General quality of new houses?

[Mike Mitchell]

One word: Persimmon.

MM

[Tony Bryer]

There's a 1930's house on my old stamping ground which is - according a letter in the files - built entirely of half bricks, hidden under the pebbledash of course. The reply from the builder said that it was his standard practice to use up all the broken bricks on the last house of an estate!

[Tony Bryer]

There's not much behind them though - or wasn't when I spent a day with a suburban Melbourne Building Inspector in 1989. But if you're building a detached house you may take the view that in 30 years time you (or the then owner) will just pull it down and start again

Friends of mine emigrated to NZ and bought a beautiful big new bungalow for the equivalent of £90K. All timber frame, no insulation or heating (not a problem for most of the year, but they do have cold nights) and you could hear conversations from one bedroom to the next.

[sPoNiX]

Having owned a brand new house built in the mid 90s, a house built in the early 70s and one built late 30s I'd say the 90s house was the worst by a *huge* margin.

sPoNiX

[sPoNiX]

We went round a series of showhomeson a new build 'executive' estate a few years ago just for a laugh..

Rather cunningly all internal doors had been omitted to make the placeslook bigger. I tried lying on one of the beds and it was about

6" shorter than the norm...my feet dangled over the end.

Worse than that there was no drivewaysfrom the garagesto the road, merely grass and flowerbeds. Presumably in an attempt to make the front gardenslook bigger.

None of the houses had televisions...etc..etc.

Go round a showhome and try and spot all the 'cheats' they have done in order to make the houses seem bigger!

sPoNiX

[N. Thornton]

that bit is inevitable. New plaster should be painted with trade paint, not emulsion. Its crap. If it lasted 2 years it did unusually well.

Regards, NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

Finding a new house with any plaster in it is an interesting challenge in itself...

[IMM]

construction

Planning and how the houses are built are two entirely separate issues.

[IMM]

I disagree.

More than adequate as most homes leak too air from the fabric.

The house and its location are separate issues.

[IMM]

That is because of the land problem. Only just over 7% of the land is built on. They will not allow us to build on subsidised fields. This creates an artificial shortage ramping up land values. that is why houses are so expensive.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its natural resonance seems to be about 6 Hz.

Its probably better able to withstand wind, actually. It flexes rather than breaks.

[The Natural Philosopher]

"How can you tell you are in Germany" "The net curtains are made of concrete"

Its different in Bavaria though, There the curtains are made of matchwood.

[The Natural Philosopher]

For one simple reason. People do not build their own houses: They buy them ready built from a developer.

Only developers have the ability to bribe enough of the local council to get planning permission to turn green belt land into nasty executive rabbit hutches.

Its ot that shoddy: Just built to certain constraints which are:

Low cost Building regulations Good enough to sell, but not to live in yourself.

[IMM]

construction

They shouldn't have to bribe them as the land should be available anyhow.

[John Smith]

Thanks Martin, I have been looking at self-build but am waiting for the incredible inflated Swansea prices to go South - a house that was worth 40 -

45K 2 years ago can surely not be worth 185K today. The place doesn't have any jobs anyhow! :-)

[Simon Pleasants]

Well the original owner was a painter and decorator. He made them come back and re-do the whole place again because it was so poor. Unfortunately, that was about the only problem he took up with them.

We bought our paint from a local trade centre (apparently Crown freely admit the quality of stuff they sell out of B&Q etc is considerably lower than their trade paint). You could just about rest the brush against the wall and watch the paint getting sucked up.

I should probably have thinned it for the first coat, but decided just keep putting in on by the bucket load. After three coats I think we've just about doubled the soundproofing!

[Simon Pleasants]

In my (admittedly limited) experience, the house builder is largely irrelevent. The quality of the finished product seems to have depended mostly on the site foreman and most of the housing companies have employed all the same tradesmen.

By and large Persimmon have responded fairly promptly to anything we have reported to them.

[Martin Angove]

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention the black dust. Mortar made with coaldust and "plaster" made of coaldust with a (very) thin skim of cement over the top. Foul stuff; creates a thin layer of black dust over

*everything* as soon as you load up a masonry bit in the drill.

Ugh.

Hwyl!

M.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh yes they will. You just have to bribe the local Laber Councillahs.

This creates an

That's right. That way the Laber councillahs get to live in the best houses.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Possibly, but you can't see the councillors voting to lose their bribes can you?

Some of the grossest corruptions in my lifetime have been on Laber Run councils...