Snagging new property - how fussy?

I snagged our house constantly for the 2 years of the warranty.

Door handles if they became loose, cracks, the drop of the guttering along the front of my house wasn't the correct slope ratio.

Another favourite was the nails they put the ceiling plasterboard up with, they never treat the nail heads so the filler drops out. I had them back to do the lot.

I had the company that fitted the flooring regrout the floor tiles to my satisfaction.

There was an area in the loft that didn't have the required amount of insulation. I had that company back to add some more.

Kitchen door handles not straight and couldn't be straightened without showing the holes they drilled to fit them, new door fronts and handles.

Bathroom ceiling repainted.

The maintenance guy for the company we bought from loved us, we helped keep him in work, so he came to an agreement with us that when the 2 years was almost up we phone up complain and he would redecorate certain rooms for us.

Top bloke, saved me a job or 100.

Helped having a few builders, plumbers and electricians in the family. I paid the money and I wanted it right.
 
dannyjo22 said:
I snagged our house constantly for the 2 years of the warranty.

The maintenance guy for the company we bought from loved us, we helped keep him in work, so he came to an agreement with us that when the 2 years was almost up we phone up complain and he would redecorate certain rooms for us.
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Nice - sounds like it turned into a bit of a scam with the redecoration though! :p

Thanks to Mr Jack & Doughnut for the positive comments on my first post, they are appreciated.
 
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I have a friend who is a building surveyor. When he bought his first house he produced an enormous snagging list. The agent said it was twice the size of any list she had ever seen before - as if you say it was frivolous. He just replied "You should have done it properly then"

They'll try to make you feel pathetic about it - don't, insist they put things right.
 
Your dad is more likely to come down on them for doing a bad job. He'll be sucking air in through his teeth and shaking his head gently. Well, if he's any kind of stereotype at all!
 
Make sure you check the taps and sinks/baths. Blocked drains can be pretty common after all the tiling crud that gets down them, mostly though lazyness :)

Even run a full bath to check water flow etc
 
Polyfilla and Grip fill, get these and crack on!

I joke. Things like cracks should be left for the first few months until the building "settles". I'd go over the plumbing and electrics with a fine toothcomb though as these could potentially turn nasty if not right from the start. Test every switch, socket and light. Both at the user end and the consumer unit.

With the plumbing you'll want to check the boiler pressures over the space of a week. Does it drop? (might be hard if they're refilling the system off their own back), that'll be a sign that you have a leak somewhere or there's trapped air.

Run your hands on the joints where the pipes enter any rads. If they're wet or damp then make a list of them. If the property has underfloor heating, ask them to run it for a week continuous, to establish it's all working as it should. Zones, keypads, pump noise etc.

Carpentry will be another big one if it was all put up when the house was "cold", e.g. no heating. Another reason for running the heating on full whack for a week. Any expansion will lead to expansion and cracks. You don't want to be sorting these problems out after you've moved in.

Fixed smoke alarm and property alarms are worth testing, because they're safety critical devices. If you have a direct-dial alarm, put it in test/engineer mode or disconnect the phone line before you test (unless you want the fire brigade to show up?). The house alarm can be tested by setting it and just walking through some rooms or opening a door or window.

For windows, check the downstairs windows and doors have a kitemark logo in the corner of the glass (if they are at a reasonably low level), which proves they have been toughened to BS EN 12150, for toughened glass. You don't want a child running in to an annealed window.

There's plenty more to look at, but you seem to have gone for the obvious.. hopefully this will help you think about looking deeper.
 
you can't be too picky when you're snagging a new build!
I used to work with a guy in an architects office who was a total bawbuster doing snagging, you could tell he was on site when all the builders heads went down! But what he would do is go through each room, any more than five points in a room then the room wasn't good enough and he would stop that room and just tell them it was unacceptable, over a whole house/flat three rooms with five points ended a snagging trip! they soon got the message...
if you're snagging for yourself it's up to you what to accept, any problems you see and don't pick up will be left for you to sort out, remember to check all plumbing fixings
 
only worth going up there if you have any idea what you're looking at! you could poke your head up there to check the insulation is sitting right, especially if you have any recessed light fittings...
 
Appreciate the help. Will report back on how it went. I imagine they will be giving some cheek at minor defects. They haven't been the most pleasant to deal with generally.

I was planning on asking them to have the heat switched on an hour before we turn up so that we can easily check the radiators etc.
 
We produced about 4 sides of A4 as our snagging list when moving into a new build property. At initial move in and then reproduced a list every three months for the first year.

Make sure the snagging list is provided in writing and if possible that you inspect around the property with the appropriate representative of the builders so they can see exactly what you are referring to and wheat you expect done to fix it.

Also set time scales you want things fixed in if possible.
 
We won't be moving in for a few months so that will be plenty of time after completion for them to fix what they need to fix.

The solicitor told me that he will look at snag list and then decide if he should send it on to builders.
 
Funny that this post came up today when I'm actually just dealing with snagging issues myself for the property I own.

We had a number of snagging issues that have not been dealt with and as it's approaching the end of the two years in which you can claim, they advised everybody to get everything down on paper so they could do.

Everybody is right about cracks... infact the documentation we had with the property warns that it will happen and also not to do any painting for a certain amount of time.

The main issue I have now is that while they are intending to rectify the problems, some they have point blank refused is not their problem.

The first one being halogen lights in the ceiling. They have small transformer boxes that power them. When half our lights stopped working, I assumed it was because the bulbs had gone. It was only when I removed the bulb I discovered that the transformer boxes had been too close to the bulb and melted, even though the instructions on the box warn against putting them too close.

They are trying to claim it's my fault for not making sure I push the boxes back properly when changing bulbs... despite the fact Ive not actually needed to change any bulbs... they themselves put the boxes too close.

Another is that our kitchen tap (quite a funky one) the valve just fell off... they are claiming we probably misused it, not their problem. Also, the tap itself is loose as they never secured it, again they claim it's not their problem.

They've not even looked at these issues yet and they are trying to get out of them. So another thing to factor in is that we may need to involve our Solicitor again if they don't do anything.

It's all pretty annoying.
 
ringo747 said:
Is it worth looking into the attic at water tank/fittings? I wouldn't have a clue what to look for but Dad would I guess.
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Yep if your dad is a more general builder then get him along (sure he'd want to go anyway!), if he's anything like mine he will be picking out things that look fine to non builders. :p
 
Think about the amount of money you are spending and check everything, document everything that bothers you.

You must have watched New Homes from Hell, its been on TV millions of times. a lot of new builds are just thrown together as quickly and cheaply as possible.
 
We were still snagging 4 years after moving in, a combination of understanding builders and a serious of balls ups! I'd be very picky to be honest, it's the biggest imvestment you're likely to make and the builders make a killing on new builds and rarely do a thorough job.
 
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