Silly Builders - Funny conctruction defect pictures

[William J. Decker]

Here are a few. Post your own and share.

Older building with through the wall A/C units and a new building going up, next door. What is a builder to do? Easement issue? Are the compressors crossing the property line? You would think that the Architect and/or Surveyor whould have seen this and, maybe, changed the building width by a few inches.

Answer: "Modify" the exterior block (8" split faced concrete).

Plus, no flashing above the balcony ledger. Hey kids, It's efflorescence time!

[William J. Decker]

Here's another one. Newer CMU building. Lower level windows with no flashing or weep wicks, in fact the masons grouted the lintel space.

Look at the interior lintel. This building was about 2 years old. Single wythe CMU wall.

[William J. Decker]

Silly A/C compressor placement. Also note the efflorescence and try to determine its source of water intrusion.

The 2nd and third picture has the compressor installed on the parapet wall, with through bolting. Water leaks inside and below. (Hat tip to Jeff Merrit for these two pictures).

[William J. Decker]

Can you say "corbelling"? Mason rebuilt parapet wall of an older building and didn't seem to like that wall angle. Is this wrong?

Of course, at these this guy did a rebuild. Most just parge over the damage.

[John Shishilla]

Here is a minor one

[David C. Macy]

This seems like a good place to post this, no where near the concerns of Wills, but made me laugh. Just a simple 50 cent cover replacement.

I like the picture of the Pigeon!!

John, very convinient, shut off the switch, fan the sametime as lifting the towel.

[Michael J. Fox]

Silly home owners ?????????????

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Originally Posted by jshishilla

Here is a minor one

That is a good one John, but you have to think outside the box like the Architect.
When you lift the towels off the bar, everything comes on, and when you drop the towel back on the bar, everything gets shut off.

I think David caught on too!

[William J. Decker]

And it helps to make sure that they use the bathroom fan.

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Will, still having fun with your split faced and split rib block buildings I see.
Back in 1975, I was a masonry foreman for the Company now, and that is all that was used for schools, which is what we were building mostly back then.
Talk about sh$t block. Without a block water repellent sealant, they are nothing but one big water spong.
Most of Maine stopped using it and the ones that do are coating it with waterproofing elastermeric coating that I have used in the past, but would have to call someone to find out the product name. All I know is that with that coating, it is proving alright.

[Tom Leahy]

Will, seeing your glass block window reminded me of these.

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Tom, some builders just don't have a clue on water proofing and flashing. Do they?

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by mcyr

Will, still having fun with your split faced and split rib block buildings I see.
Back in 1975, I was a masonry foreman for the Company now, and that is all that was used for schools, which is what we were building mostly back then.
Talk about sh$t block. Without a block water repellent sealant, they are nothing but one big water spong.
Most of Maine stopped using it and the ones that do are coating it with waterproofing elastermeric coating that I have used in the past, but would have to call someone to find out the product name. All I know is that with that coating, it is proving alright.

As to the elastomeric paint, we found that out. All the Public Storage facilities do that.

Did you see my latest article? See Here:

http://deckerhomeservices.com/Split_...ock_update.htm

Poor owner, bought the 20 year old single family three months before this. Is it common to grout the trusses into the block pockets like this? The poor guy is now having the entire top floor gutted, including the roof trusses.

BTW: We are starting to see structural collapses of the roof trusses. Wait until the snow load starts.

Glad I found this for the guy before he had a collapse, but sad that he has to pay for all this. Kinda like telling someone they have cancer.

What are your thoughts?

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Wow! Will, that is incredible. Never seen roof trusses installed like that before and what the concequences were, but now I see why it was never done that way.

Hard to believe that was all from water intrusion through the block, had to be leaking from somewhere to cause that extent of damage.

[John Shishilla]

Originally Posted by wdecker

Did you see my latest article? See Here:

http://deckerhomeservices.com/Split_...ock_update.htm



What are your thoughts?

That is crap!
I inspect mostly newer stuff and no snow loads.

I am glad we live an Florida