Beware of your roof

[alsutton]

This is more of a cautionary tail than anything else....

I am currently a couple of days away from completion on a house on the Crest Nicholson Avante development in Coxheath in Kent, and I've just received a surveyors report on the roof, which was enough to scare anyone.

The roof has paint flaking off of it, it has exposed softwood, it's a flat roof with no drop in some places and an inverse drop in others (water needs to run up-hill to get to the drainage hole), and there are several signs of generally poor workmanship (screws with the heads shredded off, poor finishing on leading, etc.).

So be warned, even though your property may look great from the outside and look lovely on the inside, you should probably have a full survey done to make sure that whats on the topside has not been built with an 'Out of sight, out of mind' mentality.

[Colin Jack]

alsutton,

Couldn't agree more. My Bett Homes / Gladedale property looks fine to the untrained eye. To the trained eye it is very worrying.

The 'Out of sight, out of mind' mentality is also rife. How many people check the cavities for wall ties or dig down a little bit below the soil. Very few. Unfortunately I did and found a significant number of wall ties were missing (about 90% in one wall to be more accurate) and that an external wall / frame was oversailing its underbuilding by as much as 90mm. Considering the average width of a brick is 102.5mm that leaves only 12.5mm width of brickwork supporting the wall above. Criminal!!!!!

The NHBC have confirmed these defects. The Local Authority refuses to issue the Completion Certificate. But I am still waiting on Bett Homes / Gladedale to come back and fix them. :sick:

www.abadbett.com