vision2014 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I am on the Board of our condo building located in Pattaya and I am hoping there will be TV members who have addressed this problem. In brief, several owners on the 17th and 18th floor have ceiling and wall water damage due to an apparent leak from the swimming pool located on the 20th floor. The sauna is located on the 19th floor directly under the pool and it probably also has some damage. The Developer of our Building has a poor track record of doing quality repair work and I am hoping someone can recommend a company who has the expertise to do an independent inspection of the problem and perhaps do the required repair work. Some other background information ; 1)The Developer will be doing an inspection next week. Therefore I would like to have an independent inspection completed in the same time frame. 2) The Building is only 2 years old and I assume the swimming pool is still under warranty but the Developer has a track record of reneging on contractual commitments. Depending on the repair cost, we may have to consider litigation but I have no idea if this is a viable option in Thailand. 3) The water problem has probably existed for a month and possibly even longer. The paint on the walls and ceiling is discoloured and "bubbling". 4) I was able to touch and see the exterior wall of the swimming pool (access through a crawl space on the 19th floor) and the exterior side wall has at least two locations where the wall is wet and large puddles of water were forming on the cement below the pool Many thanks for any recommendations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ignis Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naam Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Roof-top pools (and the ones with fancy wave machines and other technology) are something that would put me off buying in any condo building. Developers rarely care much about the durability of their work here, and the pool repair companies are a bunch of cowboys too. Our pool has been repaired/re-tiled a lot since it was built but it's still has many problems, which I suspect will only be properly fixed by digging the pool up and completely rebuilding it. Luckily, thanks to the layout and location of the pool, this is something we could do quite easily. I would have thought that the only proper solution to a leaking roof-top pool would be to fit some sort of liner. But whatever you do, make sure that you get several quotes and don't believe a word that anyone tells you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. As far as I know most tall buildings have a water tank on the roof that supplies the sprinklers, as well as providing the water supply for the building. Ours does. But our tank isnt a pool and isnt tiled and doesnt have any electrics or pipes or conduits in it, and so it can quite easily be worked on or repaired. And I wonder how many buildings here with high-level pools will have had proper piping connected to the pool to allow the water in it to be used in emergencies? Forethought is not common. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieH Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 May be better suited to Pattaya forum for local knowledge/experience/input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guderian Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 The swimming pool in our village sprung a leak about two months after the developers had built it. We took them to court and they were ordered to fix it. After much argument in and out fo court they did another rubbish job and it leaked even more than before. Now we've been told that a proper repair job will cost around 1.6 million Baht so we're back in court. The developers just don't seem to care, never mind that their reputation suffers, and they know (from past experience probably) that they can drag the matter out in a Thai court for ever and a day. There's no way the village can afford to stump up the 1.6 million Baht so the current plan is to get a court order allowing us to auction off one of the developer's unsold properties in the village and use the money to fix the pool. Maybe if they did a better job of building things in the first place there wouldn't be any unsold houses left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 It's also quite common for developers here to set up a different company for each development which they then close as soon as everything is sold, thus making it more difficult (impossible?) for them to be forced to fix defects. Scams, scams and more scams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banzai99 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Our pool is on the 4th floor, it's an older building with loads of space, guess they don't build them like that anymore. Opposite me is Wong Amat Tower, it has a rooftop Pool, wouldn't fancy living on the floor below. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chumleywon Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 (edited) Posted Today, 10:09 Naam, on 02 May 2015 - 08:46, said: a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. As far as I know most tall buildings have a water tank on the roof that supplies the sprinklers, as well as providing the water supply for the building. Ours does. But our tank isnt a pool and isnt tiled and doesnt have any electrics or pipes or conduits in it, and so it can quite easily be worked on or repaired. And I wonder how many buildings here with high-level pools will have had proper piping connected to the pool to allow the water in it to be used in emergencies? Forethought is not common. What most people don't know is that the water storage for most of these development IS THE POOL! I am a sub-contractor on some of the buildings as well as project manager (retired) from the states and have watched allot of buildings go up from foundation to finish. I saw a small underground storage tank go in on a project. and I asked the a construction manager how can the whole building run on such a small tank? He told me most of the developments have a tanker truck that goes two or three times a day to pick up water and the project is not even connected to the city water but the real shocker is the underground tank that they fill every day is connected to the pool and that the pool is the real water storage. If you live in a condo with a pool you might think twice about peeing in the pool...I live in a house! Posted Today, 10:09 Naam, on 02 May 2015 - 08:46, said: a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. As far as I know most tall buildings have a water tank on the roof that supplies the sprinklers, as well as providing the water supply for the building. Ours does. But our tank isnt a pool and isnt tiled and doesnt have any electrics or pipes or conduits in it, and so it can quite easily be worked on or repaired. And I wonder how many buildings here with high-level pools will have had proper piping connected to the pool to allow the water in it to be used in emergencies? Forethought is not common. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What most people don't know is that the water storage for most of these development IS THE POOL! I am a sub-contractor on some of the buildings as well as project manager (retired) from the states and have watched allot of buildings go up from foundation to finish. I saw a small underground storage tank go in on a project. and I asked the a construction manager how can the whole building run on such a small tank? He told me most of the developments have a tanker truck that goes two or three times a day to pick up water and the project is not even connected to the city water but the real shocker is the underground tank that they fill every day is connected to the pool and that the pool is the real water storage. If you live in a condo with a pool you might think twice about peeing in the pool...I live in a house! Edited May 2, 2015 by chumleywon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prakhonchai nick Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I well remember a hotel in Korat had water tanks on the roof in excess of what were approved. I had been in the hotel's massage parlour the night before the building collapsed due to the weight. That was around 20 years ago. Not sure I would be happy to stay in the Pattaya condo. Dams leak before they burst! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elgordo38 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 The swimming pool in our village sprung a leak about two months after the developers had built it. We took them to court and they were ordered to fix it. After much argument in and out fo court they did another rubbish job and it leaked even more than before. Now we've been told that a proper repair job will cost around 1.6 million Baht so we're back in court. The developers just don't seem to care, never mind that their reputation suffers, and they know (from past experience probably) that they can drag the matter out in a Thai court for ever and a day. There's no way the village can afford to stump up the 1.6 million Baht so the current plan is to get a court order allowing us to auction off one of the developer's unsold properties in the village and use the money to fix the pool. Maybe if they did a better job of building things in the first place there wouldn't be any unsold houses left. Forget about the pool I would be worrying about the construction quality of the homes the villagers live in including yours. I have seen Thai workmanship first hand and its grab the money and run and the banks that put up the money for the project don't care either. I think they give you a 1 year warranty but again after you have paid him he really doesn't care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suradit69 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 (edited) We've had some problems with tiling, grouting, leaking in our pool (not on the roof thankfully) and, according to our annual report, we're using a local distributor from Weber to do repairs. http://www.weberthai.com/en/weber/about-weber/saint-gobain-weber-in-thailand.html Can't personally attest to their competence, but we do have an excellent board with some people with experience in maintenance, so I assume their choice was well made. Edited May 2, 2015 by Suradit69 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOTIRIOS Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 ...wave bye-bye to your investment.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaorop Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. you mean IN the ground, same though, i always feel uneasy with pools up high, particularly where inspection codes are so easily bought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGX Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 never buy property with high level pools or trees, you asking for trouble at some point. hopefully the building maintainence will be prompt but i wouldnt hold my breath These problems are mainly due to poor quality equipment used to cut costs improve bottom line, never made to last especially in asia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balo Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 (edited) Cheap building materals and poor planning leads to this. Don't expect to live in a "luxury" condo even if the ads says so. Edited May 2, 2015 by balo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaorop Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. so many holes in that argument does it have system to use the water for firefighting? or are buckets the order of the day who will control that system? you, a thai security guard? what if the fires on the 9th floor? who pays if the system breaks and some get flood damage? etc, etc. would have to be very well engineered and properly constructed, not traits that spring to mind here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ggt Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Sell your condo before the whole building is beyond repair...take a small lose if necessary...but find better accommodations... The mold and mildew alone...will cause health problems for years...even if they fix the leak... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
attrayant Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I've always wondered about these elevated pools - do they have a crawlspace beneath them for maintenance purposes or do they just sit directly on the ceiling of the tenants below? First thing I'd do is suggest draining the pool since it's causing damage below. If the leaking continues unabated, everyone in the building will be on the hook for a special fee assessment in the next budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vogele123 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 (edited) Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. Remember Towering Inferno? (1974) they saved everyone by bursting the water tanks at the top of the building! Somchai Mc Queer to the rescue!!! The thought of Thais trying to capture and contain water at 20 storys high beggars belief! They cannot even contain it in a dam or a river. At least when the sun comes out they will be complaining that there is no water in the pool for a swim. Edited May 2, 2015 by Vogele123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freebyrd Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. The Towering Inferno, McQueen/Newman et all - 1974 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csabo Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Look at the bright side. Soon you will have pool in the lobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csabo Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Small Quake should fix the problem and wash 17 floors of Condo's... can never understand why any place would want all that weight of water, concret and extra steel on the roof ? sorry not helpful, but to me a swimming pools place is on the ground. a pool on top of a 20 story building comes in handy in case there's a fire on the 16th floor and the fire brigade can't even reach the 8th floor with pumped water. so many holes in that argument does it have system to use the water for firefighting? or are buckets the order of the day who will control that system? you, a thai security guard? what if the fires on the 9th floor? who pays if the system breaks and some get flood damage? etc, etc. would have to be very well engineered and properly constructed, not traits that spring to mind here. Not to mention the last place you want to be in a high rise fire is above the flames. Just ask the people from above the plane crashes on 9/11. Oh, that's right, you can't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Grumpy Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 The swimming pool in our village sprung a leak about two months after the developers had built it. We took them to court and they were ordered to fix it. After much argument in and out fo court they did another rubbish job and it leaked even more than before. Now we've been told that a proper repair job will cost around 1.6 million Baht so we're back in court. The developers just don't seem to care, never mind that their reputation suffers, and they know (from past experience probably) that they can drag the matter out in a Thai court for ever and a day. There's no way the village can afford to stump up the 1.6 million Baht so the current plan is to get a court order allowing us to auction off one of the developer's unsold properties in the village and use the money to fix the pool. Maybe if they did a better job of building things in the first place there wouldn't be any unsold houses left. You have perfectly encapsulated Thainess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapd Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Empty the pool. Am I missing something here? If the thing is leaking why do you still have water in it? Any inconvenience that emptying the pool may cause is far outweighted by the inconvenience of it leaking down on the condo's below and who knows what other kind of problems until it's fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiangraiTony Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Firstly I would work hand and hand with the condo's Jurassic person, generally a local Thai person. You'll need someone that can speak the language and be an interpreter to assist you. If you cannot locate a qualified company that performs inspection type work then I would contact two different companies and make an appointment to meet at the same time. One qualified person from a reputable Pool building company and another company that does renovation construction both internal and external. Try and get estimates from them if they had to perform repairs and restoration. I would take video when meeting with the developer so you have a record of what promises they may make. Make sure you bring along your interpreter. You'll need to be a good coordinator because I suspect lots will be going on with so many people in the same room. Just direct how you see best fit. You'll need to rely heavily on your Thai Jurassic person. Slow things down to the speed of your comfort and remember, keep smiling. If you can joke a little it will help things along. Stick to your plan and in the end, hopefully you will be in a better position than you are now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KittenKong Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Firstly I would work hand and hand with the condo's Jurassic person, generally a local Thai person. Sounds like a bit of a dinosaur. I think you mean "Juristic Person Manager". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjohnsonthird Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Empty the pool. Am I missing something here? If the thing is leaking why do you still have water in it? Any inconvenience that emptying the pool may cause is far outweighted by the inconvenience of it leaking down on the condo's below and who knows what other kind of problems until it's fixed. Ahhh, it might be hard to find the leak if the pool is emptied, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman20 Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script> The swimming pool in our village sprung a leak about two months after the developers had built it. We took them to court and they were ordered to fix it. After much argument in and out fo court they did another rubbish job and it leaked even more than before. Now we've been told that a proper repair job will cost around 1.6 million Baht so we're back in court. The developers just don't seem to care, never mind that their reputation suffers, and they know (from past experience probably) that they can drag the matter out in a Thai court for ever and a day. There's no way the village can afford to stump up the 1.6 million Baht so the current plan is to get a court order allowing us to auction off one of the developer's unsold properties in the village and use the money to fix the pool. Maybe if they did a better job of building things in the first place there wouldn't be any unsold houses left. I think you will find as with my pool in my house before they tile it they should use a water proof sealer I use lanko 226, not cheap that's why they don't use it, but it fixed my pool. no more leaks job done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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