Things will improve as the old cowboy builders retire and spend their time on holidays
Not sure what you mean by no drainage in the back garden. The rest of the list is 99% lack of supervision by contractors and building control. Largely caused by another wonderful idea of privatising building control. Weâre doomed.
Apparently they just compacted the gardens and put turf down. So as soon as there is any rain they all flood. Supposed to have dug them up and put gravel or stuff in. Gardens are basically solid clay as theyâre built on an old brick works
Youâre right about building control , some of what persimmon and their ilk get away with is awful - there was a house on TV some time back with no insulation!
I was once told (could be 20 years ago now) that the design life of new-build estate houses was 60 years, and that was assuming they were built without any corners being cut by the âtradesmenâ who actually did the work.
Iâm sorry but that makes zero sense. What has changed? Foundations are far better than ever, most houses still have a masonry outer skin and tile/slate roof, windows and doors are uPVC which will outlast timber casements, what is going to fail in 60 years?
It was a good while ago and I canât remember the cause for concern in detail, but I seem to remember it was to do with the durability of timber-framed houses*. This article claims timber framing accounts for 23% of all new housing in England and 75% in Scotland. It also says
Timber homes can provide a solution to the housing crisis due to their quick build times and cheap costs.
I note the emphasis on quick and cheap. It just doesnât give a very good impression of whatâs really driving the big builders.
*There may have been some worry about the durability of the membranes installed to keep the timber dry, so preventing rot. But now I really am pulling stuff up from hazy memory âŚ
They have been building timber frame houses since the 70âs, the timber frame sits on a DPC on foundation brickwork, there is a cavity between the outer skin then a DPM, then insulation. All the timber is pressure treated⌠It reminds me of my neighbour yesterday saying "someone told me that all electric car batteries will fail at 8 years and the cars will be worthless '.
As you are undoubtedly aware, your chosen profession has a shit reputation as almost everyone will have had a bad experience with a builder. Add that to greedy housebuilders like Barratt and Persimmon, and trust will be non-existent. Youâre right that houses arenât falling down all over the country all the time, but lovely social media means there are many examples of things that arenât right, and it appears getting them fixed is a massive problem. I know the people in the new houses on our road have had the run around as the house builder used an agency who used contractors - so the poor sods just get bounced between them.
Thatâs OK; theyâve already been given the answer; cancel Net-Flicks; stop buying takeaways and going on holidays abroad.
I donât believe weâre too far away from pitchforks, actually.
Iâve given up on the idea of owning my own property. And I do earn a good wage.
Iâve just come across this, by the Structural Timber Association (so theyâre not anti-timber)
It refers to various standards documents which specify design lifetimes up to 60 years (not just for timber).
More importantly it talks about the standard of workmanship. Timber can last a very long time (look at the roofs of medieval cathedrals) but if it gets wet, e.g. because a DPM sheet has been inadvertently/carelessly perforated, then itâs intrinsically vulnerable. Weâve had grumbles on the sites around here about being able to recruit labour with the right attitude to the maintaining the highest standards of construction quality.
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I agree that there are loads of cowboy âtradesmenâ around, there always have been but there are many, many more now due to a massive shortage of labour mainly due to lack of training over the last 40? years. Brexit exacerbated this, plus the fact that it is a highly paid job now, I was earning ÂŁ1300 for a 37 hour week before the lockdown, so there are lots of âchancersâ about. I am not trying to excuse bad workmanship, but it isnât in the main due to design, itâs, as I have said before, lack of supervision. The site managers are under massive pressure to meet targets, plus in my experience most of them couldnât run a bath.
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Buildings always fail after time, maintenance is the key. Will modern building require major interventions after a hundred years, probably. No one will guarantee modern materials for that period of time. Will they fall down, no.
Compare that to the number of old properties I have owned which, after 100 years, suffer minor subsidence due to variations in foundations, damp proof layers (slate) that needed replacing, owners that made stupid modifications, fire risks emerging as standards change, walls bowing out etc.
New builds will solve some of these but all will have their own issues in a hundred years. I have no doubt some will end up beyond economic repair and subject to slum clearance. I have no doubt that others will try to preserve these houses for their character and importance to the communityđ
As for shit builders, no change their either. My wifeâs grand mum advised us not to buy the terraces on certain roads because they were a later development on the same estate and the good builders had moved on. Also the timber being used was cut to the bare minimum etc. Bricks used round the back were of an inferior quality, and they were. When we looked, all those houses suffered severe spalling round the back.
Nothing new in housebuildingđ
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Chatting to a builder at the golf club he said that they had a real problem finding tradesmen, they were now paying carpenters ÂŁ350 a day
A women on BBC Question Time, just about to sign up to a mortgage at 4.5% last week, was told the offer had been withdrawn & then told today that the new offer was 10.4%
Remind me again how the BoE interest rate relates to anything?
(mainly) inflation
And howâs that workingâŚ.
Weâre on tenterhooks at the moment because weâre very close to contract exchange and completion on the bungo, but the couple buying our house are taking out a ÂŁ410k/95% mortgage.
Good luck with that. Do you know if they have had the mortgage application accepted?