floor problems. Help please!

[larfinboy]

We could do with some help please.

My fiancée bought 50% of a purpose built one bed flat five years ago from Wandle housing association, paying rent to them on the other part. After moving in she was given a property manual. Under the defects section it states that after approximately 12 months our home would be jointly inspected by the Association’s agent in conjunction with the contractors. This inspection never happened. Continued correspondence with Wandle clearly laid out the defects for their attention, but I ended up doing most of the minor work myself (plumbing, doors, door locks, etc) as they wouldn’t commit to anything. However, our flooring was our main problem which squeaked away under the carpet. After two years no one had come to inspect the flat for the snagging, and our floor still squeaked. Eventually Wandle caved in and had some “carpenters” come round to “fix” the issue. They installed 3 m/m ply which was glued and screwed to the existing flooring. Now, not only did the floor still squeak but the front door rubbed on the carpet to the point where the it wouldn’t open properly and we had to take the carpet back up before both got damaged. Again we contacted Wandle; they stated that the floor had been fixed as a courtesy because the building is now out of the snagging period, this is now a maintance issue and as a result we are liable to pay for repairs. They could not understand that this had made the problem worse and not fixed anything! We have been to-ing and fro-ing like this until about 6 months ago, when one of the junior managers came to visit our property after complaints from our downstairs neighbour saying that the squeaky floor could clearly be heard in her flat. He gave us a verbal statement that Wandle would pay to get it fixed properly (the verbal communication is also in an email which he sent from Wandle) if we get the quotes from builders/carpenters. A builder has now quoted for the work, but Wandle have dragged their feet in commissioning him to do it. This has been chased in recent weeks because our neighbour said the noise has got worse and was now waking her up at night (given that I do shift work and have erratic sleeping patterns). Wandle are now backtracking.
We had a visit from the same junior manager and his “surveyor” again this morning; they took lots of nice pictures, and I think they even had a bit of video footage with sound. They also noticed that in parts the floor drops by at least 1 m/m when you put light weight on it. They then went down to our neighbour’s flat, and I can confirm that the noise from the squeaking floor was quite loud and would wake me up in the night if I had to live down there! They then came back up to our flat - with a “solution”. It was not what I was hoping for. They said that we must re-lay the carpet in the hall and this will then stop the noise. ARGH!! This will a) not be possible because of the 3mm ply and the front door issue, b) take us back where we started, and c) NOT FIX THE PROBLEM! Any suggestions as to what I can do would be gratefully received, as after 5 years of struggling to do anything with this housing association my fiancée is at the end of her tether! Many thanks all.

Regards Chris.

[Chuck Sidfrum]

One estate has nearly 5 year of delays regarding noisy floors, as well as issues with bounce.

NHBC were also involved and also delayed - to be frank both builder and NHBC tried to avoid responsibility as well as delaying - but eventually a mix of fixes were rolled out.

Whilst initial responses were to claim it's not a problem, or it's not covered by NHBC Technical Standards, eventually they had tried mickey mouse solutions like screwing boards down and other quick fixes.

Now that most of the estate has had fixes what is interesting is the variation in approach taken to similar issues.

One fix, approved by NHBC albeit never finished prior to being rolled out and never clearly described as to scope of what it would fix was 3 rows of cross bracing, at a fixed price contract of under £15,000, plus any accomodation/removal costs if home owner not residing in property during works.

Another fix was intially denied by builder, but was 7 rows of cross bracing (at 50cm spacings) staggered between each adjacent joist pair, as well as upper and lower strutting. This was at 3 times the price, excluding accomodation/removal etc, and was not a fixed price contractor, rather done at day rates.

Curiously fix one was described as only solving noise issues. Fix two whilst 'unofficial' and denied, was fixing noise and bounce/vibration.

But then builder/NHBC/contractor was also responsible to check for other floor faults and same time, and adjust schedule of works as appropriate. However, homes had other floor issues such and unlevel floors which would need addressing prior to adding strenghtening. This has not happened as expected.

Thus those with the initialy fix one only addressing noisy floors may need to go through the process again to have vibration issues addressed. And those with unlevel floors may need to go through the process again to have strenthening removed, a floor replacement job, and then if appropriate strengthening added (as they would likely prefer to reuse exisitng joists).

One's advice to others suffering floor issues (noisy, bouncy, unlevel) is to be persistent, these can be very expensive issues to fix, and you can expect those responsible to try and reduce their outlay with some extraordinary tactics.

DDT comes to mind, the department of dirty tricks