How exactly 'are' new houses signed off?

Don't understand why some people are so nostalgic for the old days when houses had no damp courses, no roof insulation, no central heating, no hot water, single glazing and outside bogs were commonplace.
Agree.

Old salt glaze clay drains - crap.

Insulation in flat roofs and their understanding of condensation - crap.

Footing thicknesses - minute.

Soakaways - practically useless.

Outside lintels - none-existent.

Board adhesive - use of skimming - crap

3"x 2" roof rafters and 4" loft floor joists - crap.

Cavities full of mortar snots.

Old houses keep me really busy though. (y) :mrgreen:



 
Sponsored Links
Pay your favorite builder in to draw up a snagging list as long as your arm and say you want it all remedying under their latent defects cover or whatever other thing they agreed in writing before you bought
They wouldn't do anything or at best bodge it up even more.
I used to do unofficial buyer's surveys for friends and family, a lot more detailed than the real thing.
The amount of faults I found in new built is unbelievable.
Not little things that you have to look closely at, but major problem like out of square windows clearly visible with naked eye.
Unsecured kitchen cabinets, broken tiles revealing very little adhesive used, doors that cannot be closed, carpet cut short, missing guttering, etc, etc.
The bloke in the video is just highlighting what is widely known.
I don't know who's buying these cardboard shoe boxes called "homes", maybe they don't watch tv or YouTube.
 
Sponsored Links
We do seem to have the process arris about face, don't we?

That people routinely spend longer researching the panini press they might buy, than the house they do.


Biggest investment most of us will ever make , and the least attention we give to what we are buying.
 
The modern building site labourer is more often than not a cannabis smoker, and he will be high on the drug during work, nipping out for a quick drag whenever he can. On the job he won't see the bricks, mortar and lintels as they are, but as distorted visions. When off the drug he will be experiencing flashbacks and horrors, cold sweats and panic attacks. Imps and demons will be coming out of the wall cavities and tormenting him. As Lloyd Grossman almost said: "Who'd live in a house built like this?".

The labourer of the past would be a beer drinker. Cheerful and happy and looking forward to his hard-earned few pints at the end of the working day.
 
We do seem to have the process arris about face, don't we?

That people routinely spend longer researching the panini press they might buy, than the house they do.

People tend to be more expert these days in judging panini, than they are in houses.
 
.
Don't understand why some people are so nostalgic for the old days when houses had no damp courses, no roof insulation, no central heating, no hot water, single glazing and outside bogs were commonplace.

That's all small beer stuff. It could all be added.

But don't you think it says a lot that these houses are still in use 100, 200 or 300 years later? The original craftsmanship that went into them made them worth saving and improving.
 
.


That's all small beer stuff. It could all be added.

But don't you think it says a lot that these houses are still in use 100, 200 or 300 years later? The original craftsmanship that went into them made them worth saving and improving.
I noticed that down the East End. I think the Gerries did British Builders a favour. Complete tat.
 
I noticed that down the East End. I think the Gerries did British Builders a favour. Complete tat.

They weren't all perfect. But then they probably weren't selling for the equivalent of £1M each in those days. Some of the Vic houses in Bristol don't have foundations - but they're still standing and located in a very expensive and desirable area. Craftsmanship in new buildings was the rule then, but the exception now.
 
I noticed that down the East End. I think the Gerries did British Builders a favour. Complete tat.


The British building industry has been plagued by unskilled/semiskilled work men for as long as I have been alive.

So what's the answer to this problem?
 
.

That's all small beer stuff. It could all be added.

But don't you think it says a lot that these houses are still in use 100, 200 or 300 years later? The original craftsmanship that went into them made them worth saving and improving.
I was brought up in a council house built in the late 60s. Decent sized rooms, decent front and back garden with garage. I then lived in another ex council house I think built around the 30s/40s. Again decent front and back garden, on street parking. The house was pretty solid, all brick walls. My sister lived for a while in a flat built around a century ago.

Of course as the years roll by these properties start to need more significant maintenance, that's to be expected. However I do wonder what the cookie-cutter houses being built now will look like 50-100 years from now ...
 
They weren't all perfect. But then they probably weren't selling for the equivalent of £1M each in those days. Some of the Vic houses in Bristol don't have foundations - but they're still standing and located in a very expensive and desirable area. Craftsmanship in new buildings was the rule then, but the exception now.
There's a heck of a lot of tat built since the Victorian era boyo.
One of the better modern practices I found interesting, was the use of hessian sacking in the cavity bottoms. Once the cavity walls are built, every third block or so at floor level, are smashed out and the sacking dragged out, along with all the snots.
 
Last edited:
Sponsored Links
Back
Top