New Build - What's the build quality really like?

Idiophreak

Blimey, not a great thread for new builds here, is it...Anyway, I've lived in a newbuild flat for about a year and will give a couple of responses to some of the points.

1) Rooms are smaller. In some they are, yes. A good way of telling is to either measure the rooms, or look at the floorplans. Hardly rocket science. If it's too small, don't buy the thing.

2) Housing association tennants - many councils state that builds above X units have to include a set percentage of "affordable housing" etc. Not all do. If they say "75% affordable housing"...I know it's a generalisation, but it might not end up being the nicest area. If that bother you, don't buy the thing.

3) Noise. I don't find it a problem - and I *really* don't like noise. We can hear when our downstairs neighbours shut their doors. But that's *all*.

We were the first to move in to our block (of 4 flats) - we got the keys for the flat downstairs to see how much noise we could reasonably make. The answer, in short, is an really *unreasonable* amount of noise. We can turn our TV up to 90/100 before it's audible *at all* in the flat downstairs. We were in the empty flat, perfectly quiet - and as soon as we could hear the TV at all, we stopped. The hifi, too, can be pretty loud - the bassier stuff tends to go through the floor pretty quickly, but it's still much louder than you'd have the thing on day-to-day...and you'd like to think you'd mention to your neighbours if you were having a party anyway "jumping on the bed" was fine, you couldn't hear it at all. Hoovering gave a faint hum, but not enough to wake anyone up, or make them turn up the TV etc. If you *stamp* on your heal, you can hear footsteps, but normal walking - even exercise videos, you can't hear. You might be able to tell, we spent a while testing - as I said, I'm very particular about noise levels

4) "Quality" - it just varies *massively*. I think that's the key point here - there's no hard and fast rule for new builds. We looked at barratts, persimmon, redrow etc when we looked - and, in all honesty, some of them were *aweful*.

We went to one Barratt one the day we first visited the flat we now live in. It *was* small. Every room was just really small. You wouldn't have fitted two people in the kitchen. The bathroom was "jack and jill", meaning it's both an ensuite and not an ensuite. Interesting. The entrance area, past a million other identical flats, looked like a halls of residence, or a hostel. The kitchen units looked like something from the 70s. They had plastic bits, gaps where stuff wasn't put together properly, looked really cheap. Road noise was an issue. Massive radiators everywhere. Views of concrete out of the window.

By contrast, our place had by far the best dimensions we'd seen - 2 good sized bedrooms (we're not cramped here) and a living space twice the size of the next largest we saw. Overall square footage is 50% up from the barratts one. Kitchen is lovely, modern, well put together, masses of work surface, all appliances built in and included. A nice ensuite shower room and a really good sized family bathroom (no shower over the bath, but have sorted that now). The flat's one of 9 on a small development set back from the road - very quiet from road noise. Out of the windows we have a nice row of trees, some well kept lawn, a nice cherry blossom at this time of year. There's wet underfloor heating throughout, with thermostats in each room - much more wall space without radiators.

I've no reason to lie about this, the difference in the quality of *all aspects* of the flats was just night and day. We paid around 10% more for our flat, in a more desirable area.

We took a walk round with the site manager, he showed us each of the properties - you could see that he took genuine pride in what he'd built. All of the work force we've met are British and the firm primarily builds large hotels, so they don't necessarily have the same motivations as full-time home builders. The development was also a joint venture with the next door neighbours who had a vested interest in the aesthetics of the development - not least for their own property prices. Hence there's plenty of green space, large gardens and an attractive driveway.

It's not all been completely plain sailing - we've had the odd little niggle with the place, a lock broke, a light wasn't working, but think that's about it - but the builders have sorted stuff out within a couple of days when called.

The point I'm trying to make is that not all places are going to be the same - the best thing to do is just to go and look at places. It's very easy to see if somewhere's small, poorly finished, noisy. Surveys, EPC etc should give you a decent view on the location, insulation etc if you get that far.

(incidentally, we have extremely low gas bills as the place is so well insulated - although this balances out with the electricity bills - we have to keep electric fans on over night quite often when it starts to get warmer)

Edit: Oh, and of course, it's new. I know this isn't to everyone's taste, but I love that we were the first in here, no imperfections, a completely blank canvas. As a new building it's also got TV, phone and satellite points throughout - and plenty of plug sockets. If you want zero work when you move into a place, buying new certainly has some advantages.

[Deleted User]

we are living in a 5 year old new build on a small development and the quality is fantastic. Do your legwork op as they are not all bad.

We are now moving to another new build in a block of 4 and again the build quality is fantastic, otherwise we wouldn`t be buying

There are builders and builders. I have to say that we wouldn`t even look at the likes of redrow, barratts etc and their squashed in social housing

edit; combined energy cost for our 3 bed plus study town house was less than £500 per year and room sizes are spacious and sunny plus walk in wardrobe etc. Another upside is that there is no maintenance to date

Having said all that, do not trust any developer as all they have in mind is their own profit, so look, prod and poke. Ask the neighbours etc etc

[Deleted User]

SouthCoast wrote: »

Mine is a luxury, executive, designer, exclusive gated community with two fires and two floods caused by poor workmanship.

Another fire was caused by a car getting torched!

You need to pick your location more carefully

carefullycautious

Idiophreak would love to know who your builder was? and what location you are in. I would love to find a well built soundproof flat

I suspect you have payed a premium to get such a property.

wymondham

Generally, the build of many new homes is not as good since they built purely for profit from large companies. The rooms are smaller, the material cheaper and plots generally are smaller. We sold our 1990 house for a 1970 house and the difference in cost/space and lifestyle generally was incredibly better. Our 1990 house was Wilcon built

The big change was sound insulation. The new house was terrible since the walls were so thin.

Silly things like pipework are better on our older house - much thicker copper use on central heating pipes!

These are just my own views on what I've come across....

Muhasib

brit1234 wrote: »

From building them no, quality 0f interrior/exterrior walls poor, room dimesions smaller as well. Better getting an older property and revamping it.

I'm confused as in previous posts you have said you were looking to buy a new property?

Zelie

SouthCoast wrote: »

I live in a recent build that is made from cardboard glued to a steel frame.

When the wind blows the building creaks.

Are you the owner or a tenant? I thought it was near-impossible to get mortgages on steel-framed houses due to the unusual construction method. Or did you mean something different and I've picked it up wrong?

jonewer

gabyjane wrote: »

Not even going to read the replies as i can guaruntee they say rubbish rubbish rubbish BUT we have one and its fab.....

Its not impossible to get a well built new build, my issue with them is them is less to do with room sizes which can be smaller or larger, or the gardens, which are almost always of postage-stamp proportions, my main issue is with the potential for serious defects in the construction.

Now, when you buy a victorian or 30's place, then you can be sure the place wasnt bodged together with string and selotape. Not so with new-builds. And if you find serious problems with your new-build, then the NHBC guarantee is worthless.

I was on a trades forum a month or two ago where someone wondered why his toilet extractor fan wasnt extracting. So he took some of the 1st floor apart to trace the path of the vent. He found that the builders had hacked a whole through about 90% of the main structural element keeping the 1st floor up and squeezed the venting through it. Utterly dangerous and an utter bodge.

Sorry, I know not all new-builds are rubbish but from what I've seen, thats not a chance I'd be prepared to take.

pinkshoes

Depends on who built it!

I've lived in two newbuild flats, both of which had brilliant sound proofing, and were solidly built. One was built by a bigger building company (don't know which one - I rented it), and the other was done by a local builder who obviously valued their reputation.

TBH, I miss the newbuild flat. I now live in a 1970s semi, and am so fed up of hearing the thud thud of the kid next door going upstairs, and the scraping of their dining chairs across the floor, or their phone ringing.

I'd perhaps avoid mass-produced new build flats, but consider those built by local builders on an individual basis.

lincroft1710

I've known Victorian, Edwardian, 1930s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s semi/terrace with noise or build quality problems. Newbuilds should be (NB should be not are) better insulated than older properties.