New build: developer won't provide plumbing or wiring plans

jmmo20

Alan2020 said:

Oh and a bit of advice to you, find the stop tap - usually in the kitchen cupboard under the sink and turn it off, if water doesn't come anymore in the kitchen cold and elsewhere connected to the mains - high pressure, that is your feed.  Your water softener goes there with a bypass and valves for kitchen and emergencies

Alan2020 said:

Hasn't it crossed your mind that such a plan does not exist.  Think about it for a moment, why would a small builder need such plans for a trivial job.  Building control doesn't need them either.  There is usually a note saying will be decided on site.  They are not building a Space ship, its a primitive house.  A few hours of spent using a bit of detective work and common sense will reveal all.  Don't worry too much, you will have to lift everything if something goes wrong.  Just relax and enjoy your home.  Even if a plan existed most wouldn't be followed anywhere remotely closely.

Very good advice I tend to overthink stuff and because of my medical background I get a bit spooked if I don't understand 100% where everything is and how it works. I can't help it!

As for the stop tap.. it's not in the kitchen because the kitchen is at the back of the property. There's a pipe coming into the garage and from there I think at some point the tube gets into a recessed corner in the downstairs cloakroom where it's connected to two copper pipes. one goes upstairs so I assume that's going into the heating system. The other pipe goes towards the kitchen so I think that's where the downstairs toilet and kitchen are fed from. This recess in the cloakroom is tiny and barely fits my hand behind the door, there's a flat stop valve (like the ones with a flat head that you need to use a flat screwdriver). I'm guessing that in order to install a water filter we'll probably have to install it in the garage somehow, right before the mains pipe forks out into two.

anselld

You also need to decide what water you want softened.  It is not advisable to soften the drinking water so if you soften the whole house you would need to run a new drinking water feed to the kitchen which could be difficult.  It may be easier to leave the kitchen and downstairs loo unsoftened and just soften the upstairs branch if that is where the boiler and showers are.

Mutton_Geoff

Even if a schematic diagram was ever produced (which I doubt), there is no reason why the sparky and plumber might run a pipe or cable up then across or across then up to get from A to B. Even in identical adjacent houses it could be laid out differently.

Johnhowell

A colleague at work bought a new build in 2019 and he requested the drawings from the developer of his plot.  They asked for a small fee (~£100, IIRC) and collected them from the site office not long afterwards.  Well worth having this information - it may not be classed as precise as-builts but should show the intent of the layouts.  Also consider finding out the make/model/source for bricks/tiles/mortar/etc. so you can match any future works...
Good luck