Are these wall cracks structural?

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GDAWG10

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Had some issues with our rooftop balcony in our new build flat in Greece. Some issues with the roof drains and water getting into the wall and ceiling through the dodgy drain set up and unsealed glass / marble viewing area. We have our inside on the third floor with a balcony and then an additional roof garden above. Noticed damp on lower ceiling above our lower balcony which is what caused me to investigate the roof garden above. I noticed the outside of the roof garden wall had damp and cracks and the render was effectively blown and cracked in the area they chipped off this morning. You can see quite a large crack in the concrete. They've patched it what looks like some sort of filler.

Is this a structural crack? Should I be concerned about the crack and also the repair?


Image (8).jpegImage (9).jpeg
 
What type of construction is it? 1, mainly Brickwork and sand and cement rendered?
2, Hollow Pot bricks rendered in S&C and ,masonry painted?
3, precast concrete sectionional construction, rendered and set?
4, Reinforced poured concrete and steel sections from the footings up?
5 ,How old is the building?
6, what height is the building?
 
As a resident, and I assume with a building landlord responsible for repairs and maintenance, I'd be requesting a copy of the structural engineers report.

Working on the assumption they've just done a patch job and not inspected it and therefore can't furnish you with the above, I would be requesting a written statement from the landlord that the cracking has been assessed, that there are no structural issues, and that the repairs are correct.

Assuming you can't get that, then options are getting much more hassle.

Try and arrange your own assessment. €€€€

Move €€€€€
 
What type of construction is it? 1, mainly Brickwork and sand and cement rendered?
2, Hollow Pot bricks rendered in S&C and ,masonry painted?
3, precast concrete sectionional construction, rendered and set?
4, Reinforced poured concrete and steel sections from the footings up?
5 ,How old is the building?
6, what height is the building?
It’ll be number 4 and it’s quite a new building.
Shouldn’t be structural.
 
Thanks for the replies.

The whole building has cracks and there are some things which look odd like the concrete surface in the car-parking where it meets the wall there is a large crack all along the wall where it meets the vertical wall. I guess some is settling.

This specific issue on our roof garden wall in-between the roof garden and lower balcony/floor of our apartment we think is due to water damage. You can see the damp running all along the wall. There was an issue with the two 10cm drains on the roof garden patio. They cut the top 10cm drainage cover from underneath to fit it into their dodgy hole they made for the down pipe and it seemed like water was running into the concrete under the tiles. I think that's sorted now kind of. A whole load of waterproof cement and sealer and better drain cover fitting which should bypass the concrete under the tiles and flow into the downpipe.

We are owners. The building was completed in November 2019. It's nice but the finish and fine details are poor, and they also messed up the roof garden drains and some other issues. I've attached a picture with an arrow of the type of wall/ceiling it is. I think they use hollow bricks but they also used poured concrete. Based on the second picture, it looks like the section we are talking about is poured concrete. We have come out of our one year snagging period, but we raised these issues before and we have the investor of the building who has kept an apartment for himself in the building pushing the contractors to sort the issues out but the reason why I am always concerned is it doesn't seem like there is ever any plan. They kind of just send round a painter with a bucket of paint, and some filler or wall repair and don't do any investigation as to the damage and whether it needs more than just a quick repair. It's not polyfilla but not cement....it's some sort of surface wall repair product I think but not sure it should fill a patch as deep as that with such a crack.

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Got some cold weather on its way to Greece over the next 4 days , maybe the cracks will get worse, difficult to say now they have been plastered over though.
 
Could just be shrinkage due to drying out, if not smearing some plaster over to hide them won't help, as Petrol Pete says in cold weather buildings contract, they will show up again if structural, even more movement with expansion in hot summer, keep an eye on them.
Forget the one year snagging list, with a property that size you must surely have a 10year building certificate which can enforce the main contractor to put right any defects over the next 10 yrs from commissionioning date, read your contract. In Spain with our house we had 10 year cert, and they even contacted us near the end of ten in case there was anything needed doing before expiry , after we would need to pay.
You posted a picture of a drain outlet a short while ago, it looked to me like a Strainer for a double bowl double drainer stainless sink top.not really what you'd want as a roof outlet, tell the builder to stop using cowboys and get some proper tradesmen to do things correctly. Good luck 🤞.
 
Could just be shrinkage due to drying out, if not smearing some plaster over to hide them won't help, as Petrol Pete says in cold weather buildings contract, they will show up again if structural, even more movement with expansion in hot summer, keep an eye on them.
Forget the one year snagging list, with a property that size you must surely have a 10year building certificate which can enforce the main contractor to put right any defects over the next 10 yrs from commissionioning date, read your contract. In Spain with our house we had 10 year cert, and they even contacted us near the end of ten in case there was anything needed doing before expiry , after we would need to pay.
You posted a picture of a drain outlet a short while ago, it looked to me like a Strainer for a double bowl double drainer stainless sink top.not really what you'd want as a roof outlet, tell the builder to stop using cowboys and get some proper tradesmen to do things correctly. Good luck 🤞.

Thanks Peter. I came back to this forum for this subject because last year I received some good advice about how they had bolted a steel pergola into the roof garden wall with the rods sticking out and at an angle.

Of course, this crack could just be drying out but it could also be linked to the damp in the walls from the drainage issue, I am unsure and what affect this could have with the water damage. I'll keep an eye on it and now they've owned the repair, at least I can hold them to the quality of their repair.

Yeah the new roof drains are probably closer to a 10cm shower drain. It's what they put on the covered downstairs balcony. The issue with the original roof drains covers were they had cut them at the bottom to fit in the opening because they didn't cut the hole cleanly in the tile and concrete so water was flowing into the concrete because there was a 1inch gap between the down-pipe and the roof drain connection and also a crack in the down-pipe at the top/opening. This 10cm shower drain type of cover has a slightly narrower attachment/down-pipe at the bottom so fits in their poorly cut hole/opening and the water should flow directly into the larger down-pipe which runs down the building. I would have thought it was a fairly simple process i.e water flows into drain cover, into pipe. Job done. But somehow they fudged the hole and the whole system.

Checked the contract.

" The vendor gives the purchaser a 12 month guarantee for from date of delivery for good workmanship blah blah blah and and will rectify repairs immediately. The vendor thereafter will bear no such responsibility whatsoever with regard to the property and he areas of common use".

Nice to know they stand by their work long term. Fairly new company/developer however they are currently knocking up about 10 different modern projects in the area. I wanted this to be a long term place for us, but given it's already increased in value, we could potentially make a 20,000 - 30,000 profit in around a year, so will have to weigh up the issues.
 
Not a crack, it's a structural expansion joint :D
 
GK, you could make 30K in a year, but only if the building is sound . If its worse in a year you will be trying to sell it with zero guarantee. A tricky one for you. Best of Luck.
 
Sorry for any confusion. Cyprus not Greece. Just thought I'd simplify it. I hope the building is sound long term. After all, the foreign investor who funded the project owns two flats in the building and the contractors are building more buildings for him. He's been pushing them to sort the issues, but seems to have full trust in them in and the patch up jobs they keep doing.

We purchased about six months before completion for 165,000 euros. We had an offer of 180,000 after completion. We are waiting on title deeds which have been lodged and approved which is lucky because there are some buildings with mortgages on them and markers from the bank due to the developer/investor owing money and owners are waiting years for deeds. We should get ours within 18 months latest, and with a new large shopping centre nearly completed close-by and the area undergoing a lot of development (new marina etc) looking at similar properties and older not as modern, we could be looking at an asking price of around 200,000 right now if we had title deeds. The developer also said they probably sold too early and for too low. 165 in a really upmarket neighbourhood for a 2 bed penthouse with balcony and roof garden 2.5 miles from the sea was a pretty good deal in my opinion. Just hope there are no further major issues.

Different area but in the last 10 years with Russian money and buyers/investors property went through the roof in Limassol. You see a lot of buildings here with damp issues and other issues which show up and start looking old after about 10 years so I'll have to keep an eye on it.
 
I am pretty certain the 12 month guarantee covers just about anything. (Like a b2b car insurance)
However, the signing civil engineer is responsible for the structural integrity of a building 'indefinitely' in Cyprus.
Buildings collapsing are unheard-of here.
 

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