Not worth the paper it's printed on

[joppie44]

Been in my new house 11 months. Never been happy with the bannister. Builder never coming round etc etc. Got fed up and asked a professional joiner to have a look. He condemned it as dangerous. Whole bannister is loose and one of the spindle spaces is 140mm between adjacents.Big enough to get a kids head through. Wrote to builder. 5 days later not even a phone call. Phoned building control. They don't measure each spindle I'm told even though it is obvious by looking at it from the ground floor. ( I actually noticed it but thought it was meant to be like that)NHBC? Have to give the builder a chance to reply and if he doesn't then he gets a letter, 10 days to reply etc etc etc. Meanwhile I'm supposed to live with a bannister that is a potential death trap should anybody bang into it or a kid decides to try and squeeze between it. Joiner coming tomorrow at my expense to fix it. At least one of us has a public sense of duty.

[Tony]

You should be able to get the builder to repay you for this.

For information for others the maximum gap is 100mm and the handrail should be 900mm high.

Tony

[joppie44]

Well, the joiner has been and gone. He took lots of photos and a video and has kindly written me a report into the state of the bannister. He told me he has seen worse!!! but had never seen before the posts at either end of the bannister being glued on! Not a nail or screw in sight. He also had to put a dwang where there wasn't one to fit the post properly. Am I missing something here? A 'tradesman'builds a bannister and glues it into place and hopes that it won't be noticed? Has he no conscience? Or does he realy believe that this is acceptable workmanship? Are the vast majority like this? Is there thousands of houses up and down the country with bad workmanship like this in plumbing, electrical etc. Do they sleep easy at night wondering if their workmanship is going to maim or kill someone?

I'll never have a tradesman in my house ever again unless they have been recommended by friends or family....

[Colin Jack]

joppie44 writes 'Am I missing something here?'. Yes you are. You are under the impression that it was a 'tradesman' who built your bannister. It is a well known fact that many employed in building new homes are not fully qualified and if they are they are not very good.
Consider this simply - if a joiner is good then he/she will be working for him/herself, have a good reputation and therefore will be able to command a higher fee based on the quality of their work. The two points to be noted are higher fee and quality of their work both of which will make this joiner unemployable by a house builder because they cost too much and the extra 10 minutes required to do a good job would be deemed time lost.
Remember also that those employed by house builders are paid on a timeline basis so the quicker the job is done the better for the 'tradesman' and the house builder but alas not for the home owner who is made to suffer the consequenses.
These 'tradesmen' and house builders don't give a toss if their 'workmanship' is going to maim or kill someone given the length of time it would take to prove it. This is what they rely on. House builders customer care departments are there to stear unsuspecting home owners away from their legal rights. Watch out for the lies particularly the ones in the NHBC rule book - because there is no rule book, it is guidance only.
The NHBC are the builder's insurer, this has been stated many times. 'If the NHBC set their standards too high then house builders will get their insurance somewhere else' straight from the horse's mouth. Remember that in Scotland the NHBC have absolutely no jurisdiction what so ever so the warranty really 'isn't worth the paper it is written on'.
The whole system is rotten to the core, engineered by the house builders and the NHBC to be a closed shop. So pay your money, accept the crap you are given and shut up. Sad but true.