New Homes - Taylor Wimpey (Sherford, Plymouth)

[Bengaboy]

I think I am talking myself out of this... However, if anyone has any experience with the below it would be much appreciated.

Me and the wife are looking at a new build house (wife likes the 3 bathrooms, ready to move in, will be how we want it, etc) and on the Sherford estate, they have Bovis, Linton and Tailor Wimpey homes.

They are basically trying to cram as much as possible into the estate and it is almost becoming a new village. To be fair, the plan for the whole of Sherford looks quite nice and decent.

However, there are loads of horror stories with new builds as I am very much aware, bit surely they can't all be bad can they? Does anyone have any experience with buying a new house?

Main downsides to me is that it does seem a bit crowded - narrow roads as well as the horror stories. But Taylor Wimpey do seem to be the best and have a 5 star rating. In comparison to the other builders on site on review sites, they seem a hell of a lot better (trustpilot, etc).

 

[tres]

Taylor Wimpey?

 

[Bengaboy]

Taylor Wimpey?

I honestly did search! Seems my skills need work!

 

[Hagar]

wife likes the 3 bathrooms.

Until you (both) get fed up with cleaning bathrooms.

 

[LeeUK]

Make sure it's freehold.

 

[Bengaboy]

Make sure it's freehold.

This one is freehold - wouldn't buy anything else (on advice by others).

Until you (both) get fed up with cleaning bathrooms.

It will teach her!

 

[Puzzled]

Best to visualise the estate with every road jam packed with parked cars due to lack of parking spaces or those stupid long narrow driveways where you have to move a car to get the other one out and end up just parking one on the road to avoid the faff.

It's all personal preference though, my main issue with new builds is that everyone is on top of each other so you don't get any privacy in your garden (which is always pretty small as well) but like you say you do get it as you want it and you have a warranty to sort out issues.

 

[Minusorange]

Buy an older house, that is near to nowhere that has previously flooded and is some distance from the coast

New builds are generally built in retarded locations because all the previous good locations have already been taken, they also contribute to climate change and destroy ecosystems

 

[fish]

In relation to whewre that estate is, they need to put a lot of facilities in to make it worth it. I grew up around there and have driven through it on the way to visit my parents and its not ideal IMO. What plans are there to actually upgrade the roads to get access to the A38 and plymouth?
I'm not sure of your later plans but i would ask where are the schools for the new households? The primaries and secondaries that already exist around there were full 20 years ago before all the other new estates were built.

 

[Dynix]

When we were shopping around for a new build, the quality/finish was so different through different developers, but also through different sites with the same developer - it really does generally come down to who the site manager is and who they have on site.

TW were one of the better ones we saw, but we settled with David Wilson. The estate is great, but we were one of the first to move in so we're on the boundary and not overlooked. There's an existing bungalow with detached large garage behind our house - they can't see into our garden or house (due to fencing and big old bushes/trees), and our neighbours can't either. We are really lucky in comparison to our neighbours and generally the rest of the estate!

First thing I did was ask to see the plan for the entire development. We were given a choice of houses, and the others were all backed onto by 6-10 houses in the next phase, which you wouldn't have saw if you just went by the first phase plans!

So, really does depend on the developer and the site layout. Do your research! Definitely have a drive around and look at other developers and other TW sites. Our new build has been almost faultless since moving in over 3 years ago - we've probably only had 5-10 things fixed, absolutely no regrets but the next house will be an older one as this was definitely just to get us up a few steps on the ladder.

 

[glenimp617]

no, no, no, no, no, no

They look nice, but be under no illusion the build quality will be absolutely crap. They all use the cheapest materials they can find, and cram in as many houses as physically possible.

You'll be fine for a few months (possibly a couple of years), then you'll find

The shower leaks and the ceiling below gets wet (cause, they don't use primer before tiling so they come lose). This in turns wets the plasterboard as they use standard stuff not the water resistant aquaboards.
Pipework is never secured properly, be prepared for banging
Chipboard flooring....this will creak
Kitchen cupboard doors won't close properly
Garage door will come off its rails as they use cheap ones (well known)

bloor, bellway, barrats, taylor, persimmon......all the same

talk to a few tradesmen, ask them what they think

My friends in a persimmon and you can literally wobble the walls.

If you do end up buying one, get a snagging firm in to do a report....then paint it in quality paint top to bottom. Especially the bathrooms, ensuites and kitchen. The emulsion they use doesn't like condensation/steam and ends up falling off.

My advice would be to find an older property which needs doing up, and do it up properly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J19y7nGHM3c

 

[MikeTheNative]

The chance of a crap house with certain builders is higher than others but it mostly depends on how organised/good site management is. We are doing that site in work (one reason avoid it ), I could ask the contracts manager what he thinks of that site but funny enough he has just gone on holiday for a week. Your best bet is to go to site and just have a look how the houses are and have a chat to site management.

 

[glenimp617]

The chance of a crap house with certain builders is higher than others but it mostly depends on how organised/good site management is. We are doing that site in work (one reason avoid it ), I could ask the contracts manager what he thinks of that site but funny enough he has just gone on holiday for a week. Your best bet is to go to site and just have a look how the houses are and have a chat to site management.

Most people won't know a well built house from a bad one until the problems start. I certainly wouldn't know to ask if they space the water pipes 150mm part for example. Mine didn't, they spaced them at 160 and dragged the pipe across held in by a small plastic clip. Obvious what was going to happen.

Here's a good tip. Shut the doors and open the windows. See if the air blowing in from the windows can push the doors open. That will tell you if the joiners have put the door and handles on properly.

also, the norm is to have 15mm plasterboard in all the rooms apart from toilet/ensuite. They are 12.5mm. Until you realise they use whatever they want and mix and match

 

[Peerzy]

Something that I've noticed and that never gets mentioned is the fact that people don't ever buy 2 new houses..... they buy one, 'enjoy' it for however long and then decide it's the last thing they would ever want again (but insert saving face PR reason).

 

[glenimp617]

Something that I've noticed and that never gets mentioned is the fact that people don't ever buy 2 new houses..... they buy one, 'enjoy' it for however long and then decide it's the latest thing they would ever want again (but insert saving face PR reason).

Very true!

 

[fastwunz]

My mother and father in law bought a David Wilson house in the mid nineties.

Still in there now and it’s its genuinely lovely.

New builds are not all bad - as others have said, it depends on the site, the builder and a not inconsiderable amount of luck. Some are god awful red brick boxes of doom of course. But you know that when you go on site.

As mentioned in a previous thread, Redrow are significantly upper market compared to the likes of Taylor wimpy, Bloor, Barrett etc etc. I would seriously consider finding one of those houses if I could. You pay a bit more though I think

 

[FTM]

given my experience in my job I would never buy a new house as the developers are so reluctant to do anything and a lot of stuff is poorly finished

I work for a local authority and we have bought various blocks on developments as part of a commitment to affordable homes, so I have been dealing with Belway, Keepmoat and GallifordTry

we survey the properties at handover before we let them and our snagging lists are usually extensive, we do our own gas safety and electrical checks and it takes them soooo long to sort even minor items out, let alone larger problems. they complain we are letting them to too a high a standard. I cant believe they have any sort of quality assurance or inspection regime themselves..we see waste pipe not connected, ovens not secure in their housings, wash basins not secured properly, just mickey mouse stuff that should be picked up by their own staff

now if we have these sorts of problems I cant imagine how an individual home buyer has the patience or determination to constantly hassle people to get jobs done

 

[krooton]

Something that I've noticed and that never gets mentioned is the fact that people don't ever buy 2 new houses..... they buy one, 'enjoy' it for however long and then decide it's the last thing they would ever want again (but insert saving face PR reason).

I dunno, I had a newbuild flat, my wife had a newbuild flat, now we have a newbuild house and are very happy with it.

Top of a hill too, so suck it flood risk!

 

[Shelster]

Sherford is also on a flood plain too. Plenty of stories in the local news about houses being flooded. Plus access in and out is a right old PITA

Plus, my last house was built by Taylor Wimpey in another area of Plymouth and had no end of issues with it. The main one was that it needed re-roofing within 4 years of moving in as they use really crap concrete tiles that cracked and also did not space the support batons correctly. The guys who did the re-roofing said they had never seen such a shoddy roof. There was also issues with the internal walls creaking as they use metal trays and supports to create the stud walls rather than timber. This warps and flexes, hence the creaking.

That said, it is not all bad with new builds. I am in another one now, this time built by Kier and still in Plymouth and my snagging list ran to a massive 5 items when I moved in. Have had no complaints with the build quality in this house. Like many things, it depends who you buy from

 

[Richie]

I bought a new build and I've been in it for around 9 months. There have been a few snags but all have been sorted and are expected due to settling etc.

I guess it depends on the builders and site management but I can't fault where I am and the builders (Barratt) have been great.

I bought off plan and before ground was even broken but did a lot of research to make sure it should be OK.

What does make me confused is why people insist older properties are always better and new builds are full of snags... We are talking about a large item with a huge amount of individual parts so to expect nothing to go wrong is pretty silly.

Also, do people really think older houses didn't have snags when they were built? They've just had many years to have them fixed before you get it... As well as many years of possible DIY disasters...