Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 10:34 pm
Hi everyone - this is my first post - so hope I've not made any school boy errors!
Background:-
After saving up for a few years I had my garden redesigned & selected what seemed to be a good contractor to undertake the works. The job involved levelling my rear sloping garden & creating a nice big (7m x 11m) patio, and new level lawn terrace around 15m x 11m. There are a few walls built, 1 fairly large 1.2m High retaining wall & steps up to the new lawn from the patio. See pics.
I agreed a fixed price agreement with the contractor who struggled to complete the work in the time they expected because of bad weather during March & April of this year. As a result I believe they rushed some of the work & cut corners which has left a few problems. They are no longer returning any calls despite providing a 10 year guarantee, so I find myself having paid out, but needing to remedy some of the work per below.
The issues I need help with from the site works area of the forum:-
Issue 1:
In a lot of areas along the base of one of the new walls the render is bubbling up. Upon pushing the bubbled areas it's easy to pick the concrete render off & dig out soft sandy / red colour paste from behind. It's very soft & damp (not powdery).
I took a lot of pictures when the work was being done & upon looking closely today I think I've found the problem. There is a metal beading strip along the base of the wall which has been 'stuck' in place with what looks like bonding plaster to tack it up, before the render scratch coat was applied. The areas which are soft seem to be where that 'bonding' type material was applied.
I have no idea what they made this 'bonding' coloured stuff from - so have a couple of questions
- Does anyone know what this stuff is & is it usual to do using this method?
- To repair it my plan is to cut & rake off all the render, bonding, and scratch coat back to the red brickwork, then repair. From my pics of when the work was being complete, that looks like about 2 courses of bricks up from the base of the wall.
What is the best way to repair so that when it's finished & painted it looks as seamless as possible? do I need to apply a scratch coat, then a top coat? If so is this a DIY job, or to get a good top finish would I be best to get a builder to do the work? I have not done any rendering or plastering etc. but am fairly happy to try most DIY...
Issue 2:
Along the top of the wall the edging strips have not been set firmly in place when they were rendered in place. The wall has got a lot of hair line & growing cracks, especially where people have sat on the edge. When you push the corners of the wall then edging strips are springy under the render which is cracking. I presume the only way to fix this is to break all the render off & reseat the edging strips, then re-render?
I'm going to try to create links to the pictures now - please give me some time if they are not available yet...
Thanks for any help in advance.
All walls, steps, patio, and middle lawn are new.
The render is soft to touch where its bubbling & is only soft where the bonding type mix is holding the metal edging in place.
see the 'red-ish' colour bonding type material tacking the metal strip in place along the base of the wall - that's what I think has gone soft, or was never allowed to dry before render was applied.
Issue 2: this shows the cracking corners which run along the top of all of the rendered walls.
Background:-
After saving up for a few years I had my garden redesigned & selected what seemed to be a good contractor to undertake the works. The job involved levelling my rear sloping garden & creating a nice big (7m x 11m) patio, and new level lawn terrace around 15m x 11m. There are a few walls built, 1 fairly large 1.2m High retaining wall & steps up to the new lawn from the patio. See pics.
I agreed a fixed price agreement with the contractor who struggled to complete the work in the time they expected because of bad weather during March & April of this year. As a result I believe they rushed some of the work & cut corners which has left a few problems. They are no longer returning any calls despite providing a 10 year guarantee, so I find myself having paid out, but needing to remedy some of the work per below.
The issues I need help with from the site works area of the forum:-
Issue 1:
In a lot of areas along the base of one of the new walls the render is bubbling up. Upon pushing the bubbled areas it's easy to pick the concrete render off & dig out soft sandy / red colour paste from behind. It's very soft & damp (not powdery).
I took a lot of pictures when the work was being done & upon looking closely today I think I've found the problem. There is a metal beading strip along the base of the wall which has been 'stuck' in place with what looks like bonding plaster to tack it up, before the render scratch coat was applied. The areas which are soft seem to be where that 'bonding' type material was applied.
I have no idea what they made this 'bonding' coloured stuff from - so have a couple of questions
- Does anyone know what this stuff is & is it usual to do using this method?
- To repair it my plan is to cut & rake off all the render, bonding, and scratch coat back to the red brickwork, then repair. From my pics of when the work was being complete, that looks like about 2 courses of bricks up from the base of the wall.
What is the best way to repair so that when it's finished & painted it looks as seamless as possible? do I need to apply a scratch coat, then a top coat? If so is this a DIY job, or to get a good top finish would I be best to get a builder to do the work? I have not done any rendering or plastering etc. but am fairly happy to try most DIY...
Issue 2:
Along the top of the wall the edging strips have not been set firmly in place when they were rendered in place. The wall has got a lot of hair line & growing cracks, especially where people have sat on the edge. When you push the corners of the wall then edging strips are springy under the render which is cracking. I presume the only way to fix this is to break all the render off & reseat the edging strips, then re-render?
I'm going to try to create links to the pictures now - please give me some time if they are not available yet...
Thanks for any help in advance.
All walls, steps, patio, and middle lawn are new.
The render is soft to touch where its bubbling & is only soft where the bonding type mix is holding the metal edging in place.
see the 'red-ish' colour bonding type material tacking the metal strip in place along the base of the wall - that's what I think has gone soft, or was never allowed to dry before render was applied.
Issue 2: this shows the cracking corners which run along the top of all of the rendered walls.
