No flooring with shared ownership - experiences please

Benzanna

Hi, I've found out the new build house I'm buying with shared ownership comes with no flooring (apart from kitchen and bathroom)

Has anyone had experience of this? I've heard it happens quite a bit.

Would you get the flooring in before you complete? (you have to pay extra for the HA to allow this)

Or move in and then sort the flooring? Does anyone know what sort of base it'll be on? (concrete, chipboard etc) I'm a bit nervous about moving in with no set flooring!

Thanks in advance

Silvertabby

Our newbuild (not shared ownership) didn't come with any flooring - not even the kitchen and bathrooms.

We had flooring/carpets fitted after we had completed, but before we moved in. luckily, we were moving from an Armed Forces married quarter and so didn't have to move out/in on the same day.

Benzanna

Silvertabby wrote: »

Our newbuild (not shared ownership) didn't come with any flooring - not even the kitchen and bathrooms.

We had flooring/carpets fitted after we had completed, but before we moved in. luckily, we were moving from an Armed Forces married quarter and so didn't have to move out/in on the same day.

That's handy for you. I think I'll get it done after completion, and have a buffer before I leave my rented home...!

SELagom

It is quite common for new build properties to be sold without any flooring. Especially from the big developers.

It would have been in the documentation you signed when reserving the property - that would have been the time to negotiate. I have friends who recently bought a new build and they negotiated on having flooring and even turf in the garden (which was not included either) being included within the price, as well as £1k towards legal fees.

If you are looking for carpet, you can measure the rooms and order it and arrange fitting for the day you move in. It is not impossible.

Tomg84

It’s common for no flooring. Our new build would have come with no flooring but it was thrown in as an incentive.

General_Applause

There was no flooring in our new-build shared ownership house, except some lino in the kitchen (just half of it though) and bathroom.


We had it fully underlayed and carpeted and new lino in the kitchen before we moved in but we were renting so had as much overlap as we liked.


The ground floor was concrete and upstairs was chipboard.


I would recommend getting the flooring done before you move in if possible.

Davesnave

Many who buy non-new houses with carpets left in-situ, strip them out within weeks of moving in, especially if they come with added 'wildlife!'

It may be an expense, but its no biggie in any other respect.

01afraser4

It may benefit you to arrange your own flooring, that way you can shop around for the best prices.

However, if you are due to move in within the next few months (winter), speaking from experience get the flooring done on the day you get the keys. My g/f and I recently bought our first home and thought we'd gradually get things done. We didn't have flooring immediately but this was a big mistake. The house was VERY cold without it and we spent a fortune on heating costs even for the short time we had without it haha. Lesson learned.

Davesnave

01afraser4 wrote: »

The house was VERY cold without it and we spent a fortune on heating costs even for the short time we had without it haha. Lesson learned.

It may give the impression of being warm, but carpeting doesn't add much in insulation value.


We have 3mm of LVT in the living room and there's no noticeable difference now compared with preceding years when we had thick Wilton and underlay...apart from there being nowhere for bugs to hide and cleaning being much faster.

01afraser4

Davesnave wrote: »

It may give the impression of being warm, but carpeting doesn't add much in insulation value.


We have 3mm of LVT in the living room and there's no noticeable difference now compared with preceding years when we had thick Wilton and underlay...apart from there being nowhere for bugs to hide and cleaning being much faster.

I suppose it may depend on what type of base the flooring is on, but we could certainly feel a difference as soon as we had our wooden floorboards covered with underlay and click-vinyl/carpet.

HanPop

We didn’t have any flooring apart from kitchen and bathroom in our shared ownership new build because they told us that it would add value to the property which they didn’t want to do in case our sale fell through and they still wanted it to be ‘affordable’. We were renting though so just had carpets put in on the day we got the keys and could leisurely move in.