New Build Sloping Chipboard Floor. Is this to be expected?

[alba2]

We have just moved into a new build upper flat. It was finished just 2 months ago. The floor is multi layered for noise and insulation. However in some parts of the flat the chipboard floor has a slope, eg in the bathroom there is a 10mm difference over 1.5 metres.
It is the same in the hall and some parts of the living room.

Is this to be expected in new build properties these days? Is it the new norm?

I am quite worried about it in case it affects future resale. We have had engineered wood flooring laid on top, so I also worry about the cost of taking it up and re- laying.

Should I insist the builder rectifies it? I expect it would be a large job with considerable upheaval.

 

[Jackrae]

Definitely, there is absolutely no excuse for not laying floors level. A bunch of Egyptians managed it several thousand years ago so why not so called craftsmen of today. It's cowboy work like you describe and customers willing to accept it that perpetuates the situation.

 

[JohnD]

Didn't your surveyor notice?

 

[alba2]

Thanks for your replies. Surveys are generally home valuation surveys. As it was a new build with NHBC certification we did not think it necessary to pay for an extensive and expensive survey.

The reason I asked if this was the norm was because I read through a snagging website and there seemed so many problems with new builds and with the majority of builders.

Is it too late to arrange a full survey now? Should I opt for a snagging company to painstaikingly go over everything or perhaps a structural engineer.

We are fed up with workers coming in and creating a mess and more problems. It would be difficult to face the massive upheaval of flooring coming up over an extensive area.

 

[JohnD]

Try to involve the NHBC, though I hear they do their best to weasel out of claims. You may need to engage a qualified surveyor or engineer to fight your corner.

It's only chipboard (round here, modern flats usually have RC floors) so when it cracks and swells you could get a competent chippy in to replace it with something better, and to level it. He might fix timbers to the sides of your existing joists.

I do think it needs investigating though, in case there is a structural problem. I would expect some of the boards need to be lifted to have a look underneath.

In my own house I am ashamed to say that there was a hump in one floor where an RSJ is higher than the joists. I had a joiner in who laid a new floor and changed the hump to a shallow ramp. Until he took the floor up I had thought that some oafish builder had laid a board upside down so the T&G didn't match.