Shah Alam, Selangor

Land Sinking

Anyone experience this? Land sinking?
Our hse (corner hse) has been renovated with ext of the 5 feet land (behind the hse) and the car porch (additional of 3 feets land on the left).
According to our contractor, he has done up the necessary foundation but the land still sink and cause the crack on the wall and the car porch.
Who is liable for it, the contractor or developer?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Hong Boon on July 23, 2009 at 2:47pm: Hi, my contactor currently do the renovation on this area ( extend kicthen), he commented that area the soil is very soft and he need to do extra paling( normally, we don't do paling for kicthen extention). Please check with the developor on this matter, reclaim land ? water underground ?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by kennyjay on July 23, 2009 at 4:27pm: hi,

if the land is sinking could be its not settled yet....sometime takes years before it settles.....i also heard that the land KU westis built on is with additional land filing to prevent flooding.

could be another reason it is sinking.....however on ur question of who is liable..the developer on is liable for the defect liability period for 18 mths if there is no reno done.....in this case you have to liaise with the contrator to help u out.....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ju-Lian on July 23, 2009 at 5:05pm: Most probably the land had not settled yet couple with construction in IR & highway, it prove too much for the house concrete to handle.

You can check with your contractor on what kind of "necessary foundation" he had done? etc: piling, concrete foundation, steel mesh...

Since it is renovated i doubt the developer will want to hold the responsibility since you had changed the default infrastructure. Hopefully your contractor able to help you on rectifying the work he had done.

How bad is the crack? Perhaps you could post it up here, maybe there is engineer in the forum could help up.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheong on July 24, 2009 at 9:25am: Oops, we forgot to take the pictures on the cracks. Our contractor is coming over today to insert some metal and steel, not too sure what they are going to do about. As for the car porch, they will re-do the area where it 'sink'.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sean on July 23, 2009 at 11:10pm: sound not good :/... mind to show us some pictures ?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kenny Ong on July 24, 2009 at 1:39am: well, i think a lot of us are facing this problem, the common wall (fence) between me and both of my neighbours keep cracking, all they did is patch it back up, it wont solve the problem, and recently i just notice that there is a hairline crack on the master bedroom's wall, as well as near the stairs. It sickens me to see all these cracks, I should have check thoroughly before i bought over from the previous owner.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Teng on July 24, 2009 at 8:10am: i think all is the same, my wall tiles at dry kitchen crack after I complete reno and moved in .... contractor said it's normal ..... due to land sink .... so if we check properly and rectify at early stage .... later will have hair line crack also after we move in ... for the crack tiles, as long as not too serious and obvious, I not going to replace it, otherwise whole house will be dusty .... hair line crack on wall also detected, just minor one .....; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheong on July 24, 2009 at 9:35am: our is not obvious too but I can't tahan seeing the defect day by day. We hv spent so much $$$ for it, no way for us to accept it. Also, the effect of the sinking land cause our backdoor not able to close. Now we are worry that there will be more 'land sinking' since ours is corner with extra land.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheong on July 24, 2009 at 9:30am: Yupe, that was what the developer's contractor did to our hse as well...just 'patch up' so that u don't see the 'hairline crack' next round when u come for inspection. If u are lucky, the hairline crack will not show up again in future but if there are some knocking here & there, the crack will appear. That's happened to our hse too. We get our own contractor to 'repair' it at our own cost.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hong Boon on July 24, 2009 at 9:46am: Stagnant Hairline crack is due to the contraction of the cement when it dry, you can paste with the sealant, should not be any problem. You better consult your contactor if the crack line propagate and increase its width ( normally due to piling at surrounded area).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kenny Ong on July 25, 2009 at 12:10am: sigh, really don't know what to do, and don't think there's anything we could do. Complain, patch, complain, patch...its annoying. Anyway I really think we should all bring up problems like these for tomorrow's meeting.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by place on July 25, 2009 at 10:33am: hairline cracks is not something new among new developments....

one is like wat ABC mentioned...settling of the cement,
two, it could also be the sand brick damaged after renovation done close to the affected areas

and not necessary sinking...

although Cheong's case it could be a case of sinking due to lack of sufficient base works.... yes Cheong, u mentioned the contractor told u he did sufficient base work, but did he do any piling as per ABC mentioned?.... i.e. like how some contractors do cement flooring with and without wire mesh...those done with wire mesh the the chances of sinking or cracking is less then those done without... but at the end of the day..its the cost that matters...

honestly, all you guys mentioned hairline cracks and seem not happy when the developers patch it...well if they dun patch it..wat do u expect them to do?.... demolish the wall and rebuild? keke

dun get me wrong too...i bought a IR1 too.....i'll too be unhappy if i have bad cracks around the hse... but if its hairline i would see it as a norm... :)

good day guys; ▶ Reply to This