Hello,
Yesterday we had the final inspection (new build). There are 40 terraced houses, but it seems that only we have this problem.
There are several rust spots between the ceilings and walls on the ground floor. In total, we noticed 6 spots. Two rust spots are quite large, about 3cm (1.2 inches), another spot is about 5mm (0.2 inches), all distributed on the ground floor. Attached is a photo of the largest rust spot. The area is still damp.
The site manager said this comes from the connections between the concrete walls. He will fix these defects. We have the handover appointment in 3 weeks, and these issues will be corrected by then.
We recorded this in the protocol and accepted the house.
However, I couldn’t sleep last night. Is what the site manager said correct? If the defect is not properly repaired, will the house become unstable after a few years? It doesn’t seem easy to fix these defects.
What should we do now? Unfortunately, we have no experience with this...
Thank you very much for your help.
Yesterday we had the final inspection (new build). There are 40 terraced houses, but it seems that only we have this problem.
There are several rust spots between the ceilings and walls on the ground floor. In total, we noticed 6 spots. Two rust spots are quite large, about 3cm (1.2 inches), another spot is about 5mm (0.2 inches), all distributed on the ground floor. Attached is a photo of the largest rust spot. The area is still damp.
The site manager said this comes from the connections between the concrete walls. He will fix these defects. We have the handover appointment in 3 weeks, and these issues will be corrected by then.
We recorded this in the protocol and accepted the house.
However, I couldn’t sleep last night. Is what the site manager said correct? If the defect is not properly repaired, will the house become unstable after a few years? It doesn’t seem easy to fix these defects.
What should we do now? Unfortunately, we have no experience with this...
Thank you very much for your help.
Knallkörper schrieb:
What if it is reinforcement that isn’t sufficiently covered at these points? I already answered that:
The area(s) must be opened up (this takes about 3 minutes per inspection point), checked, any foreign objects removed if necessary, and then patched up again.
If it is indeed reinforcement steel, proper repair is the responsibility of the main contractor. Laypersons should avoid handling this (see, among others, ZTV-ING or DAfStb – Repair of concrete structures).
-------------------------
Regards, KlaRa
Thank you very much for the responses!
Attached is another photo of the rust spot, which shows the rust and moisture around the area more clearly. The other smaller rust spots are all on the walls (not the ceiling), about 3 to 4 cm (1 to 1.5 inches) below the ceiling, distributed throughout the room.
Is it possible to check during the handover in three weeks whether the defects have been properly repaired? Would it make sense to bring someone along (an inspector, building technician?), since you obviously can’t see through the walls?
If the issue is really due to reinforcing steel that is not sufficiently covered, will the rust become visible again after a few years, or could we be at risk without knowing it (rust spots hidden behind wallpaper/paint)?
So many questions...

Attached is another photo of the rust spot, which shows the rust and moisture around the area more clearly. The other smaller rust spots are all on the walls (not the ceiling), about 3 to 4 cm (1 to 1.5 inches) below the ceiling, distributed throughout the room.
Is it possible to check during the handover in three weeks whether the defects have been properly repaired? Would it make sense to bring someone along (an inspector, building technician?), since you obviously can’t see through the walls?
If the issue is really due to reinforcing steel that is not sufficiently covered, will the rust become visible again after a few years, or could we be at risk without knowing it (rust spots hidden behind wallpaper/paint)?
So many questions...
K
Knallkörper26 Aug 2017 22:49I suspect these might also be cigarette butts...