Window | Oxley Woods Living

Posts Tagged ‘window’

The drip drip effect at Oxley Woods

February 3, 2010

It’s not been long since we moved back into our home at Oxley Woods. The newly installed windows are a vast improvement over the old. Personally, I prefer their appearance, but most importantly, so far, they’re proving weather proof! We’ve had rain, we’ve had snow, we’ve had wind… and so far so good, the water has remained on the outside of the property!

So, for the first time since June 2008, it seems our Taylor Wimpey and Wood Newton constructed eco house is water tight!

Unfortunately, it’s water tight, but still, in the case of one room (and the skylight area, of course), still rather wet.

Our Son’s bedroom is at the front of the property. It has a corner window, the same design and orientation as the kitchen on the ground floor. Unfortunately it gets wet. Very wet.

A couple of days ago I grabbed some photos, it wasn’t actually anywhere near as bad as it can be. Below show his bedroom window, our daughters window in the neighbouring room, our bedroom window, and finally the kitchen window for comparison.

As you can see, there’s quite a dramatic pool of water in our Son’s bedroom.

This is not unusual. It’s been very bad since we moved back in, and following a meeting on site here at Oxley Woods last week with Wood Newton and Taylor Wimpey we’re not even sure what’s going to happen. It seems they don’t really know what the problem is (sound familiar) and why this particular section of glass is suffering so much, when all others around it are not. It’s not a hot room in the winter, and it’s not unique in it’s style/position (other than elevation, it’s much the same as the kitchen, which by rights should be the “damper” of the two rooms.

Our son doesn’t breath more than myself and my wife combined, or even probably much more than our younger daughter in the next room. We don’t hang things on the radiators… there just seems to be a problem with the glazing in his room.

We really hope this gets resolved as soon as possible, as water on wooden windows cannot be a good thing, neither can the damp in a children’s bedroom, and the fact the water runs down the recently painted walls, leaving run marks as it goes, certainly isn’t pleasant at all.

Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions as to what could be causing this, please feel free to comment below, as we feel we need all the help we can get to resolve our problems right now!

Tags: cold bridging, condensation, eco homes, eco house, eco houses, george wimpey, glass, glazing, milton keynes, oxley park, oxley woods, oxley woods living, Problems, taylor wimpey, water, window, windows
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Live and let dye at Oxley Park

June 25, 2009

After being seriously messed about by Wood Newton earlier in the week, and another decent meeting with the George Wimpey site manager on Tuesday another full day of disruption followed yesterday (Wednesday) as more water testing was underway on our eco house.

I could ramble on for ages about how unhappy we are with the attitude of Aiden from Wood Newton, how rude he was to Abi because she actually wanted to be in on their conversations about OUR property (stomping about saying “I can’t work like this”… and worse), and how little time they spent actually spraying the house with water in various locations. For example, ten minutes on one window, so I asked if they thought that was enough to really simulate a decent amount of rainfall “How long do you want us to spray it for then” came the reply from PR guru Aiden.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that only one thing was established, it seems that water is coming in through the reveals and into and through the window frame in the full length window in the living/dining room. This to us seems to be an inherent and rather stupid oversight and design flaw leaving no room for the slightest deviation in manufacture, and also not suitable for weather, because in the words of Aiden when it gets hot and cold it will expand and can open up new gaps.

The rest of the testing focused on the front of the property and not one of the known points of water ingress, some witnessed as recently as Friday last week revealed themselves. This is part of the problem, one day there’s a leak in one location, the next, due perhaps to weather changes or the water Gremlins living inside the walls, the leaks have moved somewhere else. This doesn’t help the Wood Newton and George Wimpey guys finding the various faults and flaws, but it also is no help to us having our home continually pulled apart and tested on.

The only thing that did appear was two NEW water patches on the kitchen ceiling. These are in a location towards the front of the property where we have never before witnessed any water ingress, tide marks, or moisture. Unfortunately these appeared relatively late in the day at 15:30 after about 115 minutes of spraying the windows on the top floor. Weirdly, the moisture metre and finger tests in the holes drilled in our walls revealed NO dampness anywhere near the windows on the second or first floor or anywhere leading the water marks on the ceiling. Water is somehow penetrating the walls and working into the property. But still, nobody knows how.

The plan is that first thing this morning (usually meaning 8:30, but there’s no sign yet of anyone gathering outside, and it’s five to nine) they will begin again with spraying ONLY the first floor of the property with water injected with dye. This will continue as long as feasible to see if the water marks re-appear. If and when they do appear, they will track them back using holes, the moisture metre, a small probing camera etc. to attempt to find the root cause of at least these leaks.

So far it would appear we have faulty windows, inherently faulty windows in several locations, which were fitted using an inherently faulty method (now “fixed” with flash banding using Resistit) in addition to other, unknown faults leading to this further water ingress.

Tags: eco home, eco homes, eco houses, eo house, faults, george wimpey, leaking, leako home, leaks, milton keynes, Problems, taylor wimpey, water ingress, window, windows, wood newton
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Just another day in our Oxley Park eco house

June 12, 2009

Today work commenced at about 11:30 on the house, starting with correcting a mistake we noticed last night were an external baton was put in the wrong place, which meant the Tresda couldn’t be properly attached until it was sorted.

Following this, and just completed, the workmen from Wood Newton went up to inspect the window frame and surround in bedroom two at the front of the property, were it appears water may have been entering from any number of locations and has affected the paint and plaster on the inside.

On inspection, and to no great surprise, according to the guys from Wood Newton the problem probably lies with the shoddy repairs we’ve had carried out (twice) on the window frame, which by design are not good enough to keep water out. That, and the fact the frames appear to be separating and coming apart at the joins. Fantastic. The frames have all been filled and repainted quite poorly, but due to weather (?!) the filling and paint is cracking and coming away from the windows and this is, according to the Wood Newton guys, most likely how the water is passing through the frames, and tracking across to the various points it it showing inside the property. That and the fact the frames are themselves separating at the joins in the corners.

They are now moving onto bedroom four, at the side of the house, were we saw a great deal of water coming through at the weekend, to carry out the same basic inspection.

Yesterday we learned a few things and didn’t really have our faith restored in the properties, their design, their construction, or George Wimpey’s (or Wood Newton’s) ability to properly sort things out. The “solution” for the front of the house were had water coming through above the kitchen window in two locations on two walls and ceilings (it is a corner window) was to remove a load of shoddy filler that we’ve been unhappy about since it was put in during December 2008 and then to cover the lower section of house between the ground and first floor windows (including the balcony facade) with Tyvek, stuck in place with their own self adhesive tape, then put the batons in place over the top of the tyvek. The logic behind this is that all rain will go over the waterproof Tyvek Supro material and drop/run away from the property as it should be doing by design anyway. But isn’t.

During the repairs several holes were cut into the house (cores) to check the paper based insulation. Basically the holes were cut through the green Panelvent outer “skin” and sticking in a finger the check the paper is still “fluffy” as it should be. Somewhat to our relief, it appeared to be OK. These holes were then patched over with the Tyvek tape.

To us this does feel like they’re just putting plasters over wounds they can’t heal. Instead of discovering why the buildings let in water, and at so many locations, and actually fixing the “core” issues, they appear to just make every effort to divert the water away from problem areas, even if they’re not 100% certain where the problem areas really are. As an example the water is coming through above the windows. Above the windows has been “fully waterproofed” using apparently very high quality materials (Resistit E SK). Now, no matter where that water is coming from, it shouldn’t be getting through a highly tested, 50 year guaranteed, relatively wide band of flashing material. Nobody could answer why or how this was happening, just that they believed that applying Tyvek to the front of the house would stop the water getting around to those places in the first place and stop the flow of water. Not very reassuring.

As usual we’ve got a tonne of photographs but I’ve not yet had time to view or edit those to share on here.

Tags: eco home, eco homes, eco house, eco houses, george wimpey, leaks, milton keynes, oxley park, oxley wood, Problems, secure by design, taylor wimpey, water, water ingress, window, windows, wood newton
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Positive meeting and a step in the right direction

November 5, 2008

I should work for the red tops with such pun mastery as this.

Anyway, today the meeting that never was, twice, finally took place. Almost all were present and correct, representing the builders corner were the site manager, customer service manager from Taylor Wimpey, architect (but from Taylor Wimpey and NOT from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners) and the director from Wood Newton. Representing the householders corner, me, my wife, and our baby (our elder child made his excuses, something about legal requirements and education?).

The meeting seemed pretty positive, John from Wood Newton and our site manager were pretty much leaders of the meeting, explaining to the customer service manager and architect what our problems had been in so far as rain water entering the property, and what measures had been taken to resolve the situation. I also learned from early conversation that the tape used on the house isn’t in fact by Tyvek as previously informed, but a completely different material, I’m waiting on details, but apparently it’s an aluminium based product, due to be used in the construction of the 2012 velodrome.

While the Trespa was not removed and the work beneath checked, it was agreed that the leaking on that side of the house appears to be cured, it’s been raining on and off for several days and no sign of water, on that side of the house anyway. We are going to be provided with a side elevation of the house to mark on which panels have been damaged etc, before they can be replaced.

The same work is now due to be carried out on the front and back elevations as soon as possible, probably starting next Monday, but possibly as early as the end of the week. I’m guessing Monday. At the same time, remedial work will be carried out on those panels that are out of line or poorly fitted, most notably surrounding the Juliet balcony.

I also asked those present to check out the water on the upper bedroom window, and that is confirmed as condensation (a huge relief). Basically because that is the warmest room in the house, and it’s on a corner of two panes of glass, it’s very much a cold spot in the room, which does lead to condensation. There’s loads of it though, so we’re going to have to do something more than a pot of salt do dehumidify that room over winter!

I asked as many questions as I thought I could get away with, apparently only us and one other property who are in a similar position so far as orientation and protection from the elements have experienced water ingress like this. I was pushing the point not just for our sakes, but for other residents and potential residents, about how, if the house is “built to spec” is it getting wet inside. To be honest, they didn’t really have an answer for that, could be settling and movement, but I couldn’t disagree that the materials and methods used to seal one side of the house certainly seem to be doing the trick.

While we had a house full I thought it a good time to mention the disconcertingly bendy step, and to state my belief that the flexible filler previously applied probably wasn’t up to the task of securing stairs. Not surprisingly it was agreed it needed a proper fix. Unfortunately this will require another hole to be cut in our walls so the workmen and get under the stair to sort it out. As much as I have every faith that the repair of the wall will be spot on, it’s still painful to see your new home undergoing surgery.

Subcontractors sent by Nuaire arrived later in the day to work out why our eco-hat has been going crazy. They rather unconvincingly (never once looking at the data logger) diagnosed some incorrect settings on the fan speeds causing the problem, and made the required adjustments. It seems to be working, but it’s an intermittent fault so we’ll have to wait and see.

The dry liner and his boss also came around and looked at our previously mentioned bulging wall, and have had another go at skimming and filling to smooth everything over. Until it’s painted over (which wont be until the work on the leaks is complete) it just looks a mess, but here’s hoping it’ll do the job. I asked if there was any way to cut the bulge back, rather than fill out around it, and was informed in no uncertain terms this cant be done due to the nature of the build.

There’s also an update on our warping fridge and freezer doors, Symphony (the manufacturers) are going to come and take a look, and have to work out what’s going wrong. This is a common fault, and even doors that have been replaced on other properties on site are bending again. So until they work out how to stop the bending, we’re going to have to put up with warped doors. Only problem I can see here is the colour being dark red may fade, and then look dreadful when the new doors are in place. Hope not!

I also raised my concern about the number of nail/screw heads popping out all over the property. I was told this is normal and to be expected, and probably wont settle down until about a full year. Joy.

I had a decent chat with all the team at the house about the problems we’ve had, about the site, about what they’re doing and I found out a few interesting bits and pieces concerning water and air tightness, thermal imaging and other testing that is carried out periodically on the Oxley Woods development, apparently our neighbours house had the full monty done to it. I couldn’t help but quip they should have done ours instead, could have saved a lot of hassle and heartache.

Anyway, before I start rambling and waffling, I got a decent amount of insight from the team today, and I should be getting some more soon. I’m keen to learn and understand as much as possible about how these houses are put and held together, the technology and the testing involved, as it’s a subject I’m interested in anyway, and even more so since I live in one of the properties. Credit where it’s due, my impression of John from Wood Newton has completely turned around now I’ve actually had chance to discuss the matter with him, while there was a certain amount of people protecting their position at the meeting, it was generally open and well mannered.

Tags: design, eco friendly homes, eco friendly houses, eco hat, eco home, eco homes, eco house, eco houses, george wimpey, kitchen, leako home, leaks, milton keynes, nails, nuaire, oxley park, oxley woods, Problems, screws, skimming, sunwarm, symphony, taylor wimpey, water, water ingress, window, wood newton, workmanship
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Meetings that never happen and a house stripped and redressed

November 3, 2008

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.