Significant Water Ingress

Building Issue – Water Ingress

This multi-level building consists of 38 apartments and is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The building had both Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP) and expanded polystyrene.

Ninety percent of the ground floor apartments had significant water ingress with one apartment being unliveable for 6 years. This caused significant financial and emotional stress to the owner of the apartment who could not live in the property or tenant it out.

Water ingress is when external water is able to enter a building. This can result from poor construction, poor design, or the age of a building. Water ingress can create significant structural, non-structural and occupant health problems and must be addressed as soon as issues are identified to minimise the cost and scale of the remediation. Over time water ingress has a compounding effect in spreading through buildings and damaging its infrastructure.

PASG Projects Analysis and Scope of Project

PASG Projects met with the strata manager and the owners corporation-committee to present the PASG Projects process to complete a thorough review of the building to identify the extent of the water ingress.

Our detailed inspection process identified the following issues:

Sliding windows installed incorrectly without end caps. This resulted in water entering the window frame and then pouring into the plaster cavity.
Window hobs were not fit for purpose and were crumbly.
No water membrane under any of the courtyard pavers or balcony tiles. Hence water was able to access the underlying structures.
The roof had overflow issues that allowed water to access the ceilings below.
Planter box membranes had not been installed allowing water to seep from the planter boxes.
The lower roof membranes had failed well before the end of their useful life.

A key consideration was understanding the extent of the frame rot due to the water ingress. A report was produced for the strata manager and owners corporation-committee.

PASG Projects Role

With the building assessment completed PASG Projects defined the scope of project and produced request for tender for contractors to price the remediate works. We assessed the tender submissions ensuring “apples with apples” and the scope had been included and made clarifications where necessary. We drafted the Contract and administered the Contract and administered the Contract as superintendent through the construction phase.

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