Dear Forum,
We are building a house under a developer purchase contract.
Before Christmas, the interior plaster was applied. The house, still in the shell stage with windows and a construction door already installed, has not been heated and still isn’t.
Now the still not fully dried interior plaster has frozen. We have sufficiently documented the damp spots with photos. We measured and recorded the wall temperatures over the past few days using an infrared thermometer. They ranged between -4.4°C and -2.4°C (24.1°F and 27.7°F).
The application guidelines for the plaster used state that fresh mortar and applied plaster must be protected from frost until fully dried.
The developer now claims that the plaster has not frozen. They argue that heating the construction site at this stage is not advisable because it could cause condensation on the wooden components.
Insulation including the vapor barrier have not yet been installed.
We are now regularly documenting the wall and air temperatures, which have been consistently below freezing for several days.
How should we proceed? How quickly do plaster defects (cracks, detachment from the wall) usually appear after the plaster thaws?
What is the legal situation in this case? We have not yet made any partial payments for the interior plaster and intend to withhold payment for now.
Thank you very much for any advice and suggestions!
We are building a house under a developer purchase contract.
Before Christmas, the interior plaster was applied. The house, still in the shell stage with windows and a construction door already installed, has not been heated and still isn’t.
Now the still not fully dried interior plaster has frozen. We have sufficiently documented the damp spots with photos. We measured and recorded the wall temperatures over the past few days using an infrared thermometer. They ranged between -4.4°C and -2.4°C (24.1°F and 27.7°F).
The application guidelines for the plaster used state that fresh mortar and applied plaster must be protected from frost until fully dried.
The developer now claims that the plaster has not frozen. They argue that heating the construction site at this stage is not advisable because it could cause condensation on the wooden components.
Insulation including the vapor barrier have not yet been installed.
We are now regularly documenting the wall and air temperatures, which have been consistently below freezing for several days.
How should we proceed? How quickly do plaster defects (cracks, detachment from the wall) usually appear after the plaster thaws?
What is the legal situation in this case? We have not yet made any partial payments for the interior plaster and intend to withhold payment for now.
Thank you very much for any advice and suggestions!
W
WilderSueden25 Jan 2024 14:41Maybe the buddy is just from Australia but has built in Europe? 😉