Helping UK new home buyers
brand-newhomes.co.uk
Reasons why new homes are poor quality:
It is desirable and necessary to improve the standard of the nation’s housing stock and this is done through revision of the building regulations. However, in recent years this has been a continual process. No sooner has the industry accepted new standards, produced designs, specifications and developed new materials enabling the new standards to be met than they are changed again. (Part E Part L Part M) This causes problems at site level with certain trades, possibly working with out of date drawings, unaware that the specifications for their work have now been changed.
Increased importance placed on safety procedures
Nearly all construction and house building companies have invested heavily in implementing new health and safety strategies to comply with new legislation and limit their exposure to prosecution in the event of an accident or fatality. Statistics from the HSE would indicate that safety on construction sites is improving with a reduction in the number of people killed; 59 in 05/06 - down from 71 for both the previous two years. However, compliance has a price and it can take up a large proportion of the site manager’s working day. Not only has he to carry out various and necessary safety inspections but now everything must be recorded in writing, even a visit from the HSE. Such is the onus placed on the site manager preparing and implementing risk assessments, method statements, COSHH assessments, inductions, tool-box talks (training) lift plans etc, that he is spending less and less time out on the site inspecting the standard of your new home as it is built.
The growing incidence of employing site managers with a trade background also contributes to the lower quality of newly built homes. These site managers tend to have a very limited knowledge outside their own particular trade, with poor management and communication skills and a lack of enthusiasm, confidence and knowledge of the latest techniques and building regulations. It is not uncommon for forklift truck drivers to be acting as site managers on smaller sites.
It is becoming rare these days within the house building industry for site managers to have any continuity with their employers. It is often inevitable that as soon as the site is completed, the site manager can find he is either surplus to requirements or is required to travel great distances to his next site. With this as a prospect, it is not surprising that some site managers are not as professional and diligent as they could be.
Owning to ever increasing land prices and lack of availability, the majority of sites are limited to 35 homes or less. This can mean that by the time the site manager and his tradesmen have ‘ironed-out’ all the problems for each new house type and have solutions for the design issues, the site is completed. Finding solutions to design problems can mean quality suffers. As the site team will not be available on site for any length of time it is unlikely they will be called on to deal with any remedial works and this may also result in less care being taken.
What can be done to improve the quality of new homes?
Snagging and Quality |
Why do new homes have defects |
Professional snagging |
Snagging research |
DIY snagging your new home |
SNAGGING DEFECT PHOTOGRAPHS |
External DIY snaglist |
Internal DIY snaglist |
External snagging defect photo slideshow |
Internal snagging defect photo slideshow |
Who are the best house builders |
The worst house builders |
Builder's end of year figures |
HBF customer satisfaction survey results |
NHBC awards league table |
Job Vacancies |
Persimmon Homes |
Taylor Wimpey Homes |
Barratt Homes |
Bellway Homes |
Redrow Homes |
Bovis Homes |
Berkeley Homes |
Linden Homes |
Crest Homes |
Miller Homes |
Bloor Homes |
Taylor Wimpey on BBC Watchdog |
New home customer satisfaction surveys |
HBF New home survey results |
HBF House builder star rating |