Oxley Woods Living

Life in an Oxley Woods eco house

 
 

Posts Tagged ‘faults’

 

The leaks came back!

October 29, 2008

Following on from our series of leaks and fixes, during the weekend following the final painting and filling over the “repair hatch” that was cut in our wall for leak detection work, it turned out that all was not well.

As we sat in the living room on the evening of the 4th of October, my wife said those fateful words.. “Is that water?!”.  Of course not I thought, and said, but unfortunately, on closer inspection, it was indeed water coming out of the wall and running down the side of our full length window! Disaster! Again!

Anyway, the following morning we inspected the new water damage, to find water marks and stains above and down the side of the Juliet window, and also below the power socket where water marks had appeared before.  All the previous repair and repatching work, and all the disruption that brought with it, felt and seemed as if were all for nothing.  We STILL had a leaky eco home!

So here we were, three months after first discovering leaks at our new eco home, several days of disruptions and multiple repair attempts later, and water was literally dripping down our walls and pooling on the skirting board.  Not good, not good at all.

Leaky window frame in upper bedroom

October 21, 2008

We’ve had a lot of trouble with water at our new eco home at Oxley Woods, more on that later no doubt, but a more recent problem was a leak through our Son’s bedroom window.  We had noticed a water mark/stain down his wall coming from a corner of the opening window section one morning, so reported this to the site manager’s office.  Shortly after it rained again, and we managed to see the water actually dripping down from the window.

This has been remedied by applying caulk to the window seal, where the water was getting in.  This has since been painted over (partially) to blend in better with the window, but the repair is still unsightly.  Still, since the repair, it seems that this leak has been cured.  Touch wood!

Kitchen make do and makeover

October 20, 2008

Our kitchen has unfortunately been troublesome from the word go. The units, which are supplied by symphony were in a deep red colour, which is bordering on brown. They are high gloss doors, and unfortunately the high level units in particular were in a poor state. Doors had chips and scratches in them, and also the doors on the fridge freezer were (and still are at the time of writing) warped at the top and bottom.

The kitchen surface was a dark, fake wood finish. This looked good in our opinion, and matches nicely with the window frames. Unfortunately this seems to be finished in “e-z scratch”, it was scratched when we moved in, and only got worse. After some time we had a “plastic surgeon” come and visit to try and fix the marks. Despite his best efforts he couldn’t sort the scratches, so a replacement was ordered. We took a look at the choices available, none of which particularly impressed, and we decided on a wood block effect replacement.

For the high level doors, we requested white doors instead of the dark red. We hoped this would brighten up the kitchen a bit, and also if they do have any imperfections it wouldn’t show as much as the deep red.

At the end of September we had the new surfaces and doors fitted, and overall, we’re pleased with the result. The surface appears much more durable, and at least scratches will not be so obvious if and when they do occur on the lighter, busier wood effect.