say whats wrong without looking at it. I hope this will help you and many others with the same problem.
 
... You wanted proof ... here are some of the pics I took on the day of the fire. The pics show the 2 MFB units that arrived, the hole in our floor that the MFB had to cut, and some of the exposed and hardened Uretek material. To date, the organisation has failed to apologise for the pain and suffering - including three months of living with the stench of burned material and with a large hole in our floor - it inflicted upon us. You have been warned!

My apologies for joining in on the conversation so late in the peace but....

Not hard to see from the third picture that the floor has previously been repaired with yellow tongue!!!!:eek: Now that is real hard to match!

When you undertake any form of building works, there are risks involved. You may find it hard to believe but cement dust is explosive, so are many otherwise powders (eg custard, flour etc).

When building products are supplied to a site, there should always be a material data safety sheet (this will give you all the information that you need eg if you swallow it, come in contact with it, treatment/first aid etc).

Cement products generate heat when they go off & cure.
 
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Not hard to see from the third picture that the floor has previously been repaired with yellow tongue!!!!:eek: Now that is real hard to match!.

They have used the MDF to float the floor before laying the Jarrah boards. Obviously the house has been renovated.

The poster didn't mention if this occurred a couple days after it was installed or latter. I suspect there was other material under the floor that has combusted and raised the temp enough for the resin to start burning.
Once that happened I suspect it would be like trying to put out burning plastic.

I found one spot on the manufacturers site that suggested its been thermally tested to 65 deg which would suggest combustion under normal temps should not happen.
 
I'd suggest a structural engineers report, cost about $1,500 & he'll probably want a geological report, another $300. Better to be safe than sorry is my humble opinion. However it sounds like subsidence in which case underpinning will be the way forward. Are there any large trees close by? A large tree takes 2000l of water a DAY from the surrounding soil and most trees' roots only go about 1m beneath the surface. I appreciate that the last two summers have been wet, but the previous ten haven't.
 
Have a look at www.uretek.com.au they may be of help. Obviously if you can find the cause that would be better.


Regards,
Sheryn
Got a quote off them to do a small job, $5,000. Got a few other quotes doing the traditional dig a hole jack up house, fill with cement, etc around $2,500. Best of all the old bloke reckoned not to bother once the offending tree was removed. Fixed up the cracks and it hasn't moved since. Been a couple of years since the tree was removed and the brick work fixed up.

So it pays to get a few quotes and talk to some knowledgeable people.

Cheers
Graeme
 
Some interesting suggestions....but I bet the key issue is that the footings under the actual house footprint have dried out.

Any concrete pathways around the house perimeter would also have helped dry out the whole of the foundations.

High plastic soils ( ie clay) expand and shrink with water. Accordingly, the house moves the same. If it was fairly wet all those years ago when the house was built its natural that some settlement will occur with time as the foundations beneath dry out.

Further, any small trees planted when the house was 1st built have no doubt grown up and are now sucking large amounts of water from the foundations. They could well be the main culprit to all this.

The words of "veseli" and "Ruddprime" should be read carefully.

"Ruddprime" suggestion is simple, logical, minimal cost and at least worth a try.

Good luck
 
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