This is my first post and it is a shame that it has to be about this increasingly alarming subject. I have recently become aware of this nationally growing problem across the new build industry and so I have been reading more about the subject, mainly because when we moved in to our house, we had a ridiculous list of snags that took ages to sort out. I had never thought about the brickwork and mortar.
So a couple of months ago, with some nervous trepidation, I walked around the outside of the house and inspected the mortar. My heart fell through the floor when I realised just how shoddy it was. Could it be normal though, I thought? Maybe it is just weathering effects, I tried to reassure myself. I mulled this over for a while and then called in a friend who is a professional builder and he was shocked at the standards. "You need to get in touch with the NHBC" he advised.
I then read around on the Internet and came across this site and there seems to be a lot of others in this same boat. So I thought I would add my woes to the forum in the hope that some kind souls can answer my questions and provide some sound advice on how to handle this given, from the sounds of it, the NHBC certainly aren't here to give us peace of mind and sort out these problems.
For information, we moved into our new build in Summer 2012 and the builder was Redrow Homes in North West England. So the house has had about 7 years of weathering, with the rear of the house facing a south westerly direction.
When Redrow and myself looked at the mortar, there seems to be so much wrong with it. For starters, it seems most of the lower level of the house (up to around the lower windows) seems to be built from a different type of mortar. It seems lighter and sandier, and when I scrape my finger across it when it is dry, powdery sand just crumbles away from it. There are quite a few places where the mortar looks to be severely indented as if it has washed out, as well as other places where I can spot gaps with bits missing having presumably dropped out. The upper level of the house seems to be constructed with a darker type of mortar, which on the face of it, doesn't crumble as easy, though I have been able to snap a couple of sticking out bits of it off. You might get a better idea from the attached pictures (these are just a few of a wider selection I have taken).
Last week I submitted a claim to the NHBC and received a reply a couple of days later asking me for pictures. At this point I thought it might be useful to ask the forum how to proceed.
My concern is that I might not be able to capture the full range of the issues with photos and that they may then reject the claim on grounds of lack of proof of defects, or that the claim amount would be too low (it had to be just over £1,500 to be valid I think). It is difficult to capture the nature of the issues on photos, especially the alarming way the sandy mortar just falls out when rubbing it.
One of my questions is whether I should just go ahead and send the photos, or before I do that, see about getting a Chartered Surveyor to inspect the mortar and provide a neutral report on it, which might add more weight than just my pictures (cost dependent, I am not sure how much this sort of thing would cost!).
I am also not sure what I should be fighting to obtain from the NHBC. I have seen in other posts that they have at times offered a 25mm rake out and re-point, but will that be enough or is that just like sticking a band aid on a broken leg? I mentioned to the wife that perhaps we would need to have the internal walls looked at as well, and as you can imagine, stress levels shot through the roof at the thought of ripping into the internal shell and load bearing walls, and all that decorating we did etc.
On that point, Redrow I knew suggested a rake out to 25 mm might work because the weaker stuff would be protected from the elements, though he wasn't 100% on this and I think he was just trying to protect us from the bad news.
Another thing I thought about was how would this affect a future sale? Not that we are planning on going anywhere right now, but you never know what can happen in the future, and I would dread a sale falling through because of this shoddy mortar work. Also, would this be considered a buildings insurance issue, and something that needs to be declared to insurers with probably an horrific impact on buildings cover premiums?
Safe to say this is all giving me some sleepless nights at the moment so any kind advice would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance.