Opinions wanted - How Bad Is This Pointing?

[Skyhigh]

Thanks for the comments guys!

The whole house is like this. Not just this one section.

It's a £650k new build from Harron Homes.

And yes, it's passed NHBC apparently, and the other one (new home builders quality ).
I'm not sure how, but NHBC seems very very basic when I've read over the requirements.
(It's nearly purely structural / "shouldn't fall down).

Personally it's the worst work I've seen. I'm not on the trade at all but we've had work done to previous houses and looked at plenty of new builds.

Brickwork was likely done Jan-March I guess as the roof went on in April (when we reserved, but couldn't access the plot for safety reasons apparently...)

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

You should get a professional snagger in to write a report, they should be able to advise what needs doing and how to achieve it.

This feller's popular on youtube, and his company operates nationally...

Just as long as you don't mind video of how "shocking" your house is on youtube! (He may have an opt-out option though).

 

[Skyhigh]

You should get a professional snagger in to write a report, they should be able to advise what needs doing and how to achieve it.

This feller's popular on youtube, and his company operates nationally...

Just as long as you don't mind video of how "shocking" your house is on youtube! (He may have an opt-out option though).

We booked one a while ago who is due to come on Friday.

Although now the builder has pushed back completion to the end of the month they're saying they "don't allow professional snagging companies" access until we've completed.

But they've allowed a sparky, wardrobe company, curtain company...hmm

 

[robinbanks]

Ost

• noseall
• 1 May 2022

Oof, now there's an extension that could do with being half a brick wider

most homeowners would probably have sent them home after two courses

I think you might be giving the average homeowner's diligence a bit too much credit there

But they've allowed a sparky, wardrobe company, curtain company...hmm

Yeah but a sparky and a wardrobe company don't give a monkeys about their pointing!

 

[noseall]

I'm very glad to see that, if this is acceptable,

It's more of a case that it's a cosmetic issue and that the bricks were quite hard - meaning once they let loose with the (post-pointing) brush, it was still able to leave marks in the pointing. As I said earlier, probably a busy corner. You do get them where there is a lot of traffic (sacffold ladder in the same location). I think sites leave it up to cleaning crews to sort out messy brickwork.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

It's more of a case that it's a cosmetic issue and that the bricks were quite hard - meaning once they let loose with the (post-pointing) brush, it was still able to leave marks in the pointing. As I said earlier, probably a busy corner. You do get them where there is a lot of traffic (sacffold ladder in the same location). I think sites leave it up to cleaning crews to sort out messy brickwork.

I hadn't actually zoomed in to see the brush marks, I was just commenting on how wet it must have been when tooled, it looks like toothpaste. I built a garden wall like this once, it was in the middle of winter after my bricks had got rained on, and I was deeply ashamed of it but it was on the neighbour's side and they weren't paying towards it so I reluctantly left it.

Now I've looked properly, those brush marks are awful. I'd have stopped after the first wave of the brush, someone deciding to carry on just shows utter contempt for the buyer, they obviously knew that the builder's inspector wasn't going to care about it.

I don't know what I'd do about it either, other than being smug about the fact that I've always avoided buying newbuilds. I'll forgive our 1950s house's many failings as at least it doesn't look like this. If I ever get worn down by all the work needed on our old shack I watch a few newbuild snagging videos to cheer myself up.

 

[johnny2007]

I've inspected lots of new builds for friends who wanted to buy and avoid the hassle of renovating.
They're built with extremely low standards.
I stand firm that the best properties were built in the 50s/60s although earlier properties have their charm and pros.
New builds will not be standing in 100 years unless lots of cash is spent on them.
Disposable properties if you ask me.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Just to prevent too much doom and gloom, I'd hope that a thorough clean-up with brick acid in skilled hands, paid for by the builder, and a few years of weather will probably leave this looking fairly normal.

Looking at those newbuild snagging videos, you can just be grateful if the wall is actually straight and vertical, plenty aren't.