The problems with the design started to become obvious before the build was complete, humidity levels were very high in parts of the building and condensation could be seen on all the aluminium window and door frames. Questions regarding this performance were asked before completion but assurances were given that the problems would sort themselves out and if they didn't then solutions would be found.

    Above at the start of the picture gallery, are shown examples of the condensation we were seeing on the windows in the main building. The condensation would pool onto the wooden sill and mould would grow. It was not immediately obvious why this occurred as we could see the thermal break on the window casement, and the condensation was somehow confined to the bottom edge of the window.

    After a house is built a "snagging" period, 6 months(ish), takes place at the end of the contract while mistakes and omissions are corrected. Our snagging period for this building just went on, and on, and on. We were aware of many problems, but we were not trying to pull them all together into a group of related failures and a group of unrelated failures, somehow we expected the experts to do that.

    This was the first problem which we were aware of, and it soon became obvious that neither the architect nor the builder were doing much about attempting to diagnose what the problems were, if any help was offered it was in the Band-Aid category, which I felt was hardly a solution to a problem I wanted a solution to a problem not a Band-Aid on a symptom. Various meetings were still being made but the whole project seemed to have ground to a halt in the "snagging" phase, this normally short period was exceeding two years and more problems were beginning to appear and nothing was being done about any of them, a very frustrating period for us.

    The gallery above shows how bad the condensation was, windows and doors would develop a film of mist on the inside. By now some of the doors were beginning to stick and jam and were becoming unusable, and the render which coated the building as a rain screen was cracking. We had decided not to landscape parts of the garden as we felt sure that major building work would have to happen and the builders would need space, so the site was not made up and the building was failing while we lived in it, and the contract was still "live". Then in the spring of 2004 when the house was 3 years old we saw something which meant we could no longer wait for the professionals to do something.

      At this point we identified the fruiting bodies of wet rot fungus growing out of the render which was cladding the building. A surveyor was asked to look at the building and the problems which we were seeing as an independent voice for us to consider as we had lost all faith in the architect and builder to provide us with sensible information regarding causes and cures. This caused us to call in a local builder to remove render off a wall where the fungus was, so that we could see what was happening within the fabric of the building. The  investigation showed massive damage to the structure of the building caused by water. This tied in with the high humidity and the condensation which was present.    

    About this time the question which was being asked was "So where is all this water coming from?". As the damage was centred on the pipes which were ventilating the void underneath the house, between the beam and block floor and the ground, the source of the water was looking like the ground, but if that was the case then the drainage about the perimeter of the building was not working. And why was the ventilation not being voided to atmosphere but being voided, and then trapped, within the wall structure?