Uneven floor and suspect wiring & pipework

lablett · 17th May 2010, 23:26

Dear All,

I recently moved into my new house and noticed the floor in the bedroom had a slope. Luckily the room below had down lights so I could take some pictures of the joists that are causing the problem. The end of the bedroom that has the problem joins onto the stairs. The three pictures attached show where the engineered joists join the solid joist next to the stairs. Picture one shows the joist next to the wall and you can see that the floor boards have been packed to raise the level for some reason. The net result is that the floor boards above are not resting on the engineered joist and this is contributing to the slope on the floor above. Picture two shows the next area over and that the pipes and wires run between metal thing and floor. Picture three shows the next area over again and now the floor boards are now on the engineered joists.

The house is still covered by the two year warranty so I contacted the builders and they are coming out to see the house soon.

Does anyone have any advice or know what the metals things are?

Thanks in advance

Lee

nem39esis · 18th May 2010, 16:50

that looks a bit dodgy to me, especially the nails through the joists themselves, pretty shoddy job, its difficult to tell the scale, but the nhbc and building regs specify distances between joists, the sagging may be due to the joists being too far appart. The section joining the two together doesnt really need to be the same height but the cabaling is a bit rubbish and could be dangerous as its likely over time the sheath protecting the cable will get worn away from movement and could then cause fires. Have you spoken to the builder and showed him the pictures?

lablett · 18th May 2010, 20:37

Nem39esis,

I have contacted the builder and they are sending out someone this week. My theory at the moment is that they packed the floor under picture 3 so they could run the cables under picture 2. On your point of nails through the engineered joists why is this a bad thing?

I also managed to look at the joists on the 1st floor, as I live in a town house, and the cabling is even madder. Below are the pictures looking up and down the hallway.

What are your thoughts?

Lee

clared112 · 19th May 2010, 08:32

I toally agree with Nem39esis- shoddy!! With the movement in the flooring the sheath on the cables WILL wear away in time... (builders cutting corners again)- I'm suprised they didnt put a nail through one of the wires!

Have a look at this, It's the technical guide from the NHBC, this will tell you about the joint spacing.. http://www.nhbc.co.uk/NHBCPublicatio...d,21418,en.pdf
you will also see on page 7 holes are drilled through the joists for the wiring.

Hope that helps.

Clare

nem39esis · 19th May 2010, 10:53

Some of those pipes are your central heating, they use plastic piping nowadays, if they're compressed under the boards and split your going to have all sorts of problems, they should not have been squeezed through like that nor should the wires, its dangerous and shoddy building work. I was shocked at the nails in the previous pics because it just shows that the builder didnt think before installing it. Most sensible builders wouldnt hammer a nail that was 2x the length needed through a joist. Makes me wonder what else has been bodged. Make sure you keep a list and send letters as well as making phone calls so that you have a good record of correpondance, Its clearly just not good enough and i wouldnt stand for it, ask your neighbours too, is theirs the same?

lablett · 31st May 2010, 12:21

Good news - Barratt came out and they are going to spend two days looking/fixing the problem. I plan to work from home and keep an eye on them, as I was slightly concerned when the guy mentioned beading to plug the skirting gap!

While I feel this journey is only just starting at least it’s going in the right direction.

Anyway I'm going to Maplin to get a flexible snake scope camera so I can check all the joists that join the stairs.

zednine · 5th June 2010, 18:36

rough as fo**

typical new build estate house...

these will be wired in a day...

alucard · 14th July 2010, 06:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by lablett

Dear All,

I recently moved into my new house and noticed the floor in the bedroom had a slope. Luckily the room below had down lights so I could take some pictures of the joists that are causing the problem. The end of the bedroom that has the problem joins onto the stairs. The three pictures attached show where the engineered joists join the solid joist next to the stairs. Picture one shows the joist next to the wall and you can see that the floor boards have been packed to raise the level for some reason. The net result is that the floor boards above are not resting on the engineered joist and this is contributing to the slope on the floor above. Picture two shows the next area over and that the pipes and wires run between metal thing and floor. Picture three shows the next area over again and now the floor boards are now on the engineered joists.

The house is still covered by the two year warranty so I contacted the builders and they are coming out to see the house soon.

Does anyone have any advice or know what the metals things are?

Thanks in advance

Lee

Metal cleats for fixing the joist 'spacers'. Keeps continuity between joists.
I would really get the routing for the central heating pipe and electric cable looked at. Should be through the 'spacers/joists' and not directly in connection with anything load bearing.