Almost 100 houses in an upmarket housing estate have had to undergo significant roughcasting repairs.
The majority of the 96 houses built by Stewart Milne Homes at Balmossie, north of the A92 Dundee-Arbroath Road, were affected by the problem.
The company have blamed poor workmanship by a local contractor for the defects on the surfaces of the houses in Balmossie Brae, Gardens, Road, Terrace and Meadow.
They stressed that as soon as the faults were reported they stepped in to rectify the damage. In some cases entire houses had to be re-roughcasted.
Stewart Milne Homes also said there were no structural issues or problems in connection with the integrity of the houses.
The expensive remedial operation has taken place over the last two years and is nearing completion with one house yet to be repaired John Low, managing director of the company’s north of Scotland division, said: “Customer satisfaction is of high importance. We have stood by our customers every step of the way to deal with this issue.
“Only one house remains to be done and this is at the request of the householder who asked us to defer the works until after he has an extension built.”
The problem with discoloured and cracking roughcasting came to light some time after the estate comprising mainly family dwellings costing upwards of £250,000 was completed in 2009.
Stewart Milne sent in experts to examine what had gone wrong with the wet-dash render that had been applied by a local contractor who was brought in to apply the finish to the buildings.
Mr Low said “workmanship issues” were identified, and the only solution was to hack off the sub-standard finishes and replace with new.
“In some instances it was necessary to take off roughcasting in only parts of the houses but in others houses were re-roughcasted in their entirety,” he said.
The scale of the work meant scaffolding was needed, and the houses were repaired on a rolling programme.
“The work was done at times in agreement with the householders and also when it was best for technical reasons,” the managing director continued.
“This is a job that can’t be done when it is very cold or very hot and can only be done at certain times of the year.”
The majority of householders were able to stay in their homes while the repairs were carried out but a small number were decanted.
“For various personal reasons about five couples couldn’t stay while the work was going on and they went to live in the holiday lodges at Forbes of Kingennie.”
Mr Low would not disclose the cost of the repairs to the company, but stressed that Stewart Milne had acted quickly to take direct charge of the operation and address the problem.