Redrow Homes - Roofing Problems

[Angry redrow homeowner]

A large number of houses (approx 50%) of the houses on the estate I live on lost roof tiles in the high winds over the weekend. Whilst I accept the winds were quite high, very few other houses in the area lost any tiles at all. Every time there is any moderate to high winds, some houses loose tiles. The majority of the houses affected lost tiles from the hips (sloping ridge). Where tiles were lost, it was generally from the whole hip.

The houses were built by Redrow (Lancashire) and are from the 'Heritage' Range.

Redrow are refusing to take any action, instructing affected homeowners to claim off their household insurance. I do not see why home owners or insurance companies should foot the bill for shoddy work by Redrow and/or their subcontractors.

Does anyone have similar experiences of Redrow?

What is the best way to take action against Redrow? (The NHBC have been less than helpful so far)

[Phil]

You may lose loose tiles.

[Jonathan Pearson]

This is one of the reasons why we moved from a new build to a propper solid house - We had exactly the same thing about 4 years ago on our estate with Barratt Homes, all houses been in for around 18 months, maybe 25 of the 70 houses lost roof tiles one night - Barratt were excellent - they had the roofing guy round even before we had got up (he got us up) - all the roofs were fixed within 2 days at Barratts expense.

Jon

[Tony Bryer]

They may have decided that this would be much cheaper than having

25 insurance companies coming after them for recovery of claims paid out. ISTR that when you sign an insurance claim form you assign to the InsCo the right to take any legal action against the party responsible for the loss.

[i_hate_redrow]

I wish Redrow were as good - 3 weeks on still little in the way of a response from Redrow ('....awaiting a report from our roofing contractor.....')

Many people are getting fed up and paying themselves or claiming on the household insurance - probably what Redrow want!

We have also discovered that Dentil Slips should have been used on the ridges and hips but weren't. I don't know whether this is likely to contribute to the problems but the tiles definately weren't fitted in accordance with the manufacturers instructions.

We also now know several other Redrow estates have had exactly the same problems and that they all appear to have had the same roofing contractor - Avonside.

[IMM]

You have to be kidding!!!

Barratt and Redrow are amongst the cowboys. Go to a decent builder. You get what you pay for. Modern houses can be very solid if you get the right builder and design. Or you can get a cheapie and make it more solid yourself. On moving in rip up the floor boards and put rigid rockwool bats under, jammed between the joists, put the boards back with screws. Put extra Rockwool in the loft. Put seals around door frame to prevent sound from getting through, use a silicon gun to plug any holes into the loft: light fitting cables, pipes, etc. This can be done with any house, old or new. Your so-called flimsy house will be a hell of a lot more solid with minimal outlay.

Also you can inspect the house as it is being built. Take photos of snags. And send snag list to the site manager and the BCO. ALWAYS the BCO

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[Owain]

wrote | I wish Redrow were as good - 3 weeks on still little in the way | of a response from Redrow ('....awaiting a report from our roofing | contractor.....')

There was a repeat of New Houses From Hell last night featuring someone who got £75k compensation from, I think, Wilcon. Techniques included getting the register of members and writing to several big shareholders, and going to the annual general meeting.

Owain

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Love to know of a cheapie house builder who uses floorboards...

[John]

Love to know of anyone who thinks ripping up the floorboards or chipboard in a multithousand pound brand new house is amongst the list of things to do before fitting carpets. This really should be a case for SNIP BABBLE

[IMM]

Fishman, if you want a quiet house the that is what you do. Or you can spend a fortune on a Barlclay home which has solid upper floors. Cost of doing what I said? Not much at all when you consider how much the house has just cost you. In fact buttons. Or maybe you like noise in your house.

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[IMM]

Do you mean they only have the joists? People have to step from joist to joist upstairs? My oh my! What sort of house does he have?

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[Dave]

I am not sure you can generalize in this way. I have had a Bungalow custom built by an independant builder and also been around a number of new housing developments.

What appears to happen is that the "Builder" is only a project manager which hires in independent contractors (or cowboys) who hire in craftsmen and labours (or cowboys). So the eventual build quality depends more on how good the site manager was in supervising the build and the luck of the draw as to wether you got the cowboys or good craftsmen to build your house.

Again I have know houses next door to each other, one a near perfect build, the other full of botches.