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Buying a new build...
- Thread starter Goksly
- Start date
Soldato
Yes. Smaller sized beds to make the rooms look bigger.
My new build came with turf, fencing, outdoor tap and front outdoor light as standard. Redrow seem to not include turf as standard in their builds as a colleague of mine bought one a few years ago and it also never came with turf.
Got it down on my list to measure the beds next visit - I thought they looked a little small, but I'm used to a king size bed and was told they're standard doubles. We'll see!
Most developers do not include turf, lights, flooring etc.
Same with redrow. We looked at Redrow and to be honest theirs were the best looking and practical houses. They seemed to have been designed in detail, rather than go "need 2 sockets, let's randomly throw them anywhere on any wall of the room", etc.
We've been quite lucky with our house, in that, although it is plastered on the inside, it has multiple layers of structure so seems well made.
In all walls apart from the front the structure consisted of:
red brick/insulation/breeze block/gap/plaster.
The front consisted of:
render (hard foam, about 2-3cm thick)/breeze block/insulation/breeze block/gap plaster.
I do agree that a lot of new builds seem to be built using match stick thickness timber, but not all are the same.
Same with redrow. We looked at Redrow and to be honest theirs were the best looking and practical houses. They seemed to have been designed in detail, rather than go "need 2 sockets, let's randomly throw them anywhere on any wall of the room", etc.
We've been quite lucky with our house, in that, although it is plastered on the inside, it has multiple layers of structure so seems well made.
In all walls apart from the front the structure consisted of:
red brick/insulation/breeze block/gap/plaster.
The front consisted of:
render (hard foam, about 2-3cm thick)/breeze block/insulation/breeze block/gap plaster.
I do agree that a lot of new builds seem to be built using match stick thickness timber, but not all are the same.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 21 Jun 2006
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- 38,372
no such thing as a decent sharp TV. if that is the TV they have bought in then everything will be cheap
I’m genuinely sorry for your experience, but perhaps it’s the luck of the draw, I put £100 deposit down on a hole in the ground, so not a show home, in Summer 1984, and moved in in January 1985.
Aside from the fact that a drainpipe hadn’t been connected tightly to a gutter, causing rain to run down both inside and outside the drainpipe, which was rectified the day that I reported it, as the builder was still on site, putting up the remaining four houses, knock on wood, the house has been faultless for 32 years.
A 1985 new build is a whole different experience to a modern new build. My parents bought a new build as 1 of 2 houses built by a private developer, and I lived there for 20 odd years. There was never a single issue with the house apart from the odd blocked drain. Modern new builds are crap, they are pretty much everything described by ChroniC, unless you are going with a high end development from Cala, Millgate, etc
Just out of interest but how can this be the case? Most (all?) new builds will come under NHBC warranty, so if the building was really that crap the warranty company would stop covering the builder? And whilst googling it's not hard to find people complaining but it doesn't seem systemic - you sell 100,000 of anything and a decent number of people will complain, but the percentage will be pretty low?
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It is all they care about I agree but disagree on 'any new build estate' having different sale prices.
I was interested in 3 plots on my development, bought one and the other two both sold for the asking price. There was no negotiation on the price of the property, only included extras / stamp duty paid for us.
In the show home on my development, furniture was to be sold with the house but the upgrades applied to the show home (kitchen spec/bathroom tiling etc) had to be paid for iirc
Mines been a PITA and took up a lot of my holiday, with no apology from David Wilson Homes (complaint escalated to MD level before I gave up as that and a wedding was too much stress). Infact need to pick up my complaining again. But I'd still do it again as it was the most bang for our buck and the best layout of space we had seen in our budget
Not really a new build is it though. Not now
I suppose I thought it was obvious I meant anything built newly now and as such things have change dramatically. They build them very very differently these days due to price and the government wanting 100ks of them in a short space of time. The eco councils in this day and age believe we should all travel around on good will and happy thought so they build the road with no pavements and thin roads. They give 1 parking space per house or driveways capable of supporting 1 car for a 4 bedroom house.
Trust me, got to a barrats, taylor wimpey etc and you'll see. Just slam a door or tap a wall.
It's the design and sub standard finishing of new builds that is an issue.
Soldato
Largely, the skills have disappeared from house building. Maybe some is due to advances in technology, but I am sure that joinery, brickwork, plumbing skills have been dumbed down.
The focus on plastics, lightweight construction materials and methods in addition to house numbers per hectare and speed of building have all been adverse to high quality in my opinion.
The focus on plastics, lightweight construction materials and methods in addition to house numbers per hectare and speed of building have all been adverse to high quality in my opinion.
Absolutely this, along with green initiatives. The level of insulation in new build walls is astounding, it makes for a very effiecient property, our bills where next to nothing. However to accomodate that level of Celetex you have to have a brick and plasterboard shell. In the olden days when heat loss wasnt an issue the brick - air gap - brick builds where 100s of times stronger and far far more silent. I'm sure they could make them stronger but that doesn't fit into cheaper.
I'd say that for insurance purposes a 1950-1990s house would be far more expensive to rebuild than one built now.
I guess it depends on the house builder and the area you live in. We have a new build, have been here a couple of years now and never had any issues. It may be because our builder is a local company that prides itself on its build quality, it doesn't over stretch itself with sites and only builds on one development at a time. Whereas one of the larger developers that is building nearby has constant problems and people we know who purchased their homes instead have had a catalogue of issues.
You do pay more for new builds, but some times you get what you paid for. Nothing but high quality in our development, but I suspect it is more to do with the company than anything else.
You do pay more for new builds, but some times you get what you paid for. Nothing but high quality in our development, but I suspect it is more to do with the company than anything else.
Soldato
I moved into a new build 4 years ago, took advantage when the help2buy scheme first kicked off. Aside from an extendable ladder being left in my main bedroom and a wire fence panel being in my back garden I've had minimal issues.
Our place didn't come turfed and I wasn't willing to pay what they wanted me to in order for it to be done, and I will say the amount of crap I dug out of the garden prepping the soil was impressive! Aside from that though no real issues, even the fabled thin walls haven't materialised, the only time I hear the neighbour is when their toddler is making a concerted effort to clomp up the stairs.
Unfortunately I had pretty much no bargaining power at all when I came to buy so ended up paying list price and had to fight them to get flooring (spoke to a few neighbours who didn't even manage this). Basically the development was highly popular, the help2buy scheme was driving up demand and our house type was very limited and extremely sought after (spoke to a colleague a few years later who bought the same house off plan and she had her boyfriend camp outside their offices the night before the new tranche was released, he wasn't alone).
As others have said you can't even judge by builder, they've got so many developments that it's more to do with the site team, the site manager on ours was drafted in from another area and I believe he had won awards for his work previously, part of their commitment to the site as they will be building here for a good few years to come I reckon.
Our place didn't come turfed and I wasn't willing to pay what they wanted me to in order for it to be done, and I will say the amount of crap I dug out of the garden prepping the soil was impressive! Aside from that though no real issues, even the fabled thin walls haven't materialised, the only time I hear the neighbour is when their toddler is making a concerted effort to clomp up the stairs.
Unfortunately I had pretty much no bargaining power at all when I came to buy so ended up paying list price and had to fight them to get flooring (spoke to a few neighbours who didn't even manage this). Basically the development was highly popular, the help2buy scheme was driving up demand and our house type was very limited and extremely sought after (spoke to a colleague a few years later who bought the same house off plan and she had her boyfriend camp outside their offices the night before the new tranche was released, he wasn't alone).
As others have said you can't even judge by builder, they've got so many developments that it's more to do with the site team, the site manager on ours was drafted in from another area and I believe he had won awards for his work previously, part of their commitment to the site as they will be building here for a good few years to come I reckon.
Associate
NHBC isn't all its cracked up to be...... And when the house builder has completed what they think is a relevant fix, they will just tell you to tell NHBC if you are not happy.
If anyone is looking to buy a Bovis home, take a look at the Bovis Homes Victims Group on Facebook, I think there is well over 2.5k members now, many who have had disgustingly poor customer service.
As a side note, we are nearly out of our 2 year warranty with the home builder now, still issues outstanding, and I have pretty much had enough of calling them weekly to be fobbed off.
You literally have less rights than buying a car when you get a sub standard house
Basically this.
We were in a tricky situation. We bought a new build I'm Manchester around 2012 then realised it was a very bad area when it was too late. Lots of houses on the development were burgled, I had someone try to steal my car. Icing on the cake was a,nearby neighbour murdering his wife! We put the house up for sale, expecting it to never sell (2016). First person to view offered us £5k more than we paid for it, so we snapped his hand off.
Catch was he wanted a quick exchange. We had no time at all to get an offer in on a house. Due to the way my wife's staff discount works with Halifax, and many factors I won't bore you with, we had to get a new build.
We looked at Taylor Wimpey, Redrow, Barratts, Bloor, Persimmons, plus a few others. We were very specific on the town we wanted to live in, family nearby for support. So went with Barratts, they were the best of a bad bunch in our price range. Needed something close to completion as in the interim we had to move in with my parents. Two adults, wife pregnant, 4 year old, cat and dog!
They wouldn't budge 1p on price, apparently it's not what they do. So we managed to get lights, carpets, wooden flooring, upgraded kitchen and bathrooms, fences and grass all thrown in.
It didn't work out too badly, but 10 months on we are still fighting with them to get snags sorted.
Would I get another new build? Not unless I had no other choice.
*SMALL BUMP*
interesting article on badly constrcuted Bovis homes in MK on this evening news ~02:00
they did some heat analysis from interior , the blue stuff is cold air flow that should not be present and represents bad block work
made me think anyone with a new build should commision such a study
interesting article on badly constrcuted Bovis homes in MK on this evening news ~02:00
they did some heat analysis from interior , the blue stuff is cold air flow that should not be present and represents bad block work
made me think anyone with a new build should commision such a study
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Wow that's crazy. There was a BBC article on a Bovis home the other day - flooded garden, gaps under doors, leaking roof... On the new builders survey they get 2/5 stars.
In the end I did buy the house - exchanging any day now. Hopefully red row (4/5) fair better!
In the end I did buy the house - exchanging any day now. Hopefully red row (4/5) fair better!
Soldato
I wouldn’t buy a 60s build again either 
internal and external brick walls but no thought towards insulation at all so totally incompatible with modern living - we have spent thousands sorting it out and I’d happily buy a new build with a few criteria!
Basically there are good and bad buys in every sector of the market from old to new build and self building with full control is the only way you can guarantee a good build!
internal and external brick walls but no thought towards insulation at all so totally incompatible with modern living - we have spent thousands sorting it out and I’d happily buy a new build with a few criteria!Basically there are good and bad buys in every sector of the market from old to new build and self building with full control is the only way you can guarantee a good build!