Finding Construction Defects – San Antonio, Texas

By Colin Scott

Building defects in homes in Kingston Jamaica may be considered to be a failing or shortcoming in the function, performance, statutory or user requirements of a building and might manifest itself within the structure, fabric, services or other facilities of the affected building.

Defects Classification

1. Defects affecting habitability – broadly any defect that diminishes the performance of the structure.

2. Defects affecting appearance – any defect of a superficial largely aesthetic nature.

3. Defects affecting safety – any defect that involves or may involve hazard to life.

Causes of defects

1. Faulty design: failure to follow established criteria, for example, Building Regulations,

Codes of Practices, Building Standards and other criteria that is generally acceptable building practices.

2. Faulty execution construction: failure on the part of the builder to effectively carry out a design which was satisfactory in itself and properly specified.

3. Faulty materials, components or proprietary systems: failure of these elements to meet their advertised or otherwise accepted performance levels.

4. Unexpected user requirements: defects caused by the user expecting more from the design than the designer anticipated.

One major problem is that homes in Kingston Jamaica were subject to scrutiny by the KSAC or Kingston and St. Andrew Council. They are constantly overburdened and realistically cannot and could not reach everyone as quickly as possible.

Wall finish defects

External Rendering Defectt:

Surface crazing: This is caused by mixture too rich; sand used in mix is too fine and structural movement.

Spalling: This is caused from poor workmanship, sulfate attack and steel corrosion.

Lack of adhesion: This is caused when the background is too smooth.

Shrinkage cracks: This is caused from too strong a mix.

Building defects

Rot in roof fascia: This is caused from roof sarking cut short of gutter.

Horizontal cracks to eaves of flat concrete roof: Caused by thermal movement.

Concrete lintel sags: Caused from faulty shuttering or formwork.

Fracture in wall: This is caused when there is moisture movement and soil heave.

Crack in wall wider at bottom than top: This is caused from differential settlement of building.

Excessive deflection at centre of beam: This is caused when the beam ends are not adequately supported and the depth not adequate.

Painting problems and their remedy

Blistering

Identification: When raised circular bubbles or blisters is on the painted surface.

Causes: From painting over surfaces that contains moisture with an impervious coating.

Remedy: Eliminate the source of moisture, scrape off the blisters, rub down and repaint.

Chalking

Identification: The presence of pigment particles on a piece of black cloth used to rub the painted surface.

Causes: Destruction of oil paint by chemical or physical changes, for example, exposure to ultra violet light.

Remedy: Repaint with an appropriate paint.

Flaking

Identification: Loosening of small piece of paint from the substitute.

Causes: Loss of adhesion to its substrate usually the result of painting over unprepared surfaces with emulsion paint.

Remedy: Thoroughly clean and rub down surface and repaint.

Peeling

Identification: A severe lifting and loosening of large pieces of paint several square inches in area.

Causes: Loss of adhesion to its substrate usually the result of painting over unprepared surfaces with emulsion paint.

Remedy: Thoroughly clean and rub down surface and repaint.

Wrinkling

Identification: Furrows and ridges in the surface of the paint film.

Causes: Application of too thick a paint film or rapid surface drying of the paint film resulting in the underlying layer remaining soft and the normal drying function being retarded.

Remedy: Allow surface to thoroughly harden, rub down, preferably with a waterproof abrasive paper and repaint with the appropriate material.

Water stains

Identification: Discolored patches appearing on the emulsion and oil painted surfaces.

Causes: Soluble matter from the substrate carried through the paint film by moisture resulting from building defect, for example, leaks from open joints.

Remedy: Repair leak, touch up stained area with one or two coats of sealer and repaint with emulsion or oil paints.

Rust stains

Identification: Brown or red stains appearing on or under any painted surface.

Causes: Corrosion of steel reinforcement or other ferrous metal.

Remedy: Scrape off paint over stained area, remove rust by sandblasting or wire brushing and then treat the surface with a rust remover. Apply one or two coats metal primer and when dry, finish with the appropriate paint.

While not all these defects can be found in homes in Kingston Jamaica, there are times when one must look for the common things; this will help in bargaining the sale price by the vendor.

Colin Scott is a real estate marketing expert. For more great tips on homes in Kingston Jamaica and affordable Jamaican real estate visit any one of the links in this Author Bio.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Scott
http://EzineArticles.com/?Finding-Construction-Defects-in-Your-Home&id=3031196

Construction Defects Lead to San Antonio Home Repairs

By Greg Vandenberge

Most of the construction workers that work on brand-new homes, don’t realize the problems that they could be creating later for homeowners and even the home builders that they’re working for.

Construction defects eventually lead to home repairs and the biggest problem with this is the inexperienced workforce that is building homes today. The new home building process has become mechanized and workers are like robots going through the process.

Most of the labor is skilled at one specific task and if they run into a problem that they’re not familiar with, they often cover it up or leave it for another trade to deal with, only to find out that the problem was never dealt with by anyone.

Today’s homes are being built faster than ever and it seems like they can build a home twice as fast as they could 20 years ago. I don’t really know if the speed that they’re building these homes with is going to create more home repairs in the future or less, but I do know one thing, it’s never good to cover up construction defects that could eventually lead to home repairs.

Home repairs of course eventually lead to financial problems and sometimes these financial burdens turn into lawsuits. Today’s home builders have different methods of dealing with construction defects and sometimes their solutions are simple Band-Aids and don’t really fix the problem correctly.

It’s never a good idea to hire a home builder who uses inexperienced and cheap labor. Find a home builder who only uses qualified construction labor to build your house. This will prevent a lot of frustration in the future.

=====================================================

You are free to copy this article to your site as long as you include the following resource information with an active link to my site:

Find Stair Building Contractors

Greg Vanden Berge is working on the internet to promote the education for creating simple to follow guides and home building books.

Thanks For Reading My Articles

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Vandenberge
http://EzineArticles.com/?Construction-Defects-Lead-to-Home-Repairs&id=3089234

 

Tool of Choice for Structural Analysis/Forensics

BIMBoy: First Wisconsin, now Texas mandates BIM for state projects

By Jeff Yoders

Apparently, even Building Information Modeling is bigger in Texas. The Texas Facilities Commission announced yesterday that it is requiring a BIM model for all state design and construction projects. The state agency oversees all real estate development for the state including state buildings and all state University systems. Currently, the Facilities Design and Construction division is managing 125 projects valued at over $500 million.

Wisconsin mandated BIM for all projects with a budget of $5 million or more in July, as BIMBoy reported in June. The Texas mandate goes even further. Like Wisconsin, Texas has been studying BIM and how it can be used on state projects for years. The FDC has developed a set of standards and guidelines that all private sector partners will have access to prior to any involvement in a state project.  Along with the guidelines, FDC has created an interoperable BIM template that all private sector partners will have made available to them for any State project. The TFC has also stated an ambitious goal of closing the gap “between it and the General Services Administration, the first major governmental agency to adopt BIM for new construction.”

When Wisconsin mandated BIM, many posters suggested that the lobbying of the software vendors had finally paid off. With Texas now in the BIM fold – and Oregon reportedly close to following – I wonder if there will be similar reactions?