Indescribable and unbelievable Bert’eau S.A. plumbing….

So there was a smell in the ground floor WC which we couldn't isolate. It seemed to be coming from the wash basin drain, so I occasionally poured some bleach down it and that temporally solved the problem.
Then the tap fitting started to become loose. Great I thought just a question of tightening the nut underneath

NOT A CHANCE. Berteau S.A had installed the pipe cover so close to the basin that I couldn't even see the underside of the tap let alone get a spanner to it. They had also 'siliconed' it to the wall all round so removing it would be quite a job. After a few months of the tap becoming more loose and the smell persisting I decided to remove the pipe cover to tighten the tap - it was starting to scratch the porcelain!

This is what I found....

A - The nut I wanted to tighten.
B - The mark of the silicone (not straightt) used to attache the cover.
C - Connection not tight, so water leaks...
D - ...and stagnated in the bottom of the pipe cover (hence the smell)
E - Indescribable finishing of the hot/cold and waste pipes.
E - the bracket (not holding the pipe cover) hanging loosely by 1 screw.

After send these photos to Induni an email was sent to Bert'eau telling them to contact me to arrange a time to fix it all.

I will keep you posted...

Swiss lawyers - I AM NOT IMPRESSED

Where to begin...? At the beginning I suppose;

After we had bought the land and Induni had (finally) started to build the house - they suddenly called a meeting of all the future house owners. So we all turned up at a room and Induni explained with the help of slides and diagrams that they had 'found' an enormous rainwater retention tank which they did not know about.

They then announced that before work could continue it would have to be moved....and....

...wait for it....

it was going to cost 90'000.- CHF !!!

"Phew we said that's a lot of money, why are you telling us this?" we asked
Ha Ha because they wanted us to pay for it!!!

"Excuse us" we said "but we have seen the plans of the site before we bought it and this tank/pipe is marked on it" It was probably even visible from Google Earth. "So you included it in your costs to build the house which we have already arranged to pay

The wonderful world of plumbing

So the fact that the plumber who installed most of our pipe work was drunk (almost every afternoon) gave us another 'incident' the other day (Least we forget the 'Big Leak' see below).

The pipes under the sink fell apart, allowing water to soak the inside of the cupboard - the reason I found is that the joints had not been tightened correctly and the rubber washers had been put on the wrong end of the pipes.

WOW nearly 6 months since I last posted. So much has happened (ha ha).
We sent a letter to Induni asking what they were going to do about the mold - as winter is coming round again and there was not sign of anyone doing anything about the root cause (a cold bridge) ie bad design..
They have just replied basically saying it is our fault for not opening the windows enough during the last Christmas period (see other post about average temperature being -5)

Plans sent - at last!

This week we had received the plans for the servitudes (legal rights of access) for the complete from the surveyors – I have examined them and they look correct for all 8 properties and the communal areas.
THIS IS A GOOD THING – it seems my last email to Induni actually had an effect and the position of the famous water pipe is correctly positioned. So we can now start to put the access for the wall we need to modify the garden so that we can have the area of grass at the back of the house.

Getting the plans

So today I had to talk to the guy who has the job of drawing up the 'Official Plans' which are then registered with the 'State of Geneva'. The reason? Because Induni haven't done their job correctly (of course).
The famous drainage pipes which Induni 'discovered' after they had started building do not even appear on the plans they submitted and the garage has not been divided into official spaces which can then be numbered and legally joined to each house.

What a mess!

I really have difficulty believing that this company is capable of building even a bird house let alone a 'Villa'

Now it is mould ...

So we moved in - managed to get most things ship-shape in time for Christmas when the family would be coming to stay. By God it was cold with average temperatures hovering around -4C (Yes minus) go HERE (Meteo Suisse) to see what I mean. So guess what showed up (you're doing a lot of guessing in this blog but I think you are getting more and more guesses right)?
Yes you are right - another 'problem'. This time it is bad insulation on the four corners of the house - first floor and it manifests itself like this...

More Water - not a good sign

So it is the begining of the year (Happy New Year) and as normal it is raining outside. Going into the garage today I saw this...

The line down the wall is the 'Joint' between our house and the one nextdoor. The rainwater is seeping in! Dont' forget this house is new, imagine what it is going to be like in 10 years time.

WOW - 1 down, 25+ to go

So at last they have found the leak. Another hole in the bedroom wall was needed but a loose T-junction on the hot water pipe seems to have been the culprit. It was tightened last week and today a worker from the sanitation company can and blocked up all the holes ready for the tiler to come and put tiles on. He was very careful about the mess he made and did a very good job.

.. and the damp is back

Jeez - noticed today that the damp at the bottom of the technical riser which serves the visitors toilet is back. Unbelievable! Again it is Mr. Mosca's fault (again), His boss told him to open the wall to check that all the water had gone after the problem with the damp. Of course he didn't - he just had one of the workers cover it over with the plaster and paint it.


I am going to add it to the list of things which we will be discussing with the lawyer tomorrow. Can you believe that we had to pay over 500'000 chf for this level of quality, I really do hope we can sue Induni for 'supplying a defective product' I would love to see them hit with compensation claim.