Is it just me or are all newly bulit houses rubbish?

KryptoNeo

KryptoNeo

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I decided to do a little bit of DIY in my house today which was only built about 4-5 years ago. Painted a couple of rooms and started putting some Coving up. That's when I realised that not one wall in the house is straight. We bought a load of Coving to do the hallway and dining room and we can't put any of it up as it won't stick to the walls properly. And to top it all off I've noticed cracks appearing around the window frame areas on one side of the house. Grrr
 
KryptoNeo said:
I decided to do a little bit of DIY in my house today which was only built about 4-5 years ago. Painted a couple of rooms and started putting some Coving up. That's when I realised that not one wall in the house is straight. We bought a load of Coving to do the hallway and dining room and we can't put any of it up as it won't stick to the walls properly. And to top it all off I've noticed cracks appearing around the window frame areas on one side of the house. Grrr
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It's not just the new ones, old houses generally don't have straight walls/square corners either.

News ones settle in the first few years, so you will find some cracks etc.

If it is something you are overly worried about, your new house could well have an NHBC 10 yr guarantee, which you may be able to claim o nto get work sorted.
 
Our "New" house is about 6 years old now and still gets the odd settlement crack to the plaster, this is normal. Especially given the recent cold weather.

That said, most of the walls in our house to indeed appear square. at least in terms of square furniture fitting tight in the corners, Wallpaper hanging straight etc. My future in laws older house (sub 1900) well, clearly that was built well before spirit levels :lol: no wall is straight and no door free from tapered edges :lol:
 
I've never come across a house that has been straight anywhere old or new.

If the walls are only slightly crooked it looks better to keep the coving
straight rather than try to make it follow the contour of the wall, tends not to draw the eyes attention to the crooked wall.

Lay the adhesive on so it fills any contours, wipe of any excess either with a damp sponge or a filling knife, tap small plaster board nails under to give support while it dries.
 
i prefer my house to be made of solid brick with a half decent sized garden, not a toytown breezeblock with stud walls
 
My house is from 1930 and there isnt a straight wall in the place. You should see the main beam through the center of the living room. The lintels holding it up are at about a 20 degree tilt.

I do remember helping my Sister in law move into her brand new £500k town house a while back and the bannister fell off the first level of stiars when we opened the front door and the wall on which the stairs were attached started to loose the plaster within a few hours of us being in there

And me and the wife were looking at a show home in a new development not long ago and one of the houses in particular intrigued us. As you opened the front door, you smacked the lightbulb in the hallway with the door. In the kitchen, you had to close the kicthen door to open the fridge, and in the downstairs loo, you couldnt close the door without standing ON the toilet, close the door and climb down again.

We didnt buy it.
 
My 55 year old house is made out of breezeblock. My parents house, which is a similar age, is made out of brick.

I will be installing coving soon, so will find out how square the rooms are. My old house was very good, when the carpenter came to install the kitchen worksurface he remarked on the fact with some suprise!
 
I think apartments are generally built to a higher standard than houses and tend to offer better value in terms of living space, views, and location.

A house can just be thrown up but an apartment block has to have a certain level of integrity for safety reasons alone.
 
When you say you can't put coving up because the wall isn't straight I presume you mean that the coving touches at each end, but in the middle there is a gap between the wall and the coving ? How big is the gap ?
 
Craft said:
When you say you can't put coving up because the wall isn't straight I presume you mean that the coving touches at each end, but in the middle there is a gap between the wall and the coving ? How big is the gap ?
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The Walls are convex ( I think that's the right word lol ) so I would actually have to bend the Coving around the wall for it to be all touching, which I suppose wouldn't be so bad I were using polystyrene Coving, but as it is the plaster stuff it makes it a bit more
Challenging
 
We've been looking for a house for the past few months and am thoroughly unimpressed with most newish builds. I would actually say houses built in the last few years are actually better then the rubbish that was built in the 80's and 90's when quality was even worse and the room layouts awful too. Currently live in a place built in 1900 ish which is generally so much better built with the exception of the original sash windows which are a bit drafty
 
Ah - what did we do before decorator's filler :D
Many of the new estate houses are rubbish, I remember doing some work on one at a double socket - having unscrewed the socket plate and attempting to release it from the wall a great chunk of 'plasterboard' came away ... only it wasn't plasterboard it was decorator's filler that had been leveled across two empty crisps packets stuffed into the gap!
Evidently the electrician had run the cable too short and had cut back the plasterboard filling it the best way he could at the time :gag:
 
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