Foam found stuffed in condo wall
Published: 31 Aug 2013 at 17.41
The owner of a condominium unit at The Base Sukhumvit 77, developed by Sansiri Plc, found his wall stuffed with foam, paper and candy wrappers when he tried to fix a rainwater leak.
Images from the Facebook page of Kristopher George Houston show foam inside the wall at the condominium unit at The Base Sukhumvit 77.
Kristopher George Houston posted his story on the Sansiri Family Facebook page on Aug 24, demanding an explanation from the SET-listed company, which positions itself as a premium developer.
He said three windows in his unit all suffered from water leakage. When he contacted an engineer from RTH Construction Co, the main contractor, to fix the problem, he found the wall near the balcony and kitchen had foam inside it.
Mr Houston said the RTH engineer told him the space should contain cement, not foam, and whoever built this wall must have been lazy and in a hurry.
The developer did not provide an immediate answer. The issue was taken up on the Pantip.com portal with thousands of people sharing the post.
On Thursday, Sansiri posted on its Facebook page that its call centre was working with its Home Care Service to investigate the unit owner's complaint thoroughly.
Finally on Friday, Uthai Uthaisaengsuk, a senior executive vice-president, said the inspection found that the problem had occurred in only one unit after the company inspected the building.
He said Sansiri had hired RTH Construction to sub-contract the project so it would investigate whether the problem was due to recklessness by a contractor or not.
Sansiri also informed co-owners of The Base Sukhumvit 77 that the problem was a result of sub-standard quality control by construction supervisors who failed to identify that foam sheets had been used in wall construction.
The company said it had used precast walls for 98% of the project while the remaining two percent consisted of conventional walls.
The announcement, signed by Ongart Suwannakul, vice-president for project management, extended an official apology for the incident. It said immediate repair work had been ordered.
The construction contractor would be asked to explain in writing its role and responsibility in "this obvious lack of quality control", and appropriate prevention and penalty measures will be determined, the company said.
The announcement explained that foam particles had been found in an area around one power point located under an aluminium window frame. It is in fact a normal practice used to block out vacant spaces in precast walls before they are finally cemented, it said.
Mr Ongart said the company would send team of special investigators with advanced inspection tools to inspect the integrity and mass density of the walls in all units at the Base Sukhumvit 77, starting from Sept 5.
The company also plans to hire outside construction experts to inspect the structural integrity of the entire building.
However, many unit buyers say their confidence has been shaken and they urged Sansiri to urgently examine the strength of its other projects.
A post on the company's Facebook page from Marcus Immanuel Marc said: "Dear Sansiri, please urgently crosscheck how many projects are affected from this subcontractor including my project Onyx. If there is any problem occurring in my room, believe me ... I will sue you deadly!"
Attapon Tonsaquan wrote that he also owned a unit at The Base and he found the quality was quite low. He questioned that why Sansiri, as the developer, did not know about the use of foam as it must have engineering teams to supervise construction. He said the company's announcement seemed an attempt to find a scapegoat in order to protect the brand.
Mr Attapon said he believed his unit also had water leakage but the company offered free wallpaper to cover the defect in the wall.
