Building project from hell and wanting to move

[Fourlittlepiggies]

I need help, please. I am at my wits end and feel so bloody helpless.

We started a building project last July. Modular (steel framed) ground floor extension. Company went bust mid build in Jan, on what was supposedly a 12 week project.

New builders started in March on a 3 week project to finish the work. It is still ongoing. They have rendered the wrong colour, and have LOADS of small jobs to finish things off and then there’s the issue of building control.

We have now realised the settlement cracks in a bedroom are bigger than normal and need a structural engineer/ £000s to fix. We are already more than £35k after losing money to the first builder and now the second one has ghosted us.

I feel helpless. We have 4 small dc, including a baby born mid build. We want to move.

What can we do apart from keep chasing the new builders? I keep thinking we can only finish off what’s in our control, none of which is the major stuff, but we feel trapped at the mercy of these bloody builders.

Sorry I have no experience in this so can't advise, but what a nightmare for you, I'm so sorry.
That's now a full 1 year of building for a ground floor extension.
How big is this extension?
Is it huge?
I've looked in to modular steel frames and from what I've read they are supposed to be faster to build than traditional brickwork.
Have you already paid the new building company that is now ghosting you, or have they ghosted you without them getting their money?
You can't move, you'll make too much of a loss with it in this state. You need to see it through to completion. When it is eventually finished - which it will be - you will be glad of the extension I'm sure. And the extra money it has cost you will easily be made up for by the increased value to your home from having an extension.

We had some large settlement cracks above our extension where the back wall of the house had been removed
wasn’t a massive problem just needed a bit of remedial work because once its settled it can’t move anymore as its sat on a steel

How big were the cracks? I’m hoping it’s an easy fix but feels overwhelming with the rest of it too.

I am so sorry you’re in this situation. Can you maybe get a bridging loan to finish it off? Guessing it’s not re mortgageable with the structural issue? If it’s any consolation, I am on my third builder for my back to brick renovation - first one currently standing trial for murder (I kid you not!), the second one did two thirds and then cleared off. It’s been a nightmare! Third time’s a charm, so 🤞🏻 Good luck.

We need pics please of the cracks to assess these.

Hopefully you haven't paid the second builders everything.

I'd like to advise that you just need a handyman to finish this off but I dont know if that's the case or not from the limited info.

We have some savings left but I don’t want to spend any more money….we will just about break even as it is with all the extra costs.

Here’s some pics. The second one DH pulled the wallpaper/ plaster off (much to my annoyance…) to look at how bad it is…

Thanks. And is this a ground floor extension? So am I right to assume that the original builders poured a thick concrete slab and that there was then a steel frame erected on this slab with the weight of the roof carried by the steel frame?

And with respect to the walls I assume from the pic that they were built up with breeze blocks with the bottom row resting on the concrete slab?

Yes ground floor. Concrete pads until the vertical steel beams, but otherwise ground screws. I don’t think any breeze blocks were used - steels directly on the steel frame (I think).

So if the walls are not block, are they made of panels (like a sandwich of weatherproofing on the outside and insulation). To me those cracks look mainly like the interior plaster wasn't allowed to dry properly and has cracked - so not structural - but without knowing what the wall is made of (and assuming the concrete pads haven't failed) it's difficult to be certain. Are the cracks staying the same now or getting wider still?

If they are stable and it's not a structural failure then fixing it is really about filling them and redecorating so reasonably minor work.

The frame is like this, and filled with rockwall insulation. The cracks are from the bedroom above, so it wasn’t newly plastered. do you still think they look ok? They haven’t got worse since we were last speaking to the original builders in Dec. Thank you so much!

Pic

About 1/4 of inch it was the brickwork under the bedroom window think they hadn’t packed it enough when they put the steel in and it dropped but all ok because because it couldn’t drop anymore as it was resting on the steel

Sounds like what might be the case here. How long did you wait to do the remedial work? I was hoping to get it sorted asap but google suggests waiting 18 months…!

I’m absolutely not an expert but in my previous house had fairly similar cracks on the top floor when I had a massive steel put in on the ground floor. The floors above dropped a bit and there were cracks but they remained stable. We got the structural engineer to look and he said they weren’t anything to worry about.

I understand the pain of building and housing projects, including roofer going AWOL having cut through the flashings at the front of the roof, and trying to take him to court, having to remortgage because our project was way more complex than the builder thought, having things half finished for ages … just know that there will be a solution, it’s hard not to panic but you will be okay and get through it. Daily meditation helped me a lot.

I think I am with @SisterTeatime on this. I hadn't realised that the pics were of the existing upstairs bedroom. Presumably below this a wall was taken out and the upstairs is now supported by a steel beam? If that's correct some small movement is normal so long as it then stops moving as the new steel takes the full load.

A few months
i’m presuming the 18 months would be to let a building settle on foundations so that would be cracks anywhere in the building
it was quite straightforward what had caused ours the existing wall under window had just dropped slightly to sit in the steel that replaced the outside wall it was originally part of