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I am planning to purchase a house from some builder and I have finalized some properties. All are newly constructed houses. In one of it, I can see some water leakage in walls due to rain.

Is this fixable, if yes, can I ask the builder to fix it and proceed to buy it OR can I ignore this?

I need suggestions please.

The leakage images are below (click to enlarge):

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Dhanapal
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    anything is fixable ... the question is whether you want to spend the money .... i would check all the houses that you are buying from this builder – jsotola Oct 14 '21 at 06:27
  • I have shortlisted few properties and one of them having this issue. So, my query is, is this fixable and won't give any issues in future OR I have to go for another property? – Dhanapal Oct 14 '21 at 06:33
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    One of them is *showing* this issue, before it was ever inhabited. I would be seriously worried about what issues will arise in 5-10 years. Somebody screwed up / cheaped out / etc here. – negacao Oct 14 '21 at 11:09
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    Is that a flat roof or rooftop balcony? It looks to me as if there's a serious drainage problem and water is left pooling up there only to soak down through the structure. – brhans Oct 14 '21 at 12:00
  • It's a flat roof with tiles. Attached the image for reference – Dhanapal Oct 14 '21 at 15:42
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    Don't buy the house. If you are buying this for income you don't need a dissertation for something so obvious. We would all have flat roofs with a patio if there were not inherent risk and problems. – DMoore Oct 14 '21 at 16:12
  • Does the side of the building always look like that? Or did you take the picture after some rain? If it's still there, I would think it was not water, perhaps some sort of sealant? I usually don't see latex paint change colors with water damage, though it could be another kind of paint. – rtaft Oct 14 '21 at 17:27
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    Where (approximately) in the world is this house? If it's in a desert, and you only get rain once or twice a year, it might not be so bad. If it's in a wetter climate, or especially a northern one where snow is an issue, avoid it like the plague. Given that you seem to be in India, I'm guessing you get a lot of rain there? (Depends on what part of India, I suppose.) – Darrel Hoffman Oct 14 '21 at 17:32
  • Don't you think you should be either dropping that property and moving on or, if there's a special reason to try to work round the problem, asking a specialist lawyer? – Robbie Goodwin Oct 14 '21 at 20:04
  • A mold infestation waiting to happen. – Boann Oct 15 '21 at 06:14
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    Even ignoring the obvious water-seal failure - each of those photos shows some aspect that would make you avoid this builder like the plague. The finishes, interior & exterior are the bits that even a shoddy job would try to shine up a bit. This struggles to reach piss-poor even on the bits you can see. – Tetsujin Oct 15 '21 at 11:06
  • @rtaft, Its due to rain only. after few days it's gone and showing again when raining – Dhanapal Oct 15 '21 at 11:37
  • @DarrelHoffman Yes, this is located in South India and here we get raining often in rainy seasons. As per the Govt record, approx rainfall is 1200mm/year on this area. – Dhanapal Oct 15 '21 at 11:44
  • @RobbieGoodwin This is my first properly purchase so, am not sure and I want to know is this common in new building or a series issue. – Dhanapal Oct 15 '21 at 11:53
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    It's an issue serious enough to stop you buying the house. It will likely need re-roofing. I wouldn't trust that builder to do it properly. Find another house. – Tetsujin Oct 15 '21 at 14:41
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    Judging by your rooftop pic I think what's really not helping is that it's unfinished. There are very clear gaps all around those unfinished support pillars as well as the large open space in the corner. We can also see that the concrete walls all around have absorbed lots of moisture which is probably also soaking down into the walls below. It's *possible* that many of the problems in the house below will go away if these issues are resolved, but I'd still be very concerned that the roof has been left in this state for any period of time. – brhans Oct 15 '21 at 15:00
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    When it comes to houses/buildings, I don't think there's *any* sort of water leakage problem that can safely be ignored. A mold infestation can make the building uninhabitable. Water will accelerate the degradation of the materials used to build the house. A leak that drains underneath the house can create a sinkhole that can destroy the whole building. Water leaking into electrical fixtures can start a fire. There's no such thing as an ignorable leak. – bta Oct 15 '21 at 16:13
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    @brhans finishing the interior before the building is weathertight alone is proof the that builder is an idiot. Anyone competent will leave stuff that will be damaged by water safely in a builder supply warehouse/etc until the exterior is done enough that rain won't come in. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Oct 15 '21 at 18:17
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    I don't think in mm/year rainfall, so I had to look this up. 1200mm is double what London gets & 20% more than Manchester, famous amongst Brits as being the wettest place in the country. That makes this a very serious issue indeed. – Tetsujin Oct 16 '21 at 12:38

3 Answers3

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Apparently this is a flat roof, maybe a terrace roof.

Since the roof is flat, there is no slope to let gravity get rid of the water for you. So it really needs to be done properly, with an EPDM membrane or something of the sort.

If this is not done properly it will leak. From the pics this one is leaking everywhere along the edge.

If the membrane (or whatever else is supposed to make it water tight) is hidden below something, like tile, gravel, earth, etc, then you'll need to get rid of that to access the leaky membrane.

Then, well, it's difficult to find the leaks from above. So given it's leaking pretty much everywhere, you'll probably end up having to redo the whole thing.

I'd recommend finding a contractor who can do that, and asking them how much that will cost. Don't expect it to be cheap, because it's a lot of work.

Do not ignore this problem

You could ask the builder to fix it, but since it'll be expensive, will they really do it?... They'll probably just wait for summer so it dries and sell it as-is instead.

Also there are other tell-tale signs that this building is pretty low quality, so beware. I wouldn't be surprised if all the paint on the exterior walls falls off way sooner than it should ; the little wall in front has wet spots on the bottom which hints that the drainage on the terrace is not working (or there is none), etc.

bobflux
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    I think it's worth spelling out the bottom line, since OP mentioned perhaps buying multiple newly-constructed houses from this builder: Question whether you want to buy ANYTHING from this builder, even houses that are not yet showing major problems. This will be an expensive disaster if you purchase it, and the others might too, and just not be showing it yet. – Glenn Willen Oct 14 '21 at 18:48
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    The roof photo: there look like multiple open penetrations on the top face of the "wall." In any event the interior walls are now full of mold – Yorik Oct 14 '21 at 19:18
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    On the last pic of the terrace, I mean look at the wall, it's completely soaked. Is there even a drain? Fiberglass insulation in these walls is probably waterlogged too – bobflux Oct 14 '21 at 19:21
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    Concur - The builder's fix will likely be just-enough to get the house sold. After that its the new-owner's problem, and they might be up for a complete re-roof on a brand new house. I would ask for the cost of a new roof off the purchase price as a bare minimum. – Criggie Oct 15 '21 at 00:01
  • @GlennWillen careful - the OP doesn't seem to be buying multiple properties, but to have a few on a shortlist to buy one (see comments under the question as there's a little doubt from the wording in the Q itself). If it's just one, it could be faulty installation on this property, or it could be that the cover-up is slightly better on the others – Chris H Oct 15 '21 at 13:10
  • GlennWillen and @Chris, Am not gonna buy multiple properties. I wanna buy only one and I have shortlisted few properties with various builders. The question and the attached images are the same property from one builder. – Dhanapal Oct 16 '21 at 09:40
  • @bobflux I don't think there is a EPDM membrane at all. Plus you wouldn't put tiles on top of the EDPM membrane. Anyway I wouldn't buy it either :-) – JB. Oct 16 '21 at 14:46
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Ouch! This is really, really incompetent work...this house is likely to develop serious mold problems in the future. I would look for another builder.

oldVermonter
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I would assume that water is pooling on the roof during a rain. The symptoms you describe could happen due to the following reasons:

  • Your rain gutters might be blocked. Flat roofs have gutters / holes in the side walls / pipework etc. which drains rain water - spilling it on the ground or taking it into the sewage. Make sure that your gutters are not obstructed.

  • Rain gutter might be damaged or not properly sealed, providing an ingress for water into the walls. Depending on the type of gutter it can be trivial or hard to replace.

  • Cracks might have developed between the walls and the roof, forming pockets where water can enter your walls. This sometimes happens due to settling. Inspect the floor of your roof, especially close to the edges, and see if there are any crevices or cracks. Have these repaired or caulked.

  • The roof might not be properly sloped. Even flat roofs have a slight slope which guides water to the rain gutters, similar to how the floor is sloped in washrooms etc. This could potentially be fixed, but you would need to have the tiles reinstalled.

  • The roof membrane / tar might be damaged. This can be redone, but again you would need to have the tiles reinstalled at a minimum.

I've seen similar issues, but only in very old homes or ones which have been renovated (walls moved). I would be concerned if this was the state of a new building.

UmH
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