Crazing on boundary walls

[Steve111111]

I bought a newly built house nearly 3 years ago, part of a 5 house development. Mine is the first house in a row of the 5 houses and has a back boundary wall and 1 side boundary wall.
- The back boundary was a new wall which runs behind all 5 houses, is capped and is not painted.
- The side boundary wall was an existing wall, which the builders plastered. They painted this wall at the front side of the house, and it's unpainted at the back side. It's not capped.

When we first moved in the walls looked ok. The back wall did have 2 small cracks though.

I can't recall the exact timeframe but early on crazing appeared. It is worse after rain but still very evident during dry weather. Over the nearly 3 years we are living there it has worsened. the back wall is by far the worst. The other side of this back wall is a carpark. It is painted dark grey and the crazing is visible through this.

The side wall at the front of the house, which is painted does not look bad but the crazing is visible.

I attached some photos I took today showing the back wall and the back side wall. The vertical crack on the right was one of the original cracks. Does this crazing (assuming I'm correct using this term) look normal?

I got the builders to come out yesterday. They banged the walls with their keys and said the walls are not hollow, and that there is nothing wrong with the walls. They also said this is very common and what I need to do is to powerwash and paint the walls and they will be fine.

They are not going to rectify the problem so I'm wondering now if I need to take legal action against them to get the issue fixed, or if I should take their advise and paint the walls. I don't work in the building industry so I don't know if this is common or if it was due to a bad plaster mix. BTW the back wall behind all 5 houses have the same problem.

 

[stevethespreader]

This is only going to get worse as the water will get underneath the cracks and it will start lifting looks like a failure to me, the whole lot should come off

 

[tell80]

Definitely as above.
That crazing render is probably a result of poor prepping.
A power wash will only send more water behind the render and painting will do nothing.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

there is no prep for rendering a solid block wall. your pics are not great. looks like a cement render with added lime mix which is way too strong for the substrate.
it’s probably sound , just looks ugly.
theres lots of lime hence the white cracks , where the lime bleeds in to the crack to effect a natural repair.
more common in stone walls where flexibility is essential and a perfect example why lime isn’t the be all and end all of everything.
personally i’d chop it off and get it re-rendered using the correct mix.

 

[tell80]

Taking up suction is prepping and crazing, like the crazing in the pics, is a perfect example of a careless or inexperienced renderer who didn't prep and take up suction.

Considering we dont know the proportions in the mix then how can it be too strong?

If its sound then why chop it off?

Where does the thread say or imply that lime is the be all and end all of everything?


I doubt that a simple boundary wall render contains everything?

 

[Deleted member 292770]

how would you have ‘taken up’ suction in a concrete wall prior to rendering?

 

[tell80]

In a concrete block wall?
Easy. Is this something else you dont know? Never mind. i'll take you through it.
Clean water - even with the low suction repeated applications will take
Power washer set on a strong jet
SBR
A slurry of SBR and sand and cement

That should do you for starters?