New build house builders, what are your confessions? Give us the Tea!

9 comments

1. Not me but I used to know someone who worked for one of the big builders (can’t remember which one) for quite a few years. He said never dig down more than half a foot down in the garden. They’d throw all the rubbish into the garden, not just building waste but rubbish from their lunch etc. Then when the house is finished top soil is put on top and then the lawn

2. What does “Give us the Tea!” mean?

3. Obligatory not a builder but work in the industry. Don’t by a new home in winter i.e.,”we must be in by Christmas!” Main reasons:

   1. It’s often the “year end” for a lot of the maim builders and they are rushing completions through so they can hit their targets and get their bonus.

   2. If you’re buying the house in winter, with so few hours of daylight, it means they put the roof on in the dark!! Sub zero temps can also mess with mortar.

   3. Don’t buy in the “first phase” of the development. Buy in the second or third phase when they are much more likely to have fine tuned any issues.

   A lot of it depends on the individual site manager rather than the company itself. Good site manager, you’ll get a good home.

4. Not a builder but my cpunty built a new hospital a few years back and I’ve looked after patients who’s partners were on the team who built it. Every single one have said something along the lines of the number of errors made or half-assed job completions just to mert deadlines. It’s worrying since it’s a hospital built to last. But so many people have told me that since they knew what went on during the building process, they wouldn’t trust it to last.

5. Not me, but I got chatting to a site manager that is *currently* building one of my mates houses. And he let me in on some of the economics of house building for a particular local house builder…

   He basically said that lately, it’s almost always better to massively overrun on completion dates on the construction of new builds, and essentially never finish. Just constantly put off the completion date, indefinitely. In my mates case, they bought the house early during Covid, when house prices were low. Completion is due any month now (yes it has taken that long, and they have been waiting that entire time being told month after month it’ll be completed next month…) and the house prices around here have doubled. So the strat the builders are taking is to delay construction for as long as possible hoping buyers drop out and just buy somewhere else after they get sick of waiting. And then they can put the houses back on the market for current market value. Bosh.

   Absolute scumbag tactics, but he also said that they have such high wait times between getting paid that they pretty much *never* have the money on hand to employ tradies to work on site anyway. So they have to be *super* economical about what days and what sites their tradies work on.

   It basically means, that even if they wanted to, it’d be a struggle to get any work done, because they don’t have the liquid. But again, they don’t have the liquid because they never finish. And they never finish because they *want* people to back out, there is no incentive to get work done in the first place… Honestly, the absolute weapon that thought up this scheme should be in prison.

   My mate just happens to be in a position where they can wait forever, so it’s no shit off her face how long it takes, she’s just chilling… So I’ve told them once they’ve finally caved, finished, and they’re in the house, take them for the biggest ride for absolutely everything. Broken lightbulb? Get a sparky out. Tiny crack in wall? Get the plasterer. Blade of grass out of place? Landscaper. Compensation for my mates pain and suffering? Small claims court. Just tear them to shreds, fuck em’. Fucking waiting almost 4 years for a 2 bed, 1 bath new build is just pure crazy.

6. The builders are just builders, the really evil people are the land developers. No schools or infrastructure in your soulless new-build estate? The developers at Barratt homes will have ‘negotiated’ some kind of tradeoff with the local council.

7. Absolutely shocking!

8. I’ve had two newbuilds now by two different developers, and have always wanted to ask the builders / plumbers / joiners etc. ‘why don’t you have any pride in your job?’! It’s like everyone knows they are shit – why are they happy to keep being so shit? I’d be mortified if it was common knowledge I was shit at my job

9. Building and trades are one of, if not the most, corrupt industries in this country but we’re never allowed to talk about it because building is given some magical cultural shield against criticism, for some reason.

   Building has never taken longer, cost more, and been completed to a shoddily standard, yet colleges and trade schools across the land are churning out builders and tradies like Britain is trying to revive the Atlantropa Project.