Skirting boards

[gazpilot]

Hi all this is my first post, I'd like to say what a great and helpfull site this is !!

I am buying a new build home from Taylor Woodrow and would like to have hardwood floors fitted. The site office has informed me that NHBC rules won't allow them to leave skirting boards off to facilitate easy fitting.

I rang NHBC who informed me this is incorrect, has anyone else came accross this problem, I'd also like to add that the sales staff at the site office are the most arrogant people I have dealt with in years, you would think they a doing me a favour in letting me buy the house.

[Tony]

They are just being difficult, ask to speak to someone at the Taylor Woodrow Head Office.

Are you putting down a real wooden floor?

Post edited by: Tony, at: 2006/08/07 10:24

[Colin Jack]

Be wary of any builder who tells you it is the 'NHBC rules'. There are no NHBC rules!

I made a similar request to Bett Homes, leave the skirtings and facings losely fixed so easing the installation of wooden flooring. The request was promptly ignored and I damaged 2 of them trying to get them off. It would appear that the only job well done was fixing the skirtings and facings. The only thing I asked them not to do!!!!

Bett Homes also managed to damage my boundary fence when constructing the adjacent property. When I got them back out to repair the fence they made such a mess of it that I questioned them. Helen Webb (Bett Homes Customer Care - Stirling) stated that the repair works had been carried out in accordance with the NHBC Guidelines. I phoned the NHBC who told me they had no such guidelines for boundary fences. I went back to Bett Homes Customer Care - Striling who denied everything. They did however state that the fence suffered a minor misalignment at that it was not a legal matter. If moving someone's boundary without consent years after the boundary had been agreed isn't a legal matter, then what is?

In the gospel according to John Croal (Bett Homes Customer Care Manager, Stirling - lol) the NHBC Guidelines are guidance only and it is common practice to ignore them particularly those pieces of guidance which don't actually exist and so can be ignored anyway. I may be missing something though?

To summarise - in general there are no 'NHBC Rules' only guidance. If you look closely you will find some mandatory requirements but these mirror exactly the mandatory requirements of the building regulations. So to put it simply all the NHBC require is the same as what the building regulations require. So why does the NHBC exist - two organisations asking for the same thing. Sounds like a con!!!! And of course it is as Simon Barrett (NHBC Engineering Manager) told me - 'after all the NHBC are the Builders insurer' and 'if the NHBC set their standards too high, Builders will just get their insurance somewhere else'.

Why do we need NHBC Standards, which are guidance only, when we have the building regulations legislation? Why? Why? Why?

To make money, of course, at the expense of the poor customer. And also to provide a smoke screen so that people don't look into the legislation and regulations and realise how much they have been fleeced.

[gazpilot]

Good news for me.....After speaking to NHBC head office all that is required is a letter to be given to the inspector (through the site office). You have to agree that the skirtings will not be covered in the warranty.

Taylor Woodrow have agreed to leave them off, make the wood floor fitting easier