Are New Builds Low Quality

DubLad69

We are in the search for a house, and have found a new build that we like. However, I've noticed on social media that the quality of New build houses in the UK tends to be very poor.

Is this the same in Ireland? Are they low quality and full of problems or are the standards of new build over here better?

punisher5112

It's about costs, where costs can be scrimped on to maximize profits.

One thing going for us now is much better insulation and air tightness.

I believe from mid nineties on houses and apartments were just thrown up.
Self certificate etc didn't help. These should all have to be inspected and no corners cut.

Gumbo

DubLad69 wrote: »

We are in the search for a house, and have found a new build that we like. However, I've noticed on social media that the quality of New build houses in the UK tends to be very poor.

Is this the same in Ireland? Are they low quality and full of problems or are the standards of new build over here better?

New builds nowadays are technically fantastic. Each house has to pass a sound test, air tightness test and are insulated to the extreme.

The biggest thing with new houses is the decorative finishes. People see these and assume the house is threw up.

Yes the snag should pick these up but the finishing should be improved. But from a construction and technical point of view, there’s never been a better time
To buy a house.

Obviously site layout, parking and gardens etc have to be considered.

Albertie

True presently the houses are being built and need to pass the standard tests based on airtightness, sound, also plumbing side etc getting done by the certified experts if the property developer or builder is good he will leave no stone unturned to offer the top-quality homes to the customers.

Captcha

I bought a new build last year, only A3 unlike some of the other stock at better levels. Honestly a solid house and likely the best place I've lived for heat preservation. Gas and electricity is very low and in the house just over a year now so have a good idea.

Everything is working 100% and very happy with the place.

spring lane jack

My house is only 7 years old, its freezing. Air pissing in the two roofs and travelling through the cavities and floorboards. BAM couldn't care less.

Captcha

spring lane jack wrote: »

My house is only 7 years old, its freezing. Air pissing in the two roofs and travelling through the cavities and floorboards. BAM couldn't care less.

Is that a caravan?

Seriously though, have you no comeback with the builder?

spring lane jack

Captcha wrote: »

Is that a caravan?

Seriously though, have you no comeback with the builder?

Ha Ha Im not too far from plenty of them hence the username. No I've a three story house. The builders just pass the buck. The subsidence is causing some form of distortion where the walls meet the roofs so air is pissing in. I'll be emigrating soon enough so I'm not too pushed about it. Just hope Dutch houses are better built.

merikahan

What Mechanical Ventilation system is being installed in new builds ?

I know few new builds has installed demand controlled ventilation but others are installing basic MEV – Mechanical Extract Ventilation.

I believe the best one is MVHR – Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery, but I haven't seen any builder installing MVHR.

ongarite

merikahan wrote: »

What Mechanical Ventilation system is being installed in new builds ?

I know few new builds has installed demand controlled ventilation but others are installing basic MEV – Mechanical Extract Ventilation.

I believe the best one is MVHR – Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery, but I haven't seen any builder installing MVHR.

New houses in development in Meath is using MHRV system, Brink Renovent Excellent 400.

mynameismalory

I purchased a new build house in Dublin 16 in 2018. While I cannot claim that my experience applies to any other new build estates, I can say that;

1) The heat insulation standard is quite good - no concerns.
2) The parking in the estate is a disaster - 2 spaces per unit results in lots of illegal parking, and neighbours getting annoyed with each other over hogging of spaces that aren't their own.
3) Tight layouts, small back gardens and no front gardens can give a feeling of living on top of each other and lack of privacy. This won't bother everyone - but if it sounds like something that would bother you, it will slowly chip away at you.
4) The sound insulation in the houses is absolutely awful. Conversations, TVs, doors and cabinets closing, even curtains being drawn - you can hear it all clearly like you're living in a house share. If you have a bad neighbour - you're in trouble. There are regulations and tests for sound - but it's really worth noting that only a small number of houses actually have to be tested in a big estate, and impact noise isn't tested at all in new build houses. There is ultimately nothing you can do about it once you've bought it.

I have no doubt that there are excellent new builds out there - but I wouldn't touch one again. If you ask about a specific estate on boards.ie, you'll almost always get very positive feedback. I suspect this is developers or estate agents monitoring threads related to their own estates. I'd recommend that you check if there's a Facebook group for the estate before buying - check what people who actually live there are saying and ask them there instead - you might find you get more honest feedback when it's not so open to the public.

mariaalice

The op is buying a house possibly taking out a large mortgage and is using social media as a source of information?.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/95d00-building-standards/#

Also on social media, those who are unhappy are more likely to complain plus you might get an individual who is mediating slight depression or other issues through complaining about the house they live in.

mloc123

mynameismalory wrote: »

but it's really worth noting that only a small number of houses actually have to be tested in a big estate, and impact noise isn't tested at all in new build houses. There is ultimately nothing you can do about it once you've bought it.

Was going to post this also, don't assume your A2 house will actually be A2... The test house will be.

awec

mloc123 wrote: »

Was going to post this also, don't assume your A2 house will actually be A2... The test house will be.

And your house is almost certainly going to be A2 as well. This is conspiracy theory stuff here.

Ace2007

If you take a look over in the Donegal form - you will see thread full of issues with the way some new builds were built - because of the material used. Just something to be wary of - best find out how house built, what materials etc.

mloc123

awec wrote: »

And your house is almost certainly going to be A2 as well. This is conspiracy theory stuff here.

You are assuming that every trade that worked on each house maintained the same standard of work throughout, and that is not always the case.

I am not saying your a2 house is a c3 etc.. but don't assume that every unit is built to the exact standard of the spec that earned the BER rating.

mloc123

mloc123 wrote: »

You are assuming that every trade that worked on each house maintained the same standard of work throughout, and that is not always the case.

I am not saying your a2 house is a c3 etc.. but don't assume that every unit is built to the exact standard of the spec that earned the BER rating.

BER is a box-ticking exercise. The standard of installation is irrelevant to it, whether it was done on a showhouse or by a hungover 16 year old doesn't affect the BER rating.

mynameismalory

mariaalice wrote: »

The op is buying a house possibly taking out a large mortgage and is using social media as a source of information?.



Also on social media, those who are unhappy are more likely to complain plus you might get an individual who is mediating slight depression or other issues through complaining about the house they live in.

I am suggesting that speaking to people who live in the estate already on a non-public forum, is one source of due diligence, yes.

The bias you are referring to, can go both ways. Builders, developers and estate agents could portray a house as being exceptional value and well built to make money.

Graham

Mod Note

mynameismalory, enough with the conspiracy theories thank you. If you suspect a post/poster is a shill, report it.

Do not reply to this post.

dubrov

The standards new builds need to meet are higher than ever so they should be of high quality.
Of course there are some dodgy builders out there who will try and get around the standards.

Best to look at the reputation of the builder and buy based on that.

sprucemoose

OP there is zero information here to help decide if what you are looking at will be low quality. in general, new builds are of decent to high quality due to current building regulations. but this depends on the quality of builder/developer, designers involved etc,.

mynameismalory

<SNIP>

DaveyDave

awec wrote: »

And your house is almost certainly going to be A2 as well. This is conspiracy theory stuff here.

Not really. My A3 house has draughts in the windows in the living room and bedroom and along the skirting in the hallway and kitchen on the external wall. Not very air tight.

Also the party wall isn't constructed properly as we can hear footsteps, doors closing, plugs being plugged in and out and switched on etc. All things below the decibel rating.

A number of residents myself included have had to get a solicitor involved and carried out independent testing. Developer has flat out ignored us. Can't even close our front door properly.

Of course not everyone in our estate has these problems, but more than a few do.

cubatahavana

merikahan wrote: »

What Mechanical Ventilation system is being installed in new builds ?

I know few new builds has installed demand controlled ventilation but others are installing basic MEV – Mechanical Extract Ventilation.

I believe the best one is MVHR – Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery, but I haven't seen any builder installing MVHR.

We bought new build in december with MVHR

awec

DaveyDave wrote: »

Not really. My A3 house has draughts in the windows in the living room and bedroom and along the skirting in the hallway and kitchen on the external wall. Not very air tight.

Also the party wall isn't constructed properly as we can hear footsteps, doors closing, plugs being plugged in and out and switched on etc. All things below the decibel rating.

A number of residents myself included have had to get a solicitor involved and carried out independent testing. Developer has flat out ignored us. Can't even close our front door properly.

Ok, but this stuff is absolutely the exception and not the rule. There are dodgy builders who cut corners, yes. There were dodgy builders 20, 30, 40 years ago as well.

The OPs question, are new builds low quality, the answer is no, building standards right now are higher than ever. Are you more likely to end up with issues buying new vs old? No, you're not.

merikahan

How good is Mechanical Extract Ventilation ?

In winters you will get cold air from the vents in the room I assume and you have to manually shut the vents.

cubatahavana

I have found that in Ireland, and I don't know why, there is a lot of hate for new builds. I bought a new build in 2007 and again a newly built house i ndecember 2020. My experiences so far with build quality have been fantastic. My 2007 apartment was superbly built, with very good heat and sound insulation.

Our 2020 4 bed semiD has been fantastic so far. It's so warm in it. We do not hear our neighbours at all and according to them they don't hear us. There are always a few issues in the beginning, but you sort them out through snagging. Our builder has been very good with any issues that have happened after purchasing (we were unlucky and got a very small leak from a broken seal). The garden is smaller than probably your average south dublin garden, but more than adequate for us. The house is much bigger than most second had houses in the same price bracket. We don't have a proper fenced driveway but we do have 2 parking spots in front of our house that are in our property (lets say front driveway exists, but its not gated.

House is A3 and all neighbours agree that all the houses are well insulated. Only one had a problem with the patio doors and this was quickly fixed.

My only grip is that sound insulation between room is not amazing, but this is something that can be very easily sorted as the walls are plasterboard. Way easier than any of the renovations needed in a second hand house

I wouldn't buy second hand myself, you really have no recourse if something goes wrong. When we were looking for houses we did not like any second hand house that we saw, with most of them needing extensive renovation

mariaalice

mynameismalory wrote: »

I don't understand why anything I've said is a conspiracy theory? All I've said it is worthwhile speaking to existing residents.

But how do you differentiate between those who say they don't feel their house is A3 rated versus evidence for its rating or those who feel claustrophobic because of a small garden all those things are subjective as are lots of other things to do with housing based on how someone feels about the situation versus evidence.

kegblag

DaveyDave wrote: »

Not really. My A3 house has draughts in the windows in the living room and bedroom and along the skirting in the hallway and kitchen on the external wall. Not very air tight.

Also the party wall isn't constructed properly as we can hear footsteps, doors closing, plugs being plugged in and out and switched on etc. All things below the decibel rating.

A number of residents myself included have had to get a solicitor involved and carried out independent testing. Developer has flat out ignored us. Can't even close our front door properly.

Of course not everyone in our estate has these problems, but more than a few do.

This could be wrong or out of date, but my understanding was that in an estate airtightness tests are only carried out on a sample of houses.

During a normal test, leaks are discovered and taped, so that house is fine.

The airtight test is more than a test, no house is airtight until the test exposes the leaks. And those repairs have to be done while the repairs are still trivial to do with tape, not when it involves removing skirting or dry lining. The price of fixing the leaks is (I'm guessing) a few hundred euros worth of labour and tape when done early, probably 10 times that when done later.
Then you can end up with some houses that have a heat system that assumes they're airtight so won't be able to heat up the house.

I'd still prefer a new house to an old one, but either ideally would have to be detached.

cubatahavana

Anyway, to answer the OP question, I think the mayority of new builds are of reasonable/good quality. Can we say the same about second hand stock?

Dolbhad

I’ve bought recently a house that was built in early 1980’s. We had looked at everything - new builds and older house. We had been sale agreed on a new build but due to size of gardens etc, we pulled out. I’m happy we bought second hand just because it’s a small private estate with a big garden. But of course new builds have a lot of pros. There is upgrades work we knew about (and some we didn’t anticipate!) but she seems to be a good house so far.

However our engineer was amazing and really directed us. When we were sale agreed on a new build, he said there were around 3 builders building in Cork at the moment he’s never had issues with and we were buying off one. He said there are some builders building now he would tell people to avoid so does seem to be down to the builder. For example he looked at the house when they were at the insulation and soundproofing stage. He said they would have gone beyond what was required for soundproofing sign off so although semi d, he felt we wouldn’t hear the day to day noise of neighbours. Whereas some builders would cut corners and do the bare minimum.

Equally my dad is a retired trades person so when we looked at second hand, he always wanted to know who built them first day. He equally had some estates he said to avoid due to the builder (as we would have worked with them and knew the carry on). He also had a low opinion of anything built between 1999-2008 due to quality.