Poor site drainage and foundation movement

1mm wide wall cracking

Recent detailed structural inspections conducted for a home owner has discovered some adverse outcomes concerning BSA insurance cover for new homes within seven years from construction.

Insurances companies are always looking to provide some exit strategy on their coverage should the worse actually eventuate.  In this regard  the BSA assessors are bound to mirror similar attitudes.



Even in the event of a completely non-compliant foundation design which does not meet the Australian design standards, should some minor poor drainage conditions be deemed to exist on site, the BSA assessing engineers may apportion some blame for the poor foundation performance (resulting in adverse wall movement and cracking) to the site drainage concerns.  This condition to be able to apportion blame to the site conditions effectively let's "sub-standard design engineers" off the hook and the home owners presiding over a house without a suitable foundation.

The very important outcome to learn from this is to get your house in order.
Site drainage improvement are not particularly costly and should be installed as part of a home maintenance plan if the drainage is not working well.  Do the right thing by your house in the long-term and don't allow a seemly minor drainage problem negate reasonable insurance cover via the BSA to protect home buyers.

Drainage should be provided to shape yard surfaces about the house particularly on the up hill side to be diverted away from the external house walls and prevented from passing below the house sub-floor.