New Home Owners And Snagging Forum

Advice on buying a brand new home => House Builders => Linden Homes => Topic started by: Philofacts on September 14, 2011, 01:02:31 pm

Title: Linden Homes division helps Galliford Try plc increase profits by 80%.
Post by: Philofacts on September 14, 2011, 01:02:31 pm
Financial year-end results from Galliford Try released earlier today show that the company had £41.6 million profit from all operations for the year ending 30 June 2011.

The number of new homes built by the company increased by 27% on last year's 1,705 to 2,170.
Affordable homes accounted for 724 of these, with an average selling price of £106,000.
Overall revenue from house building increased 23% to £388.5 million with average selling prices also increasing by £20,000 to £227,000.
Title: Re: Linden Homes division helps Galliford Try plc increase profits by 80%.
Post by: paulfel on December 04, 2013, 10:34:07 pm
I agree. When a company makes so much profit, it's the customer who is for sure over paying for their product and I should know I've just bought one and wished I hadn't.

I bought a 4 bed detached home called a Linton from Linden Homes North in North Yorkshire in April 2013.

In my opinion, this company does not warrant a 4 star rating. If it does, then some of the more well known new house builders must be really dire!

The last time I bought a new build house was 35 years ago from George Wimpey. I said then, never again would I buy a new house.

However, my daughter bought a new Persimmon house in North Yorkshire and I was impressed with the sound insulation coupled with today's thermal insulation (now I am retired) I was concerned about utility costs and thought, well they appear to have improved standards. I'll go for this detached new build from Linden Homes North.  The sales agent proudly promoted their 4 star rating saying, that Linden were trying to be a 5 star builder, how stupid was I to believe a sales person.

We bought off plan and, to cut a long story short, never again!

Although the house was called a Linton, the nearest Linton show house was on another development which we viewed and thought, it would be OK for us.

Well the Linton we actually bought is 30sqft smaller in area than the show house we looked at. It doesn't sound much, but when we saw our completed new house for the first time, we were immediately struck by how significantly closer  the landing wall was to the top stair, totally losing the spacious appearance we experienced at the show house. The reason was, the location of the airing cupboard which had increased equipment inside to take the thermal solar panel equipment had been moved and was an alteration to the specification.

Naturally, as one expects, there were numerous snagging issues when a large builder utilises numerous couldn't-care-less trades, brought in at the cheapest possible cost. Cutting corners to build only to the MINIMUM British Standard as Linden's priority is, to maximise profits, bolster share value and pay big director bonuses and with this sort of company, one is going to expect corners being cut and it looks like they have with my house. I didn't expect a new build house to be so bad in 2013.

We noticed straight away, when using the downstairs cloakroom toilet for the first time, you could hear EVERYTHING LOUD AND CLEAR, both in the dining area and the lounge which are on the opposite walls to the toilet. We registered a complaint with Linden, as we thought  they had not used any sound insulation in the walls.

Linden came and cut a hole in the plasterboard, took a photograph of the block work used, referred to their drawings and concluded it was to specification.  I remained dissatisfied, I demonstrated to them how clearly you could hear what was being done in the toilet, to which they agreed, it did sound somewhat louder than expected. Even so, they were not prepared to do anything as it met their specification.

I contacted the NHBC to use their Resolution Service.   A surveyor was sent, a larger hole cut in the plasterboard wall, photographs taken and deemed to comply with the MINIMUM British Building standards in their use of Hanson Thermalite Block 100mm thickness rated at 42db, the minimum required being 40db.

They took no account that the toilet sits on a block and beam floor and the sounds of using the toilet are being transmitted, (in fact I would say amplified) into the floor making it clearly audible to others in the house - the term I believe is called "flanking".

The situation we are left with makes the toilet unusable if there is any one else in the house.

In my opinion, the NHBC are still totally useless for house buyers, they have clearly been of little use to us. It's just a marketing tool for the benefit of the builder, like so many warranties, barely worth the paper they are printed on.

So one has to say, why is the sound insulation so poor in a 4 bed detached house, when my daughter's mid-terraced two bed house had such good sound insulation.

It appears Part E of the Building Regulations for sound insulation are more for adjoining properties such as flats.

An expensive 4 bed detached employs theoretical construction techniques that are not even tested.
Be warned Linden Homes look good, appear well finished but it's only on the skin, all style and no substance. There is little difference from any other mass builder, just 100mm block and dry lined plaster board with absolutely NO sound insulation what so ever.

I had a relative over from Germany who is an architect and she was shocked at the appalling building standards in England.  So I'm back to where I was 35 years ago, I'd never buy a new build home, specifically a Linden Home ever again.
Title: Re: Linden Homes division helps Galliford Try plc increase profits by 80%.
Post by: Philofacts on December 05, 2013, 09:51:43 am
Thank you for your feedback which I am sure will be of benefit to anyone considering Linden.
The builder Star Rating is from the results of customer surveys (http://"http://www.brand-newhomes.co.uk/hbf-house-builder-star-rating-scheme.htm") sent out by the NHBC and conducted by the HBF. Click link for more information.
It refers to just two specific questions.  Unsurprisingly virtually all house builders (that actually take part) got 5 stars, so 4 stars is nothing to be proud of LINDEN!

Under The Consumer Code for Home Builders, Linden are required and should have notified you about any changes to design and/or specification to the home after you reserved it.   You may have grounds to make a claim for compensation.

Regarding Part E of the Building regulations, it is primarily concerned with sound insulation of party walls and floors with neighbouring properties. Sound within your own home is to an extent inside you own control. 
I am surprised you can hear the downstairs WC being used, especially as the walls are block and the floor is solid. Beam and block and screed presumably. 
I can only deduce that it is more to do with the location of your WC with regard to habitable rooms, rather than sound or sound insulating properties of the materials used. 

It is also quite unusual for the owner of a new detached home to have sound insulation issues within their own home.

I agree with all your comments regarding house builders being motivated by profit rather than trying to improve the overall poor quality and standard of new homes they build.  The government had a great opportunity to hang the "Help to Buy" subsidy for the industry on a requirement for them to improve the size, design, and quality of new homes and they failed to do so.

We have a government that is 'business friendly' not 'people friendly'!