Issues on public record
Eastern (front) elevation cracking above garage doors
Eastern (front) elevation cracking above garage doors
Internal cracking
Eastern (front) elevation cracking above garage doors
Footing movement
The Chapman Hutchison report in 2002 provided a series of steps to address footing movement and cracking. To date, re-pointing with Sika structural grout has been the main technique adopted for all external cracking. With a few notable exceptions to Lot 2, the extensiveness of internal cracking has not been addressed by the owners corporation. Instead, it has always been considered more appropriate to allow owners to address this widespread and invasive work as part of their own renovations. Internal walls are the responsibilty of owners and not the owners corporation.
The scale and severity of internal cracking is hidden, but a tell-tale sign for this cracking is drummy plaster. The last structural report was completed in 2018.
Laundry compliance
In multi-residential (Class 2) buildings the National Construction Code, Volume One (BCA for Class 2 to Class 9 buildings) requires that all laundry facilities must have a floor waste to deal with flooding (clauses F1.7 and F1.11).
In some units the laundry has been relocated into the kitchen which does not meet Class 2 requirements and has been detrimental. For example, the relocation of the laundry in Lot 3 occurred in 2002 and has since flooded the Lot below on 2 separate occasions.
As with a bathroom, a laundry floor also needs to be waterproofed and graded to permit drainage and the BCA refers to compliance with AS3740.
Termites
In 2004, an inspection by Mort Ant revealed termites in Lot 2. The timber joists and floor in Bedroom 3, and the garage door frames had to be removed. The entire ground floor of the building was treated with Termidor, and provisions were made for additional ventilation and ground water removal.
The additional ventilation was achieved by replacing solid basement doors with metal louvre doors, and by enlarging ventilation holes in the southern facade and garage area. All storm water is now kept above ground to guarantee pipe integrity.
To comply with AS3660 and the BCA's termite actions for Class 2 buildings, the structural design for the 2007 bedroom addition to Lot 1 was elevated for ventilation with the existing bedroom, and termite caps were installed to all new work.
Noise transmission
Owning a 1928 structure means that the noise of modern day-to-day living is transmitted through the floor and into adjacent units. Any excessive activity, such as dinner parties and children running, has usually resulted in complaints. The issue is not unique to this building - see more. An example of the noise from a child playing on the floor above is this MP3 file.
There is little consensus amongst owners on how to rectify this issue in the short-term. A by-law exists for floor coverings and this means that future coverings have to meet a minimum standard. Some owners have installed isolated ceilings and this upgrades the performance of the overall floor structure to a higher AAAC star rating.
Following the advice of strata lawyers in 2017, some occupants have installed noise loggers.
Asbestos
The building maintains an asbestos register and management plan and all asbestos is identified and managed according to obligations under the Work Health & Safety Regulation 2011.
The known sources of asbestos are:
1. The core material to the 2 fire doors in each unit. This means that they cannot be drilled into.
2. The ceilings of garages 2, 3 and 6. The asbestos ceiling in garage 5 was removed for the power feed upgrade and is still to be replaced with a fire-rated ceiling.
3. The ceilings to the main staircase.
All these ceilings are painted and sealed.
Water hammer
Water hammer is a knocking noise in water pipes that occurs when a tap or valve is turned off quickly, and sends a pressure wave down the pipe because the water has suddenly changed direction. Other than causing a knocking noise, it can also break pipes depending on their age and support clipping.
The electronic valves in modern washing machines and dish washing machines are typical causes of water hammer.
As a precaution, some owners have fitted water hammer devices (see image) to the cold water inlets of washing machines and dish washing machines, as the support clipping and age of some of the modified pipework in the building is unknown and a breakage could cause damage to multiple units as the floors are only timber.
Groundwater
When a Development Application is lodged with Woollahra Council, it requires the applicant to upgrade numerous aspects of building performance relating to fire, electrical, geotechnical, structural and others. Groundwater impacts require assessment by a geotechnical engineer which is then provided to the hydraulic/civil engineer for a drainage design.
In 2006 a Development Application for a new structure to the southern side of the building resulted in all groundwater being collected according to Council's requirements.
A similar Development Application for a new structure to the northern side of the building has been assessed by engineers but has yet to be actioned by the applicant.
Window cleaning
The ability to contract a window cleaner with a long ladder and cloth to access windows above 2 stories is restricted due to OHS requirements. Window cleaners now use long poles and brushes from street level.
However, most of the window panes in the building are very small and window cleaners have declined to clean them as their brushes do not fit. Cleaning from the inside can be done but the windows have almost 20 layers of paint on them from 90 years of maintenance and this makes their opening very difficult. To make matters more complicated most of the glass is only 2mm thick and is very fragile.