Hi All, My house was flood with rainwater and now i can see some uneven surface on my hallway but insurance company send the engineer to investigate and his opinion this is nothing to do with flood. So what is my options? Flood on 21 March and report done in 17 May. White Arrows- Area that uneven Engineers Comments: 1. continuously down the hallway, while the floor levels did not appear to be significantly out of level I did not observe any obvious / significant cracking to the walls or floor tiles in this region. The mitre joints of the skirting boards contained gaps / appeared to have opened and were discoloured 2. I was then directed down the hallway in front of the kitchen, where my attention was drawn to the 0.5mm wide floor tile crack which extended across 2 floor tiles (refer to photographs 3-4). I also observed that the floor tiles continued into the kitchen, living room, family room, dining room, and that there were no intermediate movement joints. 3. I note that although the ground floor tile construction is considered defective due to the non-installation of any intermediate joints in accordance with Australian Standard 3958.1- Ceramic Tiles- Guide to the Installation of Ceramic Tiles, it is my opinion that the observed isolated cracking is not a result of this omission. 4. Based on the appearance of the exposed particleboard flooring (understood to be yellow tongue), it is my opinion that the particleboard flooring has not been damaged by the once off inundation event. I further note that yellow tongue flooring is designed to be able to cope with weather exposure that will occur during construction, which is generally stated by manufacturer’s to be up to a 3 month period. 5. It is my opinion that the distorted skirting board in the powder room is related to elevated moisture content due to the recent event. Based on the appearance of gaps between skirting boards at their mitre joints and opened skirting board mitre joints it is my opinion that water damage has occurred to the skirting boards in the study, powder room, lounge and hallway SUMMARY 1. I am of the opinion that the stormwater inundation event has not caused the moisture contents of the deeper reactive foundation soils to increase and therefore has not caused the observed floor tile crack damage or any structural damage. 2. I am of the opinion the cause of the cracked kitchen tiles is related to impact damage caused by falling items onto the floor and is unrelated to the stormwater inundation event. 3. I am of the opinion that the there is no stormwater inundation damage to the particleboard flooring. 4. The vertical locations of the western dwelling wall subfloor vents, flush with the adjoining pavement level, is considered to be poor construction. I am of the opinion that stormwater on the day of the event would have entered the subfloor region from these vents. 5. I am of the opinion the installed 100mm wide trench grate and 90mm outlet pipe to the trench grate is susceptible to a reduced flow capacity due to debris build up within the trench grate, and therefore does not provide adequate long term robustness against similar rainfall events. 6. No structural damage was observed to the subject dwelling due to the stormwater inundation event. I did not observe any structural damage related to the stormwater inundation event and have subsequently not provided a scope of works. Even he mentioned that some damage in 5th comments and not in summary and floor levels did not appear to be out of level for him??? uneven surface not clearly showin in his photograph due to the angle he taken so this is clearly showing that he is neglect that the area to investigate more some of the cracks were appeared after this incidents. There is no subfloor drying process conducted after the flood event. Now my floor tiles have come loose, cracked,Warping and Hollow Sounds some of the tile area. my opinion flood water damages the grout between the tiles . loosen the tile adhesive and saturates the subfloor. The wood soaks up the water and expands, causing the tile floor to buckle and tiles to become loose. This can see from my attached photos. Do i have to contact Archicentre or how do i go with this? MI
You need a new engineer to disprove the last engineers report. You can ask your insurance company, but I'd say you may be up for the cost of a new report if you want to challenge it.. A cheaper option may be a rep from the manufacturer (yellow tongue). Archicentre are not going to help.. There was no mention of elevated moisture in the flooring taken by the engineer? It's odd that the engineer has put the skirting board gaps down to flood damage.. if anything they would swell not shrink
Thanks, I just contact manufacturer and point to flood repair guide and install guide. I'm up for the cost and need a person to challenge this?
Ideally you should get a representative from the yellow tongue flooring (Carter Holt & Harvey) to inspect and confirm that swelling in the flooring is consistent with flood damage, which has caused the tiling to crack/become drummy.
I asked they are not doing that type of report. But they believe the moisture could cause to glue to failed.
Hi All, Insurance Company now asking below. "We believe that you are disputing the report from the building consultant, Sergon. Accordingly we request that you submit a credible report outlining the circumstances so that we can review and advice you further." Now i'm Looking some building inspector to look for this flooring and give some advice to fix the floor . because Engineers report is clearly saying no structural damage. Is any building inspector here to help in Melbourne area? or write a report with my facts? Mi
This is standard. If you are disputing their report, you will need to engage an equally qualified person to inspect and give an independent report. The issue for you is that you will have to pay for the report even if you don't agree with what it says. No professional will write a report based only on "facts" you tell them. Marg
2 x 15 min tea breaks and 1 x 30 min lunch break. Then claimed 1 hour overtime as well..... The Y-man
Hi All, Long story short, I did the independent inspection and send the report to the Insurance company. Then they send back to the Engineer and got the supplementary report and now insurance asking below. what should i do? let them to come or asking why they are not accepting the high risk moisture reading and that company recommendation? need all your opinion? ------------------------------------------------------------ Today email------------------------------- Following the review of the attached report we are recommending the attendance of the following services; 1 Sergon Building Consultant - they will determine a full scope of works for damages caused by this event. 2 Oriel Property Services to attend to potential mould concerns raised in your report. If you approve for the two points to go ahead .......... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company engage to send the report by my own cost ====================Engineers Report================ I refer to the insureds email dated 26th July 2017 received on the 3rd August 2017 regarding my Forensic Engineering Inspection Report (200046064) dated 11th May 2017 and offer the following comments as pertaining to elements of the Forensic Engineering Inspection Report. I have also assessed the Capital Facility Service Mould Detection Report dated 18th July 2017 and the photographic profile dated 17th July 2017 provided by the Insured for issues pertaining to structural engineering elements only. With regard to Capital Facility Services Mould Assessment Report dated 18th July 2017, I make the following comments: i. The report notes that “tiles are drummy and grout showing signs of cracking and loosening”. I note that I did not observe any drummy tiles during my inspection; and the Insured nor the Insured’s father did not advise me of any such damage. Although the report does not indicate the location(s) of the drummy tiles or extent, this appears to be new alleged damage. As such given this new information I recommend that a Sergon Building Consultant attends site to assess the new alleged damage and its cause. ii. The report notes that the tiles in the hallway are uneven. I make note that Capital Facility Services Mould Assessment Report is providing advice on non mould related building issues. I further note that there is no explanation as to the extent of the affected floor, or any measurements undertaken to describe the magnitude of the unevenness. I note that during the forensic engineering inspection a floor level survey was completed on the ground floor of the subject dwelling using Nivcomp 25 (which has an accuracy of +/-2mm) and in relation to the hallway the survey indicated that the floor was not even and had a slight fall generally from the northern hallway wall to the southern common hallway/lounge room wall, which was noted within the floor level survey results section of the report “there is a general pattern of relative settlement in the central zone of the house, particularly to the lounge region”. Importantly however (and as explained in the report), I did not find any evidence of the one off stormwater inundation event affecting the moisture conditions of the deeper foundation clays and therefore the unevenness (settlement) of the floor has not been caused nor contributed to by the one off event. iii. I recommend that Oriel repair, restoration & mitigation solutions is provided with Capital Facility Services Mould Assessment report for the purpose of providing a review and recommendations moving forward.
