Advice and help needed regarding new house and wiring fault

bhughes1986

Hi all, in need of some urgent advice regarding the new build that we completed on last Friday.

On Saturday we moved in and wanting to have some sense of normality we had pre-booked the Sky man to install the dish. Our house has one of these connection points on the outside wall that he connected the output of the dish to. The house is pre wired for Sky TV and there are plates in the front room for Sky and the bedrooms for a TV signal (sent from the Sky box up to the rooms).

The Sky bloke tested the port in the front room and was receiving nothing, so he presumed that the wires were not connected in the loft (common occurrence he told us). Fair enough, we called the Saleswoman and she told us that someone would be around to look at it today (Wednesday).

Well today has been and gone and they have sent around an electrician to take a look. It turns out that everything IS connected up, however there is no continuity between the loft and the wall plate in the front room, therefore there 'must be a cut in the line'.

The electricians solution? Run a cable down from the dish, drill a hole in the wall and connect it up that way. Now if this was any old installation then fair enough, however as this house was sold to us as being prewired for TV, we expect it to work! In addition, we don't want to have unused connection points and cables trailing around the front room and a hole in the wall will make the house less 'energy efficient', if only a tiny amount, surely?

What rights do we have with regards to ensuring that they fix the fault? The builders head office has confirmed that there is a defect with the wiring. I told HO that I want them to come round and initially check EVERY TV/Sky point to see what actually works, then fix it properly, if that involves pulling up floorboards and going into walls then replastering, I don't care, as long as it is sorted properly.

I've looked into NHBC but I am unsure if this covers wiring, do the builders have to correct this defect? We have been in less than a week.

Any advice gratefully received...!

Doozergirl

There is no way I would allow them to crave up new plasterboard to put in new wires. Not a hope in hell. I believe that is what is called cutting your nose to spite your face.

I'd ask for some compensation perhaps, but you're opening a whole new tin of worms by suggesting it's okay to rip up plasterboard walls, ceilings, skirting boards etc. I can see a situation where if you're this angry about something like this, just wait until they fill the house with plasterdust and have to reskim entire walls because the repair doesn't blend properly or the magnolia is the wrong shade.

NHBC does not cover minor workmanship issues - that is in the developer's 2 year defect warranty.

I think you need to be a little more pragmatic about it. There will be a more discreet solution.

I wish my biggest problem was the size of this one

bhughes1986

Doozergirl wrote: »

There is no way I would allow them to crave up new plasterboard to put in new wires. Not a hope in hell. I believe that is what is called cutting your nose to spite your face.

I'd ask for some compensation perhaps, but you're opening a whole new tin of worms by suggesting it's okay to rip up plasterboard walls, ceilings, skirting boards etc. I can see a situation where if you're this angry about something like this, just wait until they fill the house with plasterdust and have to reskim entire walls because the repair doesn't blend properly or the magnolia is the wrong shade.

NHBC does not cover minor workmanship issues - that is in the developer's 2 year defect warranty.

I think you need to be a little more pragmatic about it. There will be a more discreet solution.

I wish my biggest problem was the size of this one

Thanks for the reply. I see what you mean ref cutting off our noses to spite our face, but what is the alternative, running cables along all the skirtings, drilling through floors etc?

We were sold a house and part of that was the audio/visual connectivity it offered. Now we have moved in we have discovered that it doesn't work, surely they must put it right?

What doesn't help is that the house includes a third floor so we are talking about a lot of cabling if we go with the alternative solution. I'd much rather they sort out the one faulty cable so that everything else works...

BuntyB

Have you given them a chance to put it right? It might be nothing more than someone forgot to feed a cable down through a conduit. It might have an easy fix?

Give them a chance to fix it first

DTDfanBoy

There should be no need to run a cable down another route from the loft to the wall plate. Providing it's been wired in properly just tape the new cable onto the end of the dud one in the loft and pull the new one through to the wall plate


I'll also add that having only one satellite cable run into your lounge in a new build is rubbish, I've got eight running into my lounge and the place is 60 years old :eek:

bhughes1986

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

There should be no need to run a cable down another route from the loft to the wall plate. Providing it's been wired in properly just tape the new cable onto the end of the dud one in the loft and pull the new one through to the wall plate


I'll also add that having only one satellite cable run into your lounge in a new build is rubbish, I've got eight running into my lounge and the place is 60 years old :eek:

If only, I think that the cables are all behind the plasterboard, hence the builders reluctance to rectify the issue in the correct manner.

Hintza

bhughes1986 wrote: »

In addition, we don't want to have unused connection points and cables trailing around the front room and a hole in the wall will make the house less 'energy efficient', if only a tiny amount, surely?

It will make no difference to the efficiency of the house.