Oxley Woods Living

Due to the problems we have been experiencing since early July with rain water coming into our Oxley Woods eco home, it was decided by someone at Wimpey that a meeting should be held with several important people present. We’re not entirely sure who was supposed to be at these meetings with us, but the list included as many people as a CAD designer from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, one or more directors/managers from Wood Newton, and senior manager(s) from George Wimpey.

The meeting was originally organised for Tuesday the 14th October. We were told that the workmen would be in early to strip the house, and then people would come and discuss possible problems and solutions with us and each other. This was cancelled the day before, and rescheduled for a week later, apparently because some of those due to attend could not make it.

Tuesday 21st October came (and I called the day before to confirm it was still on) and first thing in the morning the all too familiar sound of the cherry picker making it’s way over signalled the start of the panel stripping process.

Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t happen then either. In fact it was apparently never due to happen then, but the following morning. So again we waited for the meeting. We said that one of us would have to take our Son to school and would appreciate it being held after about half past nine, so we could both be there.

So, Wednesday came, and first thing there was a gathering of people outside the house, staring at the property and bringing out some materials to work on the house with. I set off for school and back as soon as possible, only to find that the only member of management who did arrive, John Green from Wood Newton, had left, despite being asked to stay by one of the team on site from George Wimpey, as requested by myself. He had other things to do it seemed.

Nobody from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners or management from George Wimpey attended. So quite why the previous meeting had been postponed we do not know.

John did speak to my wife in my absence and seemed to be confident he had the solution to the leaks , and he assured her the work would be done in a day.

The fix basically involved stripping off all the Trespa panels (already undertaken for the examination of the house) some of the batons around the glazing, and other areas, and applying some sort of sticky breathable waterproof tape made by Tyvek to the house, using some dark, sticky resin applied to the breathable panels on the house.

We were concerned by the amount of tide marks on the side of the house. These, we are told, are perfectly normal and to be expected as the panels are themselves waterproof and are designed to breath, so water should be able to get behind the trespa and then just run down them and off into the French drain below. The horizontal tide marks seemed more of a concern, and it was these areas, as well as around all the glazing, that efforts (and the waterproof tape) would be focused.

All batons were them treated to a bit of mastic for good measure, not that the water should get in behind those anyway, and then the trespa panels re-applied. The work should be invisible behind the panels, and, finally, waterproof.

We were also assured that while the house was leaking, apparently far worse than any other house on site (although we get the impression we’re not alone in experiencing some rain water coming through), it WAS built to spec. This raised the concern that the house isn’t faulty by construction, but by design. Which would mean in turn that every other house on the Oxley Woods development has the potential to suffer the same problems. The reason, we’re told, we’ve had so much suffering is our relatively exposed positioning compared to other properties. This could be a blessing in disguise, as getting wet, and (we hope) getting fixed could be better than getting damp, and never even realising it.

The work that John from Wood Newton had assured would be carried out in a single day did, not surprisingly given the scale of the task, take the workers through until Saturday afternoon before they had the side of the house back together. The front and back of the house will also need to be checked and taped where deemed necessary.

The work was noisy, and very disruptive, we had a hell of a week. Our eight month old daughter suffered through disrupted sleep and we all suffered as a result. Having the workmen come in an extra day on Saturday to put the house together was a surprise (we found out Friday evening they’d be in), and it was good to see them working to get it done, but it caused further disruption and upset.

When all was completed, we were not happy with some of the panel fit, and some panels have been damaged in the process with small chips and scratches. But it does look much neater, and feels like a more complete solution than taping and covering a few patches as before.

The photographs below show various stages of the work, we have literally hundreds more, all on my Flickr page if you’re really that interested to see.