Hello,

You are still failing to satisfy the requirements as defined
for your job in the SSMA 1996 and your Strata Management
Contract 1999.

For the pending CTTT case SCS 12/5XXXX address these
requests now.

On Mon, 2013-03-11 at 21:14 +1100, SP52948 owner wrote:

Hello,

In the minutes of the EC meeting held on 20 February 2013, the
following misleading and incomplete information
was given to owners:

 BEGIN QUOTE
 Garden bed walls. Steve, the new employee of the Building Manager,
 is to identify a section of garden bed wall that is showing
 significant signs of water penetration from the garden bed,
 scrape it back and paint it with a membrane based coating.
 This section of wall will then be monitored over a period of
 time to determine if the membrane coating has been successful
 in preventing water penetration / the leaching of salts and
 minerals etc through the wall.
 END QUOTE

Just for the painting of the garden beds in FY 2012,
owners corporation spent above $16,500 dollars:

Sinking Fund:   $15,355
Admin Fund:      $1,258

It was a poorly done job, with simple attempts to paint over
the damaged areas, or even putting metal plates to cover up the
large cracks! That is what Australians call "shonky repairs".

So, several months after those "repairs", much more needs to be done.

The problem is that the committee did not even "see" the cracks and
large holes. They now concentrate on the painting only,
which will be another waste of money because the garden bed walls
are now moving a lot under pressure of the soil behind it.

What needs to happen is a serious repair or rebuild of the retaining
walls (see a few recent photos from the gardens).

In addition, they did not even comment about the cracks and damages
on the buildings. I guess it was too difficult to look up towards the 
sky.

The neglect over many years is now causing permanent damage.
Once salt concentrations are high enough to cause damage repairs will
only be successful if they include treatment of both the damp and
the salt.

So, instead of "guessing" work what might or not work as far as
painting is concerned, engage the proper services and obtain
advice how to repair the large cracks and leaning garden walls,
and then deal with issues like salts and repainting.

Similar process should apply to the planning of repainting and
repairs on the exterior walls of the four buildings.

Here is the extract from the government document on
"Seven Key Steps to dealing with salt damp":

1. Accurate diagnosis of the cause
* Is it rising damp? or is it falling damp?
  or a combination? or 
* is the damp penetrating
  sideways from a localised source, or
* is it condensation on internal surfaces?
* is there an existing DPC that is buried or
  otherwise bridged?
* how bad is the problem — does it really need
  major works?
* is there a lot of salt? what is its source?

2. Good housekeeping is fundamental
* ensure gutters and downpipes are working
* ensure rainwater is carried well away from
  base of walls
* ensure site is well drained — no ponding
  against walls
* minimise splash from hard pavements into walls
* maintain about 200 mm between DPCs and
  ground level
* check for and fix any plumbing leaks,
  including sewers
* check for fungal rot, borers and termites in damp
  floor timbers
* ensure adequate (but not too much) underfloor
  ventilation
* monitor changes, for these may be sufficient.

3. Treat mild damp sacrificially
* use weak mortars in eroding joints, or
* weak plasters and renders to control damage
* monitor changes before considering
  further treatment
* ongoing sacrificial treatments may be sufficient.

4. Remove excessive salts
* remove surface salt deposits by dry vacuuming, then
* use captive-head washing for near-surface salts
* use poultices of absorbent clay and/or paper pulp
* use sacrificial plasters, renders and mortars.
* monitor effectiveness — re-treat if necessary
* periodic maintenance treatments as required.

5. Review results before proceeding
* allow at least one year of monitoring
* account for unusual events — storms, floods,
  drought, etc
* routine maintenance activities may be sufficient.

6. Inserting damp-proof courses
* undersetting with mechanical DPC, and/or
* slot sawing with mechanical DPC, and/or
* impregnation of chemical DPC, and/or
* active electro-osmotic damp-proofing.
* install DPCs at a level that will also protect
  floor timbers
* monitor for ‘leaks’.

7. Desalinating walls
* when salts abound, do not just insert DPC
* also remove excessive salts from above DPC
* use poulticing, captive-head washing and
  sacrificial treatments
* monitor annually for further salt attack
* re-treat if necessary until salts are reduced to a less
  harmful level.