Where do I go from here BBuilding Control? NHBC?

[ABCwarrior]

We bought our new house last year from the Highland Small Communities Housing Trust. Complicated process we own 65% of it, has a rural deed of burden attached giving them pre-emption rights should we sell they get first choice to buy it back. They used an architect to design the house, a main contractor who also subbed out some of the work.
The house has suffered frozen pipes continuously in the downstairs- supply and central heating. They tried to remedy the problem in the summer but it has made no difference.
The problem stams from the fact it's on small(200mm) stilts on pad foundations. Box section flooring pre-fabbed off site. The underside has poorly fitted ply sheets which allow air into the floor space, poorly fitted mineral wool insulation, the pipes are 100mm from the bottom(not the top as the trust have tried to say) and only have very badly fitted 15/13mm thermaflex insulation. The architect originally had the house designed with plumbing above floor level but this has turned out to be a very expensive cost cutting exercise for them, deciding to put them in the floors. I said to them that by boxing off the area immediately below the floor it would make no difference whatsoever as air would still be drawn through the floor where any services were through the joists etc and this has turned out to be exactly what is happening.
The trust are trying to say this is our problem and we should be taking ownership of the house now- I say it's way beyond the realms of snagging this is a combination of poor design and terrible workmansip.
They will drag their heels but the only solution is to replumb the whole downstairs as was originally designed- above the floors in the living space.

Who the hell can I turn to to ensure this is sorted? Trying to keep things amicable but I could swing for them. Is this insulation sub standard? A bloke I know says the pipes should have 15/25mm insulation at least and tight fitting kingspan below and warmcell above should have been used so there were no gaps whatsoever- but he also says putting pipes in the floors in the Cairngorm Mountains is madness.
The Builder is NHBC registered does that mean even if negotiations break down with the architect/trust I can pursue them through NHBC? Should I involve Building Control see what they say?

The bottom line is that they have sold us(and our 3 neighbours) houses not fit for purpose whatsoever. The second phase of the project is about to start and lo and behold they have decided to drop the stilted house design and go for traditional founds. That in itself is surely a clear pointer to the total disaster that our floors are.

Someone please help!!!!

 

[mointainwalker]

Hi again

Like you I live in a cold climate with a long winter and regularly -15 C

In winter the incoming water temp is just about 0 C even though the supply pipes are 1 - 1.5 m underground.

Under these conditions - and I am assuming that yours are not different- the pipes will freeze very quickly if any part whatsoever of the pipe is exposed. It will freeze even more quickly if there is air movement as this removes heat even more effectively.

I wouldn't like to try and work out heat loss and required insulation on this where a difference of as little as one degree would make the difference between freezing or not.

If your main priority is initially not to freeze, then I would suggest that you buy trace heating as mentioned last year to survive for the moment.

Costs are low hundreds of pounds and running costs very low per another poster on another thread.

As to your legal rights i couldn't say except that i know houses have an almost unique legal status that make things difficult and to further complicate matters, you are in the barren Northlands with a different set of rules.


Normally NHBC only deals with major structural issues like foundations ( but not leaky windows) however your problem is rather unusual as it does make the house uninhabitable and"unsafe" from a public health stangpoint..

I would have thought that since this trust is (presumably) getting lots of government assistance , and is targeted specifically at your local area, they would be very sensitive to the threat of bad publicity about incompetence in their operations. Have you written to councillors or MP ? Would normally be a good story for the papers but has no rarity value at the moment.

You want to remain on good terms but have your experiences of the last year not shown you that everyone involved has a bad case of sloping shoulders ?

If they are trying to say already that after 12 months its your problem, you need to pull them up very sharply before you get lumbered with all the problems.

Have you proved to your own certainty that it is only exposed pipes freezing and not pipes in ground because they might have skimped on the depth for that as well .?


By the way, what's this 15/13 insulation business ? I thought that all water supplies now came in 25 mm alkathene pipes. If you have got a small pipe that will also freeze more quickly.

 

[mointainwalker]

ABC

Another couple of thoughts.

Perhaps before risking your cash on trace heating, you should keep pipes clear by letting trickle of water run as developers suggested ( did they put this in writing btw ? valuable evidence)

Then if your basic comfort is secured, go along the recorded delivery letter route to builders ( although once again this shared equity business compluicates matters) telling them that unless they provide sound working solution within 48 hrs (?) you will buy trace heating and bill them for it.

it's usual to give someone 10 or 14 days to sort out a problem, but since yours is so urgent and a matter of health , I guess that a much shorter period would be reasonable .

Of course, the 48 hours would only start from date of delivery and if the postman either can't deliver or the company is on holiday, then i don't know what the legal position would be