Harkiss Homes

[Hels]

I just managed to do it, but when I click the upload now button, it just does nothing. If you wouldn't mind displaying them for me, I can send them to you.

[Tony]

It seems to have worked, looks terrible

Tony

[Tex]

Cruicky,

Trust me, the developer hasn't a grudge against you because you have problem's! Keeping the access clear for site traffic is a major concern for all developers! I myself used to perform this task everyday, and it was the same people all the time! The tradesman's vehicle's as well had to be moved off site to clear the way!
All your solicitor has to say to the developer is that if the defects are not address by such & such date, you will commission a third party to rectify these problem's and the bill passed directly to him to pay!
He will act upon this!

Things have just got worse today. I have a week off work and I've been doing some gardening. Looked up at my roof and noticed all was not well there too. The Marley tiles should lock together right? mine don't. I've counted about thirty on the rear roof face, ten or twelve on the front face and as many on the porch. Also the garage roof isn't any better! Contacted the builder today and was told he would get the roofer to come and inspect it!!

[cruicky]

That last post by Guest was actually me user name cruicky. For some reason I couldn't log in! Seems to working fine now thou!

[Pamela]

I am totlly satisfied with my new home which I purchased from Harkiss Homes.
I found Mr Harkiss to be open and honest.
I find that some people do not appreciate the difficulties involved in construction in general.
I personally have been involved construction managemaent for many years and find it iificult to undertstand why people put blame on the builder when he is trying to produce a finished product. It is not in his interest to produce any defect intentionally.
You have to remember that it is not a product built from a factory floor with robots computer controlled doing the building.
Human beings do the construction and training for their trade is of paramount importance.
The construction team rely on their trade training, so if any blame is to be apportioned for any defect blame as to be layed at their feet.
Ignorance of these facts give lay people ammunition to fire at the builder when in fact he wishes to produce the product the consumer desires.
It is not my intention to cause any offence to anyone bit merely to state the facts.

[Colin Jack]

The statement about houses not being built by robots in factories seems to be cropping up quite a lot on this site.

If you consider all the components used in a house what you will find is that the vast majority are indeed produced by robots/machinery under factory conditions. Components such as bricks, ready mixed mortar, timber frames, roof trusses, windows, electrical cable, copper pipes and the like.

It is the putting together of these components that is done by human beings and it is at this point that all the problems occur. But this is why there are construction tolerances and standards. Considering that the production tolerance of a timber kit panel is +0mm / -3mm there should never be a situation where a series of panels are greater in length than that on the drawings. If this were the case the panels are outwith tolerance and therefore require attention because of the knock on effect for following components.

A good tradesman will inform the 'developer' when tolerances have not been achieved but it is the developer who will tell the tradesman to cover up the error. Therefore the developer is really the one in the wrong. To think that this sort of thing doesn't happen is very naïve. Once the money has changed hands developers have no real interest in defects, no matter how serious, because of the time and effort involved taking them to task.

It is very unlikely that you will find a good quality tradesman working on one of the big house builders sites. This is because all the good tradesmen can command larger fees for the quality of their work and will either be working for themselves or for much more prestigeous construction companies.

To summarise - if tolerances and standards are adhered to in the factory the components arriving on site will fit together fine. If tolerances and standards are adhered to when fitting the components together then snagging will be purely cosmetic, there will be no significant defects.

It is strange that someone who has been involved in construction management for many years should put such statements forward as fact. There are indeed some aspects of construction that are difficult but house building is not one of them. As one of the directors from Bryant Homes stated in a Sunday paper 'Anyone can do it'.