Floors are tilting in new house..

[Strange]

37 minutes ago, MikeyIdea said:

Pardon me for making a stupid joke but don't Americans and the Burmese, being the only ones in the world still left to use inches and feet, feel lonely

 

The correct translation of 4 meters is 400 centimeters

 

Lonely? Not at all. 

 

Its like speaking 2 languages. 

 

And there are several areas world wide that still use our system so we understand both. And not just "Inches and Feet" but all the fractional units in-between. 

[MikeyIdea]

Just a friendly joke, it is good to speak 2 languages

 

[transam]

My place land was built up about a metre and left fo 3 years for the rain to compact it. When the holes were dug for the upright concrete pads the digger driver went down until he felt "solid" ground. I watched this. That was 9 years back and have no house movement or cracks.

Up the road from me they built the land up 2+ metres and built straight away, but they brought in a piling crew..

I reckon your place is on the move..

[Anythingleft?]

While it would of been wise to go to solid ground especially when building on back fill it's a bit late now,  were all the sides bunded where you filled or was some of it open? if one or more sides are open then the slippage will probably continue for a while as there is nothing to stop it

Nothing you can do now except watch it and if it becomes a bigger concern later on and looks like it's not going to stop then you will have to underpin it to the solid ground. That will just be a mess while it's getting carried out but it won't cost too much

A proper stiffened raft would of been the way to go on this type of soil build up when you have any doubts, footings can be a pain I learn't that in the UK, tons of money for something you cannot see

[AlexRRR]

Paper....forget the comments from guys not in the industry...i am and I'm a registered builder in AU, licensed an all because we have to give a 7 year guarantee on a building structure ....

 

Your got expense coming up if you want to stop the slide, piles were needed to support your structure end of story...

 

Part of your problem is water...soil will keep on compacting for quite a while....water is your next big problem....enough water around the building will accelerate compacting, i recommend you get spouting put on ur roof with down pipes and until you know what your going to do conect storm water pipe above ground and get the water away from the building....same thing should be done with your land around the house, rake it so water will drain away from the house, this isn't a cure it will just help....underpinning is your only option to save it from further titling...it make take years but eventually you will feel like your on a ship in a storm...

[Strange]

54 minutes ago, AlexRRR said:

Paper....forget the comments from guys not in the industry...i am and I'm a registered builder in AU, licensed an all because we have to give a 7 year guarantee on a building structure ....

 

Your got expense coming up if you want to stop the slide, piles were needed to support your structure end of story...

 

I know you are coming from a good place but this aint AU. 

 

This is Thailand, nobody is going to pile for a 45 sq meter bungalow with a metal roof. 

 

Not denying that the 4m fill can have a large effect on settling, but that little bungalow aint going nowhere. Im in the industry too, several in fact, but the rules and insurance and licensing go out the window over here. 

 

I agree with a slight trenching around the house to keep water away. Nothing wrong with that. But fear mongering OP into underpinning or house will be like a "Ship on a storm" is a little far out. 

[BEVUP]

A lot mentioned about your fill in the main block, but to me it also looks like you raised your house half a mtr or so

There may lay the problem as they would of set your columns built the half mtr wall around then filled it with loose dirt & added water from the hose prior to pouring slab as i have seen done before

[eyecatcher]

Its dead easy to check if its post build floor movement.

 

if the house has suffered some differential settlement after you moved in, then not only would the floor be sloping, but also the windows and doors would also be sloping in the same direction.

Your house corners will not be vertical, and there will be quite obvious signs of cracking where a path abuts the house.

Use a spirit level and check your window sills.

 

if the house corner, windows and door frames appear perpendicular and horizontal then the conclusion is that the builder didn't lay the concrete flat....or the was it the floor tiler. most floor tilers even incompetent ones would first set out a water level to the perimeter of the room to take up any slope in the concrete slab.

 

its not always so easy just to level up after the event especially if you have doors to contend with.

 

the clues should be on the outside....

 

The cracks you showed on what appears to be one of the ground beams or is it masonry built on the beam are characteristic of the stresses involved with ground heave. the beam may be deflecting from the underside due to the sodden ground. if you have clay fill then you are in trouble as clay just swells and swells and will lift a two storey house to the point of breaking its back......but if this is the case I would expect your floor tiles in that area also to be showing signs of cracks of even lifting.

 

have a good look yourself, surveying properties is not difficult and very logical just follow the clues.

[papersource]

Thanks to everyone for your ideas. 

 

I did check the door frames and window sills with a level and they are also slanting. So everything is slanting from the rear of the house (higher) to the front of the house (lower)

 

I'm not sure yet if the front is sinking or the rear is heaving upward but when it rains all the water on the metal sheet roof runs of to the rear and is just dumped there. Strangely, it does not accumulate and is just absorded into the fill. Also, there might be some clay in the fill. 

 

At this point there seems to be a general agreement that getting the rainwater away from the house should be done with some gutters and a drain system so I am going to do that as a start.

 

Of course, I did enquire about gutters two times with the builder and also my wife's family and they both said: "may tong" not necessary :)

 

Thankfully, it locals here seem to agree that the rainy season has ended. Also, the mysterious little cracking sounds we used to hear from time to time have also ceased. 

[transam]

The water does not 'pool' because the ground is not yet compacted, as it compacts over time the land will sink some. As your place has been built on soft land you need the 'sink' to be even. If me I would fit a gutter to take roof water away from the house so rainfall around the house will be even so hopefully soil compression will be even and the house will sink evenly..

[MikeyIdea]

1 hour ago, papersource said:

Of course, I did enquire about gutters two times with the builder and also my wife's family and they both said: "may tong" not necessary :)

 

I don't pretend to be a professional but I have seen many Thai houses being built the last 25 years. I bet that the house is so light that it will sink for a while and then just stop, end of story. Gutters won't change that

 

Only question is: Will it sink unevenly? The floor tiles haven't cracked so the house seem to be moving evenly now, rainy season will stop in a week (unless you are in the south) and will not come back until the house stopped moving = no point in putting up gutters now

 

I believe the builder, but we must understand that it is the way he measures. Rooms are off square with a cm or two, the end results will be / was from the beginning that the house slants a centimeter or two. Perhaps it will slant a bit more before it stops. For him and the wife's family that is  "mai penn rai", for me too actually. Only a cracking floor would raise my blood pressure a bit for a while

 

I'd just stop worrying, just check once every 2 months. Put some quick paint over the cracks if they trouble you, just relax, have a beer, enjoy life with the wife, watch the sunset

 

The house will still be in one piece when it stopps sinking

 

[papersource]

Thanks Mikey,

 

The floor tiles inside the house are perfect even the grout- no cracks whatsoever. Just a slight slant from the back of the house down to the front. 

 

You are absolutely correct that the wife and family said mai pen rai.

 

They didn't even believe me at first. They couldn't see the slope. Then I demonstarted a can of beer chang rolling slowly from the back of the house floor to the front all on its own power. 

 

Then they agreed that there is a slight slope to the floors. Then they said mai pen rai and changed the subject. LOL

 

I am going to do the gutters for some peace of mind if nothing else and also we could really use the water for gardening also. going to direct the rainwater from the roof into big tanks.

[Anthony5]

Thai builders have a tendency to put floors on a slope towards the exit or a drain., makes it easier to get the water out when cleaning, or when having a water leak inside the house.

 

I say a tendency  towards a drain, because i have also seen floors slope in the opposite direction.

[Crossy]

46 minutes ago, Anthony5 said:

I say a tendency  towards a drain, because i have also seen floors slope in the opposite direction.

 

Invariably those are the ones in the shower room.

[transam]

5 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Invariably those are the ones in the shower room.

The only tiled floors in my place that are not level are the shower cubicles...

[eyecatcher]

Yes sadly there is nothing you can do except hope. hope that if it was ground heave at one side that when the ground dries out the house will recede also.

 

I fear though, given the amount of fill you are sitting on, that you are suffering from differential settlement. in other words one side is settling at a different rate  than the rest. More load perhaps or just and area of negligently compacted or non compacted fill.

 

The good news is that its not soil erosion as you can easily lose your house.

 

My bathroom extension has suffered likewise. over two storeys it now leans 50mm from perpendicular. Tiling the bathroom was a complete nightmare with every column on the piss. when we arrived there was a brush in the bathroom to sweep the shower water back uphill to the drain outlet so in the end I had to lift the floor back up by 50mm to nothing to get a fall for the shower.

 

Just monitor it; until it starts breaking your water lines and drain you will probably forget about it.

if it gets to the point where you are having to step up to get out of the front door please let us all know with some apt photos.

[upside]

Id be setting the wife on your <deleted> excuse of a builder. Hes useless and he's built you a lemon.

 

Rice fields are basically slushy bogs and building on them is hazardous.  

 

Footings are pilings. They both sit on a pad which needs to sit on a bedrock layer so in areas like issan the bedrock layer is hit in a couple of metres but in places like bkk the bedrock layer is much deeper. 

 

So if the footings weren't piled down deep enough ,  your columns will sink . Then your slab was laid over land fill without being compacted properly and that means compacting one metre layers at a time ,  not 4 metres in one go. 

 

Makes me wonder what else he's screwed up ,  hows the electrics ?  

 

If it doesn't sink much more then the easy fix is jackhammer up the tiles ,  get a good tiler in and wet lay new tiles back to level . 

Edited October 29, 2016 by upside
add