As everyone knows, grout and tiles aren't waterproof so it's reasonable to expect that your tile adhesive / thinset will over time become saturated. Is there a risk that the rapid evaporation caused by underfloor heating will over time cause the adhesive to fail and the tiles to become drummy? Has anyone seen this happen in the wild?
We're currently planning a renovation and had two bore holes drilled at the back of the house for soil testing. Just got the report back and the recommendation was underpin one side of the house with deep screw pile underpins to at least 3.5m. Although not specifically in the report, the engineer mentioned the large tree in the backyard has roots going at least as far as bore holes he drilled by the footings.
I'm questioning all of this because the back (new) part of the house is 25 years old and there is very minor cracking to the existing brickwork. Essentially a single crack above a window that has stayed about 1-2mm wide for as long as we've owned the place (2.5 years). If we weren't planning on doing renovation and replacing some of the brick wall with a glazed door, I'd be happy to just watch and wait. If underpinning is the right choice then I'm happy to do it, but my understanding is that partial underpinning might actually worsen differential movement and cause even more cracking. Also the report itself said that there was no risk of load bearing capacity being impacted by the current soil condition.
What are my options here? Is it worth getting a second soil test and geotech opinion?
I'm adding a laundry to the other side of a newish bathroom and need to remove the bottom sheet of plasterboard to add the plumbing and replace it with water resistant stuff. What's the best way to do this without risking the tiles and waterproofing on the other side of the studs? I don't know if it's glued or just screwed.
I need to replace a damaged bit of silicone. The general advice I've read is to remove the entire line all the way to the wall as silicone doesn't adhere well to old silicone, but we have a frameless shower screen in the way. The silicone against the screen is in great condition so don't want to remove that if it can be avoided - or compromise the water tightness. What's the best way to approach this? Can I just remove the silicone up to where it meets the screen silicone?
So we've had these stair stepping cracks in our 100 year old brick verandah (south east Melbourne) for as long as I can remember. I haven't been carefully monitoring, but it looks like the concrete crack at the top has worsened a bit over time.
It's in a bit of state anyway, so was planning to repoint but was wondering whether it needed structural work first. Any thoughts?
What mortar is this likely to be? It's a 1920s house that would originally have had lime mortar, but it looks like this part has been repointed since then.
During a recent reno, we had two stumps installed either side of an existing brick pier. The stump hole was dug maybe 200mm from the external brick wall and to about 500mm depth with 350mm width. We have a 1920s double brick house so I suspect the foundations aren't very deep. I've since learnt a bit more about construction and I'm now aware that the builder shouldn't have dug so close to the foundations as this is likely to have been within the "zone of influence". Is this something I should be worried about and actively monitor? Is there anything I can or should do now?
During a recent reno, the builders put in a new partition wall over our existing Baltic pine subfloor and cork finished floor. Although not load bearing, it's probably 170kg per lineal metre as it's tiled floor to ceiling at 3m high. During the reno, I became a lot more clued up about construction and I've realised that the existing subfloor base likely isn't suitable for that weight of wall. Now I'm wondering what the best remediation strategy for the next stage reno to make sure we don't have issues in the future. Should we install solid blocking under the wall and tie this into the existing flooring and bottom plate? Should we even consider carefully cutting out the cork and replacing with structural packers?
I've recently gone down a bit of a rabbit hole looking at different waterproofing systems and why they fail. The foam board systems seem to have the fewest points of failure (apart from having a preformed, single piece shower base). I'm interested to hear from those who have ripped out leaking showers with foam board as to why they failed? I imagine the weak points are where two boards meet and normal structural movement could cause tears in the sealant between them. However, this would probably have to be coupled with voids under the tiles caused by poor adhesive coverage/quality so that enough water can squeeze through the gap between the boards.
I noticed that the plumber has drilled through a floor joist top to bottom to fit the shower pipes. Is this a problem? Although it looks like there's another joist sistered to it, that joist is only supported by a single bearer (pictured) and doesn't stretch as far as the bearers on either side... So I'm not sure how much extra load bearing its doing?
We've been doing home renovations in two stages. Having completed the first stage and not ended on great terms with the builder due to numerous errors, we'd now like to switch builders for the second stage. My concern about doing this is future liability issues. Although the two stages will be separated by different building permits, is there anything to stop builder 1 trying to duck out of future issues by saying builder 2 caused the issue? My main concern is around issues with plumbing (as new plumbing was installed in the first stage and will be extended in the second stage). Another concern would be builder 1 ducking a waterproofing failure by arguing that it was caused by structural movement during phase 2.
We're hiring a draftsman to do working drawings for a renovation. I've received the payment schedule and it's basically 60% up front and the rest on completion. Is this normal?
I'd like to get myself a budget moisture meter for monitoring moisture in my bathroom walls. My builder messed up quite a few things - some of which I spotted and rectified, but I probably missed a few things.
Can anyone recommend a good (budget - less than $100) meter ideally that can detect at depths of more than 20mm. We have brick walls so we'd need something that can detect behind tiles, adhesive and waterproofing into the timber?
What's the correct way to install continuous underfloor heating cables in a bathroom (including the shower area) when there's a water stop in the way to avoid compromising the waterproofing? I'm thinking the options are:
Run the cables under the water stop. If the water stop is sealed to the substrate with waterproof sealant and waterproofing goes over the top then would this be acceptable?
Run the cables up the wall to avoid the water stop. Seems to be the obvious choice here, but no idea if this is practical.
You can't do it. You'd need to install two separate sets of cables.
Of course I will check with a structural engineer before doing anything. But for my own interest, please humour me.
My trussed roof has two brick walls running at right angles underneath it that I'd like to remove. Neither wall has a bottom chord resting directly on top of it. Also, there's a clear gap between the bottom chord and the walls. Does this likely mean they aren't load bearing?
We've recently completed a bathroom reno and our brand new extractor fan is getting this weird red / brown build up on it.ibitially I thought a rat had got caught in there and it was blood, but I've checked the ductwork and put a grille on the end of it and it's still coming back. Since I last cleaned it, it's been a couple of weeks and it's come back. Any ideas?