Home Check UK

03/12/2024

💦THE IMPORTANCE OF VENTILATION IN YOUR NEW BUILD HOME💦

The structure of recently constructed or altered houses can contain large quantities of water. After construction, these dwellings will need to dry out. As part of this process, water will evaporate into the air, increasing the moisture load in the property and the associated risk of condensation.

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has estimated that a traditional semi-detached house, constructed from brick and block, can contain up to 8000 litres of construction water; this can take up to a year to dry out thoroughly.

17/07/2024

📑Snagging Surveys📑 by HomeCheck UK

We offer:
🧱END OF WARRANTY INSPECTIONS - ensure any issues that could affect the future resale of your home are addressed & recified by your developer
🧱PRE COMPLETION INSPECTIONS - we are fully insured and authorised to carry out PCI inspections according the the NHQB guidelines
🧱POST COMPLETION INSPECTIONS - with a complementary drone survey of roof and guttering.

You have two years to report any issues with your property, and it will be the responsibility of the housebuilder to rectify - after that the cost of rectification can fall on you as the home owner. ⏰⌛️
Issues we have seen in the last month:

❌Part M building regulation breaches at front doors
❌No topsoil applied in garden area - there should be 100mm applied.
❌Blocked drainage
❌Broken roof truss in loft area
❌Broken window frame
❌Incorrectly installed DPCs & airbricks - these should have a minimum height from finished ground level.
❌Fake weep holes installed above meter boxes.

All of these items can affect the resale of your property at a future date. 📆

15/07/2024

https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/jul/13/new-build-home-barratt-house?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR28Tv9SusyMqWlfFUxgcOUrC5GtEthgUmCDvlR5GJOxiMxQyGXrK12vbjw_aem_TmHC3XGYOYGopruzKPiVFQ

A couple’s Barratt house that surveyors say should be worth £350,000 has been left almost worthless due to defects

25/06/2024

🧯Focus on Fire Safety🧯

⁉️Did you know if you live in:
- apartment/flat
- or your house has an integrated garage
- or it is more than 2 storeys
fire doors need to be fitted in certain areas ⁉️

📏These have to be fitted with very stringent parameters.📏

⚠️We are seeing a shocking 90% of fire doors incorrectly installed in houses we are inspecting and also cases of fire alarms that are not linked. ⚠️

If you have a house that requires fire doors get them checked for compliance. ✅

We include these checks in our snagging surveys 🗒️

16/06/2024

07/05/2024

🚧Snagging Surveys by HomeCheck UK🚧

We offer:
🧱END OF WARRANTY INSPECTIONS - ensure any issues that could affect the future resale of your home are addressed & recified by your developer
🧱PRE COMPLETION INSPECTIONS - we are fully insured and authorised to carry out PCI inspections according the the NHQB guidelines
🧱POST COMPLETION INSPECTIONS - with a complementary drone survey of roof and guttering.

You have two years to report any issues with your property, and it will be the responsibility of the housebuilder to rectify - after that the cost of rectification can fall on you as the home owner. ⏰⌛️
Common issues we have seen in the last month:
❌Incorrectly installed fire doors - all house with 2 storeys or more should have correctly installed fire doors as per building regulations.
❌Part M building regulation breaches at front doors
❌Ducting not attached in loft - meaning damp air could have entered loft space and caused damp & mould if not caught at pre completion.
❌Incorrectly installed DPCs & airbricks - these should have a minimum height from finished ground level.
❌Damaged roof tiles
All of these items can affect the resale of your property at a future date. 📆

07/05/2024

🚧Snagging Surveys by Home Check UK🚧

We offer:
🧱END OF WARRANTY INSPECTIONS - ensure any issues that could affect the future resale of your home are addressed & recified by your developer - at their cost not yours.
🧱PRE COMPLETION INSPECTIONS - we are fully insured and authorised to carry out PCI inspections according the the NHQB guidelines.
🧱POST COMPLETION INSPECTIONS - with a complementary drone survey of roof and guttering.

You have two years to report any issues with your property, and it will be the responsibility of the housebuilder to rectify - after that the cost of rectification will fall on you as the home owner. ⏰⌛️

Common issues we have seen in the last month:
❌Incorrectly installed fire doors - all houses with 2 storeys or more should have correctly installed fire doors as per building regulations.
❌Part M building regulation breaches at front doors.
❌Ducting not attached in loft area - meaning damp air from bathrooms could have entered loft space and caused damp & mould if not caught at pre completion.
❌Incorrectly installed DPCs & airbricks - these should have a minimum height from finished ground level.
❌Damaged roof tiles
All of these items can affect the resale of your property at a future date. 📆

11/03/2024

🚧If anyone has purchased a new build within the last two years, we highly recommend you invest in a snagging survey before your 2 year defects warranty expires🚧 …

You have two years to report any issues with your property, and it will be the responsibility of the housebuilder to rectify - after that, the cost of rectification can fall on you as the home owner. ⏰⌛️

Common issues we have seen recently :
❌Missing cavity trays - risk of water ingress at a future date
❌Missing weep or fake weep holes - risk of water ingress at a future date
❌Part M building regulation breaches
❌Issues with insulation in lofts
❌Incorrectly installed DPCs & airbricks
❌Damaged roof tiles
All of these items can affect the resale of your property at a future date. 📆

24/01/2024

We are being told more and more by our clients that their developers are telling them there is no need to use external snagging companies….⁉️

Yet below are some of the defects we have found in the past couple of weeks 🤔🤔🧐🧐🧐…Whether you use our company or another reputable snagging company, we always recommend a survey for peace of mind for your home 🏡

Some fake weep holes found over a window opening…This can result in water ingress inside the property in walls and ceilings as water cannot drain from the cavity correctly.

18/01/2024

Surveying this lovely Cala home property on Shopwhyke lake today…there has been a number of issues with pointing and drainage on this estate. Let’s see what we will find 🧐🧐🧐

03/01/2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

We are back at it 🧐🏡 We have discovered the home builder had installed FAKE weep holes to cover up the missing tray and/or real weep holes 😧🤦‍♂️

03/01/2024

❌Common errors seen on New Build Properties❌:

🚧Spotlight on Ground levels🚧

In the course of our new build surveys we often encounter incorrect ground levels in relation to a DPC on a clients property.

This can cause two problems for owners of new build properties.

Firstly, this presents a risk of penetrating damp especially in times of heavy rain and pooling water and this can saturate cavity wall insulation leading to extensive repairs. Furthermore, this does not comply with The Building Regulations.

And secondly when the new build property owner goes on to sell their new property at a later date, it will be subject to a Homebuyers Survey. This error in construction will be highlighted in the Homebuyer survey, and could potentially cause the loss of a buyer of a property, and incur costly repairs for the homeowner if they are outside their warranty.

All our surveyors, thoroughly check, measure and document any issues in ground levels in a fully comprehensive written report. This ensures our customers are able to get these errors rectified by the developer as promptly as possible with a full paper trail from day 1. We offer unlimited after-care with our surveys to help and support our customers through any dialogue with their developer.
Here are some examples of what we see on a weekly basis.
In this example, the well-known developer at an estate in Whiteley not only made critical errors with ground levels, but then tried to cover up this mistake by replacing the air bricks with regular bricks.
We confirmed this with our client when he looked back at earlier pictures he had taken of the property during construction.