Another visit to the site, another day of disappointment

After failing our second lockup inspection on Wednesday and being told that the eaves had already been fixed, we thought we'd take a trip up over the weekend and see the difference.

We aren't at all happy with what we saw and aren't even sure if it's been fixed or not. The eaves still float up and down around the house and aren't level at all;

I also discovered a damaged window which I don't remember seeing before;

I had a closer look at the gaps and cracks in the mortar identified during the inspection;

We still can't get over the issues with the brickwork. Considering that Porter Davis have already had to tear down all the brickwork for the house and start again from scratch, we assumed that the brickwork would have been double checked (even triple checked by upper management if need be) before inspection to ensure that everything was perfect second time around - sadly that wasn't the case.

The issues identified during inspection were all glaringly obvious. Anyone could have spotted them prior to inspection if they had only looked. It just proves to me that no one from Porter Davis is checking the accuracy or quality of the work done on the house.

They couldn't even be bothered to fit the window seals correctly. How the person who left these in this state thinks that this is acceptable is just beyond me! This is just one of many window seals around the upper floor that aren't installed correctly;

We just can't believe how many issues we seem to be having with this build. Why is it such a problem to get anything right first time? Porter Davis must build hundreds of houses a year, is everyone else building with Porter Davis having these same quality/workmanship issues at every stage of the build or are we just the unlucky ones? Is it wrong to expect that something is done right for once or meets the relevant standards or even resembles the quality that we were shown in the brochures/show homes when selecting Porter Davis? After 10 months of this, we both now agree that if Porter Davis offered us our money back and cleared the site, we'd walk away and start again with someone else tomorrow - it's been that bad. We can't see an end in sight and being only 50% of the way through, we have potentially another 10 months of this unless something changes in the way that Porter Davis work or perform their internal assessments/inspections - which at present seem to be non-existent.

On the up side, we now have a fence on one side of the house as the neighbours are due to move in soon. It's changed the look of the garden and shown us exactly how much space we're going to have - definitely enough room for a pool in the future;

From the external garage wall;

And from the back fence;

Lockup stage inspection - Take 2

It's been over 4 months since the house failed the original lockup inspection, so I was keen to see exactly what improvement had been made over the inspection which eventually led to all of the brickwork and sisalation being taken down and redone from scratch due to not being up to standard.

Brickwork
While the brickwork is infinitely better than the previous brickwork, there are still a few minor issues that need addressing. There are cracks in the mortar and pits/holes in the mortar work under the rubber seals of the windows. The brickwork also doesn't appear to have been cleaned that well and there is still traces of mortar that need to be cleaned away.

Eaves
Probably about 40% of the eaves are out of line. The eaves doesn't follow the same course of brickwork all around the house and floats up and down.

Flashing
Metal flashing that has been attached to the wall doesn't appear to actually sit over the brickwork that it is supposed to cover and instead we have a nice big gap between the two.

Insulation

The insulation in the roof hasn't been cut to size or shape in most of the areas its been applied. It looks like whole sheets have just been laid across the top, rather than cut in to sections and fitted in to each gap as it should be.

I am surprised at the issues that were highlighted. All of these issues were very obvious and stuck out like a sore thumb when walking around. It just highlights to me that the work being done on the house still isn't being checked. These are simple things that really should have been picked up and resolved before inspection. 

Eaves & Brick Washing

Another weekend visit to see what's changed over the last week.

The upstairs brickwork has been completed, the eaves have been installed and the acid wash for the brickwork is currently underway.

First floor bricking underway

Another trip to site today. Nice to see the first floor brickwork going up and the tradies working on a Saturday. Really impressed with the new brickwork, shame it couldn't have been this good first time around.