new build walls

Lovelyjoolz

danielanthony wrote: »

New build estates also have to include social housing, so if you're not on one of these schemes then you're subsidising the cost of these houses. This is why builders cut corners and overprice new builds, because they're forced to sell houses to the council and HA's at a vastly discounted price.

The other problem with this is that you pay an awful lot of money for a brand spanking new house and unless you check the site plan carefully you find yourself surrounded by HA tenants.

Now, before I'm flamed for being a frightful snob let me clarify: Yes, many HA tenants are perfectly lovely, houseproud, community minded people who are a delight to have as neighbours. But you just need one bad apple who couldn't care less about the property they live in to make life a bit less comfortable, as a friend of mine found to his cost. When you've paid a premium price for a house, and the HA tenant next door lets his property degrade it's just not funny!

LauraWxx

Can someone explain a little more about what sort of shelves you should and shouldnt put up in a new build then??!!!

I was planning on putting some of the ikea floating shelves and then some stronger ones in the storage cupboard...any tips??!!

C_Mababejive

Do yourself a favour..dont buy one of these rubbish card board houses. Can you image...only a bit of timber framing and a couple of sheets of plasterboard between you and your neighbours...ROTF...total rubbish..

paddyrg

meethachandran wrote: »

ok straight to the point... is it better to buy new build or not

Not for me. Plasterboard walls are horrible if you're used to 'real' walls. It's like living in one big open plan room with partitions. In fact you may as well carpet the open space, then put the walls in afterwards. I am not a fan as you can tell. Sound travels, they are fragile, you can't hang anything on them. They are walls in name only.

In fairness, new build is not synonymous for tat - there are plenty of good solid newly built houses too, but they are usually not estate builds, but private projects and one-offs.

I still prefer places with some age, history, character, space myself though - higher ceilings, period features, etc. I love the fact if a house has been standing for 100+ years, I can be pretty confident it'll stand for another 100+ with a little attention now and again. There are downsides such as rattling windows which some people would hate, but I see as being part of the character of the place!

ILW

You do wonder how some of these places are going to look in 50 or so years time.

C_Mababejive

ILW wrote: »

You do wonder how some of these places are going to look in 50 or so years time.

They will need reboarding every 20 years or so...thats if the outside structure is still standing.

LandyAndy

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Do yourself a favour..dont buy one of these rubbish card board houses. Can you image...only a bit of timber framing and a couple of sheets of plasterboard between you and your neighbours...ROTF...total rubbish..

Can you really have plasterboard walls between properties?

Idiophreak

Think there's a lot of needless generalisation on this thread...

Some new builds are pants, some are quite good.

Guess what? Some older houses are pants, some are quite good, too!

Personally, we've one bit of stud walling in our new build, which is above the door to the built in cupboard in the master bedroom - all the other walls are perfectly solid.

We've excellent heat insulation, which leads to extremely cheap running costs and we enjoy modern features, such as underfloor heating, that you don't find in many older builds. Sound insulation, too, is excellent and we never hear anything of our neighbours - in stark contrast to older homes I've lived in, where you could hear every word the neighbours said....

We probably paid a little more than we would have had we bought an older property, but no more than we would have spend by the time we'd bought the older property and replaced, say, the kitchen and bathroom.

Space wise, our place is pretty decent, but I've seen both larger and smaller properties, both new and old...

All that said, I'm not a fan of new build estates and saw some *shocking* properties when I was looking for our place, so a lot of what's said is fair comment of some new builds...but you can tell if a home's built like tat just by wandering around the thing...

Ellie83

Are plaster boards the same as masonry inner leaves? Sorry to ask silly questions, but all this is like a foreign language to me.

I lived in a new built rented flat once, and it wasn't that bad. I got lucky apparently!

martinsurrey

I lived in a new build ground floor apartment for 2 years (quite recently), the car park was outside my bedroom window.

There were 2 guys living there (separately!) both using a lot of tech (so electricity).

While I was there the people above me had twins and the nursery was the room above mine.

In 730 nights living there, I heard the neighbours exactly 0 times, I was disturbed by cars exactly 0 times.

Our bills for gas + electricity were £25 a month due to the exceptional insulation.

Not all new builds are created equally, the reason most period properties you see now are solid is that the ones that weren’t have been knocked down!

Similarly, in 100 years time, that apartment will still be there.

FYI, there are very (and increasingly) strict rules about sound insulation in new builds, I’m not saying they are all great, but most are.

I find that when pressed, a lot of people who complain about new builds have never lived in one, but have read somewhere about them, and assume its a fact for 100% of all new builds.