EQC Repairs

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#1127214 12-Sep-2014 13:48

Fred99: EQC are going to start "cash settling" claims in bulk at the end of the year - these include a lot of jobs where they know damned well that there will be big issues, with other general and non-EQ maintenance issues that are going to have to be done in conjunction with EQ repairs. Every EQC scope of works I've seen seriously underestimated costs. When EQC does this cash-settlement process, there are going to be many seriously unhappy campers out there.

Like the scum we no doubt are we are beginning to float to the top of the pile for repairs.

I've kept a screen shot in which EQC "Promise to repair" by end of 2013. All we want is the house repaired but I figure if they want to cash settle we'll end up having a discussion around their breach of promise.

Anyway, anyone had experience with Rockote repairs? Ours is relatively new (got signed off a few months before EQ's) and I think we've managed to convince them we aren't a "Leaky Home" even though they did the walk around with the "tutt tutt leaky home" comments. But I'm wondering what repair strategies are used. For example there are cracks in the rockcote all around the ring foundation. I suspect they will just want to bog the crack - but should they explore if there is any damage to the concrete foundation?

Originally there was an idea to remove the rockote and replace. There are hairline cracks on just about every plane, under every window sill, door frame and there are areas where you tap it sounds hollow underneath. But they are now talking putting some lining over the top and rockcoting that (even in cracks where you can put your fingers in and the places the rockote has fallen off) - is this returning to "New"?

Comments from last lot of EQC inspections were interesting. "Hmm this is going to cost a bit. Our taxes are working hard to get this all fixed" WTF - I've paid insurance and its insurance money that will fix, not taxes!. "Hmm deferred maintenance this, deferred maintenance that..." WTF - it was practically as brand new house before EQ's - the fact I have done little in the way of maintenance (because it doesn't need doing) since then because you cant get your sh#t together isn't my problem. Cant you tell the what EQ damage is!

Given they (EQC) have lost our engineers reports which show foundation has cracked and dropped (not spotted by their assessors so the damage doesn't exist), lost the drainage reports with cracked earthenware pipes and lost our receipts on emergency repairs I have no idea how they would attempt to cash settle.

And while I'm bleating - remember ages ago when they came around to assess land damage so they could cash settle that part of the claim, Well that's just stuff thats disappeared deep down on some EQC beauracrats desk likely never to see the light of day again.

(edit - formatting. Dang how do you put line breaks in?)

linw

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#1127263 12-Sep-2014 14:51

Your keyboard doesn't have an Enter/Return key?

Tel69

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#1127331 12-Sep-2014 16:35

Well it seems what they have done is an EQC approved repair method despite them saying the walls will be stripped.
A bit hard for me to tell if they used the steam machine to try and remove the wall paper as per the neighbours house or not as I'm not over there all the time.
But talked to a mate who is a lot more knowledgable about these sort of things than myself and he said it was pretty standard for wall paper that would just not come off to do that as they don't want to damage the gib trying to remove every bit of the wall paper.
He did also say them leaving wallpaper around the light switches was really slack as thats generally easy to rip off.

I have a meeting with the site manager next week to go over my issues (as although we met today we could not go on site).
Sounds more like they have bought themselves 2-3 days to tidy stuff up, but I'll not be a pessimist.

minimoke

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#1127698 13-Sep-2014 10:28

linw: Your keyboard doesn't have an Enter/Return key?

It sure does, but even a double tap doesn't create a break. Its there in the draft post but disappears once loaded to the forum.

gregmcc

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#1127766 13-Sep-2014 12:10

Tel69: Well it seems what they have done is an EQC approved repair method despite them saying the walls will be stripped.
A bit hard for me to tell if they used the steam machine to try and remove the wall paper as per the neighbours house or not as I'm not over there all the time.
But talked to a mate who is a lot more knowledgable about these sort of things than myself and he said it was pretty standard for wall paper that would just not come off to do that as they don't want to damage the gib trying to remove every bit of the wall paper.
He did also say them leaving wallpaper around the light switches was really slack as thats generally easy to rip off.

I have a meeting with the site manager next week to go over my issues (as although we met today we could not go on site).
Sounds more like they have bought themselves 2-3 days to tidy stuff up, but I'll not be a pessimist.

At the end of the day you have to live with the repairs, if you are not happy about the standard of repair then tell them to leave and not to return until they are prepared to make the repairs as per the agreement. It's your house, not the insurance company or EQC.

make it known to EQC that their contractor is doing a poor job and you will not accecpt the poor repair job as complete.

Tel69

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#1134759 23-Sep-2014 17:55

Well it seems EQR were not notified on the change in repair strategy (painting over the wall paper).
As far as EQR is concerned all the walls should have been stripped as thats what the company repairing the house is invoicing on.
I can see someone being taken to town over this as the change in repair stratgey even if justified so the gib was not damaged was not signed off by EQR and they rung the company involved today asking them what work had been done on the inside of the house and the reply was "Strip, seal, plaster, paint".

My unexpected and unannounced visits seem to have uncovered something EQR were unaware of, but they were being invoiced for.
I do have to admit, I pity the site manager, he's still sending e-mails at 10:30pm which obviously shows he does not have the time to go around all the sites he is responsible for (over 100 when he took on this one) and communicate with the house owners at a reasonable time, but ultimately he is responsible for the work done on the site and making sure it is done properly.

Suddenly there is a site meeting at 1pm tomorrow.

Go figure. ;)

Tel69

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#1136834 24-Sep-2014 18:31

Well the contractor re-assured me they had stripped all the wall-paper and were not going over old wall-paper.
Ummmm, wrong.
I've sent some of the photo's I have to both EQR and the Watts group, now time for Watts group to respond to my photos and exactly why the walls were not stripped as per the repair strategy or a change to the repair strategy was not at least lodged with EQR.

I can understand them not wanting to damage the gib, but saying catagorically to both EQR (yesterday) and myself today the walls were stripped when they were obviously not is insanity.

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#1136841 24-Sep-2014 18:47

minimoke:
linw: Your keyboard doesn't have an Enter/Return key?

It sure does, but even a double tap doesn't create a break. Its there in the draft post but disappears once loaded to the forum.

What is your o/s and browser in use?

Elpie

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#1136882 24-Sep-2014 20:02

FWIW, I had my house painted earlier this year. The interior walls were quoted for strip, seal, plaster for a paint finish, and paint. This was not EQC related. The contractors stripped a couple of layers of wallpaper, sealed, skimmed, then painted. I queried this and was told it was standard practise to take the paper back to a point where the remaining paper was stuck down well. That wasn't what I had asked for so I checked with other painters then called the Master Painters organisation.

They all said it was standard practise and argued that the walls had been stripped. Silly me, thought that "stripping the wallpaper off" meant it would all be gone. My walls are fibrous plaster, not gib, so I couldn't see any reason why all the paper could not be remove, but it wasn't.

The work had only just been completed when we had the Eketahuna quake and my house was damaged. EQC say they will jack and pack, replace cracked walls with gib, then plaster and paint. They expect the work to be done in August 2015. We will see.

Tel69

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#1157099 17-Oct-2014 19:41

Oh lord, what a few days.
To bring us up to date, I've had 2 people from Watts Group Lie to me about the stripping of the walls (Then go strangely quite when I send them my photos showing they did not strip the walls).
The house was an abortion come move in date, whole house not cleaned, cupboard doors not hung, lino not down, underfloor insulation not reinstated, missing property (Garden hose which I left behind because I thought they might find it useful, well too useful it seems), glued mirrors not up, heat pump not working, even something as simple as a light switch installed the wrong way around (so on was actually off).
Garage door not fixed, the list is LONG.

I had a brickie over yesterday He said I've come to do the brickwork. Yup, OK, I pointed out to him what the structural engineer pointed out to me, that the top level of bricks needed to be checked right around the house as some had seperated from the mortar.
He agreed to check them, then 1 and 1/2 hours later I heard him leave, and guess what, he didn't check them all and we still have loose top bricks.

This thread was started as a simple is this right for the wall paper, EQR and Watts group KNOW I'm not signing off anything and I explained in rather explicit language how I felt about the repairs. This thread is not meant to be a beat up session on EQR, in fact the EQR guy is great.
The guys from Watts Group however or who they contract out to I do not trust, they are the ones doing the work as such and completely no work site management.

Fred99

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#1157271 18-Oct-2014 08:12

Tel69: This thread is not meant to be a beat up session on EQR, in fact the EQR guy is great.
The guys from Watts Group however or who they contract out to I do not trust, they are the ones doing the work as such and completely no work site management.

I beg to differ on that. Fletcher EQR are project managing the job, and are supposed to be using "approved" head contractors who have met their standards as well as approved sub-contractors. It shouldn't be your problem to sort out quality issues etc. The EQR chap you're dealing with might be a nice guy - but might not be doing his job.
That said, it's a nightmare trying to get work done in Chch - for a multitude of reasons.

Tel69

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#1185884 30-Nov-2014 19:02

Well it just gets worse.
I was meant to have a sign off meeting (But buggered if I was signing off), 2 VO's for obvious earthquake damage because the guy who originally scoped the property (and had sign off rights on VO's) said, "No, my original scope was perfect, no need for a variation order".
Then while gardening this weekend I found this.

This crack between the mortar and the foundation extends probably 2/3rd of the wall (Not a small wall around 4 meters or so).
2 photos have just been sent to EQR and EQC, and well them doing their "Construstion Completion inspection" checking on the work and not finding this, honestly, WTF?

Fred99

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#1185959 30-Nov-2014 21:37

Tel69: Well it just gets worse.
I was meant to have a sign off meeting (But buggered if I was signing off), 2 VO's for obvious earthquake damage because the guy who originally scoped the property (and had sign off rights on VO's) said, "No, my original scope was perfect, no need for a variation order".
Then while gardening this weekend I found this.

This crack between the mortar and the foundation extends probably 2/3rd of the wall (Not a small wall around 4 meters or so).
2 photos have just been sent to EQR and EQC, and well them doing their "Construstion Completion inspection" checking on the work and not finding this, honestly, WTF?

IMO that wall should be removed and re-laid - as well as being cracked - it's displaced outwards a few mm. Does the veneer wall move if you push it?
The vertical crack in the perimeter foundation also needs to be fixed - epoxy injection. It looks like 1-2mm wide, not considered "structural" so exempt from consent, but a point for moisture ingress and corrosion of rebar.

If you did gardening to expose this damage, EQC have the excuse that they're not allowed to do anything destructive when carrying out inspections. I had issues with this, they wouldn't even push back branches of shrubs to look behind. Similar with damage to floors etc, they won't lift floor coverings - that's up to the homeowner.

Spyware

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#1185972 30-Nov-2014 22:11

A sample of what I tolerated. All the complaining in the world did me no good. All my mortar was silver, according to EQC it is really white so was repaired with white grout. Hasn't been ground out in places and simply all re cracked along stress points.

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Tel69

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#1186018 1-Dec-2014 07:34

Fred99:
IMO that wall should be removed and re-laid - as well as being cracked - it's displaced outwards a few mm. Does the veneer wall move if you push it?
The vertical crack in the perimeter foundation also needs to be fixed - epoxy injection. It looks like 1-2mm wide, not considered "structural" so exempt from consent, but a point for moisture ingress and corrosion of rebar.

If you did gardening to expose this damage, EQC have the excuse that they're not allowed to do anything destructive when carrying out inspections. I had issues with this, they wouldn't even push back branches of shrubs to look behind. Similar with damage to floors etc, they won't lift floor coverings - that's up to the homeowner.

No, the gardening didn't expose it, I was just trimming a couple of bushes on either end of the wall, the crack itself goes 2/3rds of the wall.
The reason why it was missed was because you have to get down on the ground to see it because the bricks are displaced outwards, (I was bending down picking up branches and saw it).

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