UK house quality

Dedekind

Again locks are not an issue. Really you can change them for a few pounds. You can put whatever lock you want. All my doors are closing very nice and are very old.

Walls are paper thin maybe in new builds. Old houses have proper walls. Brick walls. You can't do better than bricks, I guess?

600k in outer London can get you a very nice place. You just have to look

Rocksolid

That's a good idea to evaluate in this way.

The point is if I work in London I can't go far away of 2h time, I'm already at 1:15 commute average, honestly is a lot...
Then I need optical fiber, not sure about the UK coverage for that if you are alone who knows where

Dedekind

Optical fiber you mean cable? Readily available.

London is expensive, crazy expensive, nothing new there.. but your budget can get you a nice place with good quality. You will need to sacrifice on size though if you want to be closer.

Cornucopia

I think that are some particular problems with the UK's house building industry. I've bought a number of new build properties (either brand new from builders or on the open market within a few years of building).

Overall, the basic technical standards by which UK houses are built are fairly high - better than the USA, but not as good as the special standards from places like Germany.

Most UK new-build houses will be finished internally with plasterboard (generally). If you don't like that finish then you'll likely to have to look at either bespoke builds or older properties (with brick internal walls). Plasterboard (or what the US calls dry wall) is a cheap, versatile material that lends itself to insulated wall cavities and provides an easy means to a flat wall finish of a reasonable level of quality.

One area that I have found consistently problematic across a number of new build purchases is build quality. As someone with a Quality Management qualification I find it very depressing that major builders seem unable to master a basic customer-facing quality assurance system based on simple checklists used by non-technical (but thorough) people. Some builders also seem to have something of a bad attitude when presented with "snags", and they can sometimes take months to resolve.

I'd also be happy to see the back of the "Essex Barn" design style, but a lot of people seem to like it.

Rocksolid

@Dedekind I don't evaluate old houses.
A locker cost a lot, I'm talking about secured doors with a good locker.

I would need 100/30 Mbps, it would be a good start, with the optical fiber till home I could get even 1 Gpbs, it depends from the infrastructure...

Rocksolid

There are plasterboard done in a proper way, but the most I've seen are really weak, literally one mistake with my hand or jeans and everything falls down.

I keep searching, let's see what comes up, I mean for this reason I was thinking to buy an house elsewhere, the only problem is to manage all this in the meantime you need to pay the rent...

TELLIT01

Rocksolid wrote: »

That's a good idea to evaluate in this way.

The point is if I work in London I can't go far away of 2h time, I'm already at 1:15 commute average, honestly is a lot...
Then I need optical fiber, not sure about the UK coverage for that if you are alone who knows where

If you are only commuting 1hr 15 minutes to a job in central London you are probably living closer than many commuters. I've known many who commute 2 hours and more each day. I wouldn't do it, but it is the price to pay for London wages.

rubble2

As a bit of a 'guilty pleasure' my wife and I watch a program called 'My Dream Home' on Alibi.

It is basically an American house renovation series but we are constantly surprised by the poor quality of house construction in the USA. Many of the houses seem to be glorified wooden sheds with timber clad outside walls, interior walls which are just timber studding clad in plasterboard with no internal insulation and houses with no real foundations - just timber piles built onto a concrete pad.

Dedekind

A locker costs a lot? A full new door with the most secure locks you can get will probably run you 300 pounds with labor included. Top end doors? 500? 1000? 2000? Thats peanuts considering the 400k price. If you can afford 400k but not 410k then there is something wrong in your budget plans

dunroving

Rocksolid wrote: »

There are plasterboard done in a proper way, but the most I've seen are really weak, literally one mistake with my hand or jeans and everything falls down.

I keep searching, let's see what comes up, I mean for this reason I was thinking to buy an house elsewhere, the only problem is to manage all this in the meantime you need to pay the rent...

I really wonder where these houses are - are you sure you aren't on a TV stage set?

(That was a joke; the walls wobble on Coronation Street when someone slams the door!)

I just can't see a stud wall falling down because you slip while putting your jeans on.