NHBC success story for once!

.Griff.

.Griff.

.Griff.

Soldato
Joined
16 Apr 2004
Posts
3,892
Location
Shropshire
Long story short we moved into a newbuild property in May of this year. It immediately became apparent that the master bedroom flooring wasn't right and when someone walked on it an awful noise could be heard in the family room underneath.

https://vimeo.com/238428296

The developer tried all the usual lines.. "It will settle", "You need to add furniture" "The noise is with tolerance".

As a result, I made my first contact with the NHBC despite everyone telling me they were toothless and would side with the developer.

A meeting was set for Tuesday morning at 10am and at 9.58am two representatives from the developers turned up to mount a defense shortly followed by the NHBC inspector.

To my shock, he dismissed the developers' claims it was "normal" and ordered them to rectify it within 28 days. What's annoying is as soon as the NHBC inspector said that the customer service representative pulled me aside, told me what the issue was and how they intended to fix it. It would have saved a lot of hassle to do with originally but I'm not naive and I know how they operate. Deny, deny, deny and then relent when ordered to.

TL;DR - Sometimes the NHBC do find in your favour.
 
Big heavy bloke with a power screwdriver.

We had creaky floors in a new build, a hundred or two screws later it stopped creaking. :D
 
.Griff. said:
Long story short we moved into a newbuild property in May of this year. It immediately became apparent that the master bedroom flooring wasn't right and when someone walked on it an awful noise could be heard in the family room underneath.

https://vimeo.com/238428296

The developer tried all the usual lines.. "It will settle", "You need to add furniture" "The noise is with tolerance".

As a result, I made my first contact with the NHBC despite everyone telling me they were toothless and would side with the developer.

A meeting was set for Tuesday morning at 10am and at 9.58am two representatives from the developers turned up to mount a defense shortly followed by the NHBC inspector.

To my shock, he dismissed the developers' claims it was "normal" and ordered them to rectify it within 28 days. What's annoying is as soon as the NHBC inspector said that the customer service representative pulled me aside, told me what the issue was and how they intended to fix it. It would have saved a lot of hassle to do with originally but I'm not naive and I know how they operate. Deny, deny, deny and then relent when ordered to.

TL;DR - Sometimes the NHBC do find in your favour.
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We had exactly the same problem in our new build. I listened to your video and the sound is the same as the problem we had. It took months to sort out, going to and fro, having handymen come in and screw floorboards and ceiling boards to no avail.

In the end it turned out to be micro cracking in the plasterboard, and the only fix which seems to work is to take the ceiling boards down in the room underneath, fix resilient bars to the joists and then screw the ceiling boards to the resilient bars.

See here for more info: http://www.gpda.com/uploads/Statement_Cracking_Ceilings.pdf

Might be worth mentioning micro cracking to your house builder? They should be aware of the issue as it seems to be a common problem and is quite well known in the industry according to a production director at Taylor Wimpey who I got to know fairly well.
 
Fuzzb3k said:
We had exactly the same problem in our new build. I listened to your video and the sound is the same as the problem we had. It took months to sort out, going to and fro, having handymen come in and screw floorboards and ceiling boards to no avail.

In the end it turned out to be micro cracking in the plasterboard, and the only fix which seems to work is to take the ceiling boards down in the room underneath, fix resilient bars to the joists and then screw the ceiling boards to the resilient bars.

See here for more info: http://www.gpda.com/uploads/Statement_Cracking_Ceilings.pdf

Might be worth mentioning micro cracking to your house builder? They should be aware of the issue as it seems to be a common problem and is quite well known in the industry according to a production director at Taylor Wimpey who I got to know fairly well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the document. I'll print it off and have it ready for when they come to rectify it.
 
I had this in my new place 5 years ago. I got TW to 'fix it' - they replaced the ceiling in the living room and kitchen but not the hall, they refused to do the hall.

They told me it was 'micro cracking' which was down to the recycled plasterboard. They said they'd stopped using it because it was expensive to go back and fix.

That said, I'd never buy from them again, or any of the other new house builders by the sounds of it.

The most expensive thing you ever buy shouldn't be a lemon and a nightmare/impossible to get fixed.
 
Thanks for the reply, i will fight all the way, they are hiding behind "well its built to building standards crap"
I know for a fact they keep all there plater board outside before fitting, and i know its poor quality but the NHBC don't see this.

Just hope Fairview come to the party and do the right thing a 400k home like you say shouldn't be a lemon
 
Glad you got it sorted. What was the solution. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of people with this issue and even though many have had resolutions the information on how to fix seems somewhat elusive. Please share the solution.
 
New houses are a pile of crap. Cheap materials, poorly installed, under engineered. Not to mention the other issues like very few built with garages, tiny gardens, no loft space etc. I wish people would boycott them.
 
danlightbulb said:
New houses are a pile of crap. Cheap materials, poorly installed, under engineered. Not to mention the other issues like very few built with garages, tiny gardens, no loft space etc. I wish people would boycott them.
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What's also funny is that they're typically more expensive than the equivalent older house to boot.
 
Participant said:
What's also funny is that they're typically more expensive than the equivalent older house to boot.
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Absolutely, local 4 beds near me with Taylor Wimpey & Springfield are smaller than my house and almost as expensive (250 vs 260). I think it's probably best to buy those houses after the first owner, stupidly though the house price is sure to go up a good few % within that time period.

Older houses have maintenance due too, for new build it's probably a thought of we can just buy it and live in it care free. I know my partner would be happy doing that but I'd rather not.
 
81gasl said:
Glad you got it sorted. What was the solution. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of people with this issue and even though many have had resolutions the information on how to fix seems somewhat elusive. Please share the solution.
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As I'm not a structural engineer and don't possess even the most basic DIY skills I was awaiting a promised report on what remedial work was carried out. Albeit said report never materialised.

From what I was able to witness, briefly, they "boxed out" the floor joists to mitigate any further movement.

b30cUR4h.jpg
 
This "boxing out" thing actually stopped the micro-cracking noise?

The builder fixed my living room and kitchen by fitting resilient bars, which basically means the joists and ceiling don't touch anymore. That worked, but I've not been able to get anyone willing to do it in the hallway, so if I could approach it with an alternative solution that might make someone actually accept the job.
 
billysielu said:
This "boxing out" thing actually stopped the micro-cracking noise?
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As you can probably infer from my post I'm not privy to all the details, so it may have involved more than "boxing out"; I use quotation marks as that's the bit I do recall being mentioned.

I'm reluctant to state with any confidence that all they did was "box out" the joists as A, I don't know if they did anything else and B, Some know it all will be along soon to correct me.

Either way, the cracking noises stopped.
 
To do the resilient bar solution the whole ceiling had to come down, so there was a bunch of decorating once they put it back up, I would have thought you'd know if they'd done that.
 
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