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Our architect asked if we would talk to a journalist in the local paper for a bit of publicity. I said yes as they have been very good and I was happy to do them a favour. It turned into a full feature with photos and much more quotes from me than I anticipated. I cringe a bit reading it but if you are interested it's here https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/property/3974146/inside-black-fox-barn-a-stunning-new-build-woodland-home-in-angus/ There is a paywall wall but just hit the blue x on the bottom banner and you can access it.

If you have a shed large enough to use as a workshop, you can make a timber frame house in it. They are only OSB and timber, with some insulation in them.

I found the planning application. The dormer window shown in the picture in the article was not in the planning application. https://planning-applications.midlothian.gov.uk/OnlinePlanning/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=P2A98TKVKNQ00 Actually the whole roof bears little relation to the planning drawings. However, in fairness, I cannot see it making a big difference and cannot see why they didn't get retrospective permission, although the house is stupidly out of proportion with the neighbouring houses, but that hasn't really changed with the alterations. Maybe they were enough to just push it over the edge as it does make the roof even larger and more imposing. I find it hard to believe that they did not know what they were doing. The comments on the article read like people think they should sue the council for making a mistake. However, this is due to the article quoting the owner saying the council made a mistake. No mistake was made that I can see. Planning and building control are separate and they had an architect who would have been well aware of this. The cladding and window shapes also are very different to the approval. The materials had to be approved and the cladding was supposed to be natural oak. Ahh, it all becomes clear. The house looks a lot more like the house they applied to build in 2017 which was refused due to being too "bulky" and poor design. https://planning-applications.midlothian.gov.uk/OnlinePlanning/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=OT0ULEKVJ9900 Shame the papers couldn't do half an hour of research. Refused plans

without wanting to sound rude but i think the answer is to find another TF company that WILL get you to 0.8ACH if that's the level you want to get to. otherwise there are things you can do but it'll cost you time and money on top of what the current TF company will charge. or maybe negotiate with them to get below 1ACH as a target. then they have the knowledge and kudos of achieving that and can then market it as a reason to choose them

Assuming you are having a rail - given it it 2m wide can you turn them round. at 400 depth this would give you 800 length of rail but you should have enough head room to have 2 rails each side.

I started off thinking this and hired/got one with a driver to begin with. I suppose I spent nearly £6k before (120hrs worth maybe) then I bought my own. it cost me £11k to buy and now 2 years later worth about the same. I’ve done about 1000hours in it. It’s only cost me fuel and one burst pipe (£35). No brainer for me.

Hooks, hooks are the way to go. We're all manically busy people, nobody has the time to fiddle with hangers in the 21st century. Put a few rows on the back and side wall. 300mm depth would do you then.

That puts you in a good position. If it is any help, the only time I talked to an architect, they gave me such a silly estimated build cost that I could never have afforded it, and I would be paying to build it way more than it's market value was. I built if without an architect for half their estimate. Are you really in a hurry? How much if any are you prepared to do yourself? I think if you wait a year, with large builders mothballing sites demand for materials will fall and you will find builders merchants a lot more interested in self builders and prices may come down. If you can get a basic shell built, then most of the rest you can do yourself, that is what we did. Because of a change in our circumstances and I did not want and was probably unable to borrow, ours became a 5 year long build as you earn. Are you prepared to put in the graft for a similar result?

It's stunning. Our roof will be similar but the architect has specified zinc. The composite looks tremendous. You are so neat!

I don't think we have any conifers, mix of alder, oak, beach and willow. A few alder had to come down for access but that's about it. Red squirrel central here.

It is There should be at the very minimum 12 mil But better with 25 So often on site Joiners are dragged back to cut a larger gap Prior to pre plaster inspection

As long as they aren't coming out the other side of the timber, its ok. Treat yourself to some high quality screws.

The trees march to within a few feet of the house and a stream burbles its way past the property. Someone is a poet! Thanks for sharing the article. I hope, for the sake of the view, that the fields are very fertile and the farmer isn't tempted by grants to plant a forest.

You have built a fantastic house, just the way we'd like. I'm very impressed. Thank you for sharing the article, it's inspiring! Who needs art on the walls with those views!

Facetious answer is buy a plot in a warm country... But basically, it's no use having an airtight barrier on the inside if as others have noted, you don't have an insulating envelope around the barrier. So SIPS, timber frame with insulation, there's many ways to make sure that the cold stays on the outer surface of the building. So check the U values of the walls, floors and roofs. Another point about airtightness is to make sure that the windows you specify don't have trickle vents. They can be opening, you might want that in the summer but they can't have trickle vents. We actually made a mistake in our design. Bathrooms upstairs have rooflights that we can open. The downstairs en-suite windows don't open. Wish we'd made one of them open, so that when showering the window could be opened a crack. MVHR should do this but if you think about it, the MVHR is aggregating the extract from all over the house, so that one bathroom aggregated with the rest never gets above the humidity protection threshold, in our case 75%. We'll end up fitting a wireless humidity control in the en-suite to force a boost based on that room. Simon

Well not one single method. The main thing is to make sure there is not an airpath that can bypass the insulation. It would be easy to make an airtight house by just covering all internal areas with polythene, then tape all the joints carefully. Probably get an air test done at below 0.2 ACH. But if the external air can bypass the insulation, and get onto the outer face if the inner wall, then the temperature difference will be high, and heat loss is proportional to temperature difference.

Your plumber's recommendation sounds way overkill. By way of comparison our house is a 1930s semi, originally a three bed, but as part of our complete gutting, extension and refurb we added a loft floor which has two bedrooms. It is fairly well insulated now, with around 45mm of EWI on all old walls, and cavity walls for the extensions on ground and first floor. We also have UFH, but on the ground floor were only able to put 100mm of PIR under it. We upgraded all the windows to fairly decent 2G ones. We have MVHR and very good airtightness, having spent a lot of money on tape and supervised its install closely. Do you have MVHR and an airtight house, as that is a big factor. i did a heat loss calculation based on the spreadsheet linked above got to about 21kw added a bit to give me a margin of safety. Told my plumber I was buying a 24kw boiler for him to install. He thought I was mad. He literally said that I shouldn’t be taking the risk with a five bed house and that anything less than 32kw was madness and that really I should get at least 35kw. I started to doubt my calculations and got a 32kw boiler. I've posted about this elsewhere, but about a month ago, we had a situation which caused us to run all the heating in the house plus heat the hot water tank. I checked the display of my Viessmann Vitodens 200W 32kW boiler. The gas burner was modulating at 54%. My boiler is massively oversized. I think even 24kW was an excessive heat loss calculation and then I remembered that in my calcs I erred on the side of caution and rounded up most uncertainties. I should have stuck with 21kw. So do the calcs, add a small amount for safety, and ignore your plumber. I also recommend Viessman (at least for gas if you are considering gas) as their modulation ratios are market leading. We have a low loss header but no buffer tank and have no short cycling issues, even when we draw less than 10% output.

Assuming this is a serious question, it is about not replace heated air in the house with cold external air. Basically controlled leakage, not uncontrolled. Trouble with buildings is that the cold external air can also bypass the insulation. This is why it is all about design and detail.

Not in current water regs as the taps and the air gaps within are supposed to meet the requirements. Installing a 28mm spring loaded check valve though in a 22mm supply pipe isn’t that difficult and tbh and change of £15 all done so becomes a bit of a no brainer.

I have bought a backhoe, a lot of advice on here, and it is justified advice, was get a 360 tracked machine. I went for the Backhoe, as it has the loader and forks. I have dug all the footings on some cabins. lots of drainage, moved 200 tonne of stone, 16 Cube of concrete with it, so I am glad I have this over a 360 digger, and as the house build start and I'm moving more sheet materials / pallets it will be more helpful. There is no doubt I would have spent more hiring. But the Backhoe is not ideal, digging trench's takes some prior thought, and lots of manoeuvring to get the job done, and I've sat there many times knowing It would be quicker with a 360. Also on a small site it just wont work, I've got Acres and some time struggle to manoeuvre the machine to where I want to dig. If I had the money I would have bought a 5T 360, and a separate loader with forks. SO buy a 360 if you know how to drive it or are willing to learn. If your thinking of letting others drive it STOP. You also have to think about security.

Just use 80mm frame fixings, drill a hole through the batten into the block behind and knock the frame fix through. Just make sure the plate hole is big enough for the head of the fixing

I wouldn't automatically assume buying a machine will save you money. It might, but there's a significant chance it could be more expensive than hiring. Factor in the hassle and cost of breakdowns (esp if you're not mechanically minded) and also be aware there's a world of difference between buying and using yourself and buying for someone else to use in terms of maintenance, h+s etc. If you're paying someone else to use your machine, I struggle to see how that becomes cost effective Vs just getting a local digger driver in with his own machine.

Thanks everyone for all your feedback, it's really helpful. I think after your advice we are going to keep saving and revisit in the future.

You can't let other contractors loose on a machine, if they find an unmapped cable or collapse a trench when someone is in it... your going for the high jump. Larger machines are cheaper secondhand as you can only tow upto 2.7t, so anything bigger has to be transported on low loaders etc. and the cost can be high, even more so if it ever breaks down on site..

Trying to be reasonable and the bigger person (not necessarily friendly) is rarely ever a mistake. Buy the house next time it comes up for sale. Problem solved. We have one near neighbour. She died a few months ago and the house is sitting empty. We are considering approaching the family later this year with an offer to buy it. It’s in a right state internally but has an acre of land and a bit of potential.

I would disagree with the above ( sorry again ). I almost always install these in corners of the rooms, diagonally opposite the doorway wherever practicable.

bought a 2.7T Kubota. great little machine but the lack of reach is frustrating. i managed to get smallish trees out with it by digging around the roots and then lifting out. it's been a great purchase and i've used it to dig our driveway, trenches, move pallets of blocks, carry materials around site and other things too. but i think a 5T would've given me a longer reach. But as @Conor says would probably be not as usable on a smaller site. for insurance i added machinery to our site insurance so it's covered under that.

Large tree roots weigh a lot and nobody really wants them. Mud will kill the chainsaw and they take an age to dry enough to burn.

I've hired a 13t, 8t, 5t and 2.5/3t. For digging drainage trenches, duct runs, moving stuff around, and 3t is the best. The 5t was a bit big for digging down the side of the house, just was capable of some fairly heavy digging. The 8t was great and moving a 200t pile of clay. The 13t is only useful on a completel clear site for moving material about. On balance, the 5t is the one to get as you'll be able dig your founds, service trenches, and still be able to dig a 300mm wide hole close to the building. Re letting other people drive it... Do t go there unless they are fully insured and experienced! Your self build I sirance won't cover it

Don’t get a digger/backhoe- we had one one the farm and they are big awkward and not great compared to an excavator. There is a reason you see excavators way more these days. Unless you are moving lots of materials from A to B the excavator is much more practical and faster all round . My build has finish now but I still have my old 3T excavator- it’s just too useful to get rid off but I probably will at some point . Most excavators will struggle with pulling mature tree stumps out. I had a 18T one of site to break and crush concrete up and that struggled a bit with a couple. As per above make sure you leave lots of trunk on and use the leverage. It really depends on your budget but bigger the better really if you have lots of room.

I had a 3t digger, it was just what came up locally at the time. I would have preferred bigger say 6t. The larger machines say 13t would have been too big for my plot. I had a few trees to take out and the 3t digger struggles to get the stumps out. If you have not done this before leave a good length of trunk on the tree and use the digger to push / pull it over after loosening the ground around it

I borrowed a 5 tone digger this time which coped with Boulder clay and everything else It’s worth baring in mind The larger you go the thirstier they are I would hire and perhaps buy later

Whats the budget for the digger? I had a 7,5t tracked Sumitomo excavator and now a Massey 860 backhoe. The 7.5t was fine for everything apart from digging big holes in the ground. It got particularly good at bursting hoses ,pinging seals and throwing off tracks towards the end. The backhoe is awkward and slow for any back actor work but the front loader works fine. Beware any soft ground however. It goes down like the titanic. It too likes bursting hydraulic hoses. Is it an option to get a tracked excavator + tree shears and operator on hire to take to down the trees? Cheaper, faster and much safer for all involved.

@Telleportello welcome ! I've found this forum full of rich insights, so do ask lots of questions throughout... Every build has challenges (we had our structural engineer unreachable for months at a time, planning objections, and have had to contend with some significant supply chain delays also..) One thing I'd recommend you do sooner, rather than later, is share your floor plans in this forum for feedback.. That's something I wish I'd done earlier in our build. Good luck !

welcome. sounds like a very interesting project and I know I speak for the majority on here when we say we want pictures!! 🙂 many on here have built basements (us included) but I don't recall reading any with those sorts of plot size constraints. would love to hear more details of the build so far and as you progress.

I have an enthusiastic amateur attempt, but we are mid build. Basically check 2 to 3 times a week with expanding foam and silicone.... And look for every nook and cranny internally and externally which could allow air to pass through. Then a Liberal amount of expanding foam, then silicone over the top of it when dry.

Just wanted to tell about my long and hard fought planning battle to finally get approval for anyone else in a similar situation who's losing hope. I bought a plot of land in a development area of a town with FPP for a traditional detached house back in 2020. I then worked with an architect to create a new highly contemporary design that better suited my needs and preferences and submitted it to the LPA, optimistically expecting a decision in 8 weeks time. There were no objections from the local town council nor any technical objections. The plot isn't in a conservation area, AONB or in any other special zone which might cause planning issues. Myself and my planning consultant expected this to be a quick and simple application. My planning consultant had an initial call with the case officer who said they didn't see any issues. All seemed good so far. Then a month later, after chasing the CO again, they came back and said that they had decided that there was no way they could give us approval for the house as it was too out of character for the area and that there was nothing we could do, revise or prove to change their mind. We argued that it wasn't out of character for the area, and that the same case officer had actually themselves approved several applications for contemporary houses nearby and written in their reports that there was no overriding architectural style in the area. They told us to argue it at appeal. At this point, I contacted the head of the LPA who seemed confused why the CO was refusing to allow us to even submit any additional evidence to show that it wasn't out of character. The CO reluctantly relented and said we now could submit additional evidence. I went all out on this - I had drone surveys mapping the whole area showing the house would be completely screened from the road, additional consultants came in to conduct character reviews of the local area, numerous additional architectural drawings etc. Upon informing the CO that all additional evidence would be submitted the following week, they replied and said they'd changed their mind about allowing additional evidence and were going to just reject the app. I contacted the head of the LPA about this to complain a few days later, who replied saying that the CO had actually just quit their job, we would be assigned a new CO and they'd be happy to review any additional evidence. A friendly local councillor passed on information about why we were having so much difficulty with this app - a local married councillor duo, who had a reputation for 'shouting the loudest' to get their own way, were doing everything they could to get the LPA to reject my app. At the town planning committee when my app was discussed, they had said they wanted to prevent all contemporary houses from being built and were apparently outraged that the committee sided with me and voted to raise no objection. This was their revenge. The new CO was far more amenable - he wanted to work with us to tweak the design to something he felt he could then approve. We spent two months going back and forth with designs and changes until he finally said that he was satisfied and would write a report giving us approval. This was about 7 months after the application was originally verified. I was obviously very pleased with this outcome and patiently awaited their report. A month passed before we followed up with them to see how they were getting on. Imagine our surprise when we were informed that this CO had also quit two days ago and we'd now get a third CO. The third CO looked at the original plans and the redesigns and said he much preferred the original plans to the redesigned version and would be happy to approve it with some minor tweaks, which we happily obliged. He then began writing his report recommending approval, and we waited and hoped this one wouldn't quit too. A month passed and we received confirmation his report was ready and just needed to be signed off by their line manager. A few weeks later and we find out there's a problem - the line manager refuses to sign off on it and tells him to re-write it as a refusal, stating 'overlooking' as the reason. This particular line manager is known to be friendly with married councillor duo. We obviously push back very hard on this as we have 3d drone surveys showing that overlooking is not possible, and that there is substantial distance between neighbouring properties which are well above guidelines for new builds anyway. I once again get the head of LPA involved and the line manager agrees to at least to do a site visit with the CO. At the site, the line manager begrudgingly admits defeat and allows the recommendation for approval. It's a little over a year since the app was verified. The journey's not over yet though, as it turned out that a ward councillor had called in the app to committee when it was first submitted but had gone unnoticed due to the multiple CO changes. I felt reasonably confident going into the committee though - we had an officers recommendation for approval, there was no 5 year housing supply in the area so development was favoured, and I wrote a very strong speech putting forward my case. At the committee I gave my speech and then listened the councillors debate. To my horror, this was when I found out that councillors don't actually bother to review planning documents for applications they're voting on - multiple councillors said they couldn't support it because they didn't know what materials would be used (despite all materials been listed numerous times in the docs) and one even saying they couldn't support it based on architectural drawings as they wanted illustrations (but there were multiple CGIs submitted in the docs). In the end, 4 councillors voted to refuse the app (2 were the married couple duo who said nothing during the debate and the other said they 'didn't like it' as their reason) but that was enough to overturn the CO recommendation as so many others abstained. Not willing to give up after how much work had already gone into this, I had my planning consultant start work on the appeal. We submitted a 50 page rebuttal of the committees one reason for refusal (contemporary design would be out of character). The LPA barely even tried to justify the committee decision, they submitted a 3 paragraph argument, seemingly acknowledging that they were fighting a lost cause. 6 months later and just in time for Christmas, we received the Inspectors report that the appeal was allowed. Almost exactly two years to the date after the app was first verified. The two year battle cost me ~£30k and building costs have gone up ~£300k during that time (the GDV has gone up by more than this but it is still painful). It was worth it in the end though to finally be able to build the house I want to build. Just wanted to tell my story for anyone else who's in a similar struggle at the moment and advise you to just keep pushing forward.

I did apply for costs and was unfortunately denied - the reasoning being that design is an inherently subjective matter, so not liking a style and refusing it for that reason would not be considered so unreasonable as to justify an award of costs. Most of the money was spent prior to the appeal anyway and you can only get back your costs that were specifically for the appeal (~£4k from what I remember) so not the end of the world. The first CO repeatedly asked if we wanted to withdraw the application, seemingly hoping they wouldn't actual have to write a refusal that we could then appeal. When I found out about the councillors putting pressure on the LPA to refuse the app, I treated it like an all out battle and threw everything at it - every comment/criticism/concern they had, I responded with reports/surveys/drawings until everything was so comprehensively covered that it was irrefutable that the house complied with all planning rules. I'm fully aware that a lot of people would have caved at the start when the CO was saying to withdraw it or they'll refuse it - it's unfortunate that people can be bullied this way. That's why I wrote this up, for anyone else who's sure their app complies with the planning rules but is getting push back at their LPA, to not give up.

This makes my blood boil, but well done you for sticking it out. There ought to be an independent complaints body with the power to remove the right of councillors to be on a planning committee if they're shown not to follow the rules.

Bloody hell that makes my experience a walk in the park, well done for seeing it through. It does make my blood boil when you hear how much sway individuals can have on these applications. Too much power given to the wrong people in my view.

Fabric heat loss is dealt with by insulation / doors & windows etc, and ventilation heat loss is dealt with by arresting a) infiltration ( drafts ) and b) convection heat loss; loads of house builders / frame suppliers seem to not give this their full attention when detailing this at the roof level forgetting that heat rises . If you have poor ventilation heat loss measures ( eg not going to a very good / excellent ( not just 'good' )) level of airtightness, then all the insulation in the world will amount to zilch tbh as the saved heat will just escape to the clouds, whilst pulling lots of fresh, damp and cold air back in to replace it 'Excellent' airtightness will mean you could install lesser amounts of insulation ( eg build to our current and shitty building regs equivalent ) and you'll still have a very high-performance dwelling as a result. I would focus all my energy and efforts in the pursuit of the best AT score you can get you mits on, and once you are already 'in to' the installation of AT tapes and membranes, it will ONLY need you keeping a close eye on attention to detail and no stone being left unturned to take you to the 'excellent' result. Do not dismiss the value of putting in just a little more effort with this, as, if you're staying in the house long-term, the rewards ( lower running costs and personal comfort ) will be significant. You absolutely need a definitive statement regarding method of execution / target ACH score etc ( before parting with any money ) as a lot of lesser interested TF suppliers pay this lip-service only, and that's on a good day...... Ask for details for sections where tapes / membranes start / finish etc and what happens at wall / slab junction plus doors and windows etc. If they start squirming, it's time to move on to another frame supplier.

Very important this. People will only hide things if they think there's a b*llocking coming and in fairness nearly everyone is very diligent. " Do your best and if there's any holes let me know and I'll sort them out". We had none in the end AFAIK apart from when I put my foot through it from the attic.

There is still an air gap for cooling with inroof systems. And they look so much better. When I went to see Jeremy's house, even though I knew it had 6 kWp of modules on the roof, I did not notice them at all. Building on what Terry has said, factory built houses are much better. You would not buy a new car if it was built on your drive. Or a fridge that came in bits. I do find the whole airtightness detailing a bit strange. Almost as if the industry think it is an afterthought. It as to be designed in like everything else. The production manager at Frame UK (company that make hundreds of TF houses down in Redruth) said an interesting thing to me when he took me around the factory. "We design in all the services, then the plumbers come along and drill holes tough the walls" Now I suspect your Architect is not that up on site work practices, so it comes down to you to enforce the design ethics and the quality control. Not a nice task as it can easily alienate a crew (I know how hard it is to change work practices), but it has to be done right, there is, realistically, no second chance.

Peter, thanks for the prompt to this interesting discussion. My only quibble is with the verb "tried" ? I would say that the system has been working really well for over 4 years now. IIRC, you have a pretty energy-efficient house with decent internal thermal mass. This puts you well outside the operating domain of most standard controllers. A good indication is the 24hr heat-loss without heating (mine is just over 1°C per day). I use two straight-line functions to calculate total daily heat requirement: Planned demand in kWh as a function of Δt: (set-point - Met-office predicted temperature) A feedback adjustment as a function of Δt: (yesterday's average room temp - set-point temperature) When you schedule the on times isn't that critical. I do mine overnight so I get a ~1°C ripple over the day. Moving a chunk to an afternoon boost would drop this to nearer ½°C I am not sure that you really need some fancy (and expensive) controller. An RPi zero 2 controlling a relay or two would be perfectly adequate.

It comes down to the way that NHBC advertise and the fact that lenders may insist on there being a warranty, which leads to an expectation that the house has a ten year warranty from NHBC. The reality is that it has an 8 year warranty from NHBC, plus a 2 year guarantee (that only covers construction defects) provided by the builder (not necessarily the developer). I strongly suspect that it's only those who have ever tried to claim on a house warranty that will uncover the way that responsibility is split, with them having to deal with the builder initially, and then with NHBC once the initial period after completion is over. Part of our problem was that NHBC initially refused to accept the completion date for the house. It had been a show house on a small development of 6 houses and so was the first house completed. We bought it as a "new" house, but in reality it was nearly two years old, and we didn't discover the leaks until some time after we moved in. The defect in the roof flashing was known by the builder, as we found evidence of silicone sealant that had been applied around the flashing when we had it replaced, plus there were old watermarks down the chimney breast in the loft. Our first hurdle was convincing NHBC that we should be dealing with them, as they claimed to have "lost" the completion paperwork. This was the first of many delaying tactics that they used, and which continued even after we got our lawyer involved in chasing them.

I write snagging reports and trust me, what I see - even as minor problems - can be underlying issues that are significant. For example, I did one where there were nail pops on a ceiling - sounds innocuous ..? It was in a line, all along a single joist and the contractor had been and used filler to the holes, and repainted it as a fix. Two weeks later, same issue, contractor said it was “fixed”. I checked the ceiling and there was some give in it - camera through a downlighter hole revealed that the plumber had drilled a series of holes - some with no pipes in them - along with some notches for heating pipes and and wastes from a bathroom and en-suite above. That required a new kitchen ceiling when the joists were repaired including having to sister up two of the joists that couldn’t be repaired as there were a dozen or so holes with pipes and wires through. First thing that I use is a 6ft level... it’s amazing how many times you will find floors and ceilings out by 10mm over 2m, walls that have significant bows and doors and windows that aren’t plumb in the openings. I’ve had one successful claim against NHBC for significant issues with drainage - this was for rainwater pipework completely missing underground and that involved a remediation contractor taking out paths and driveways and completely relaying the whole lot with new pipework. Cost was in excess of £6k

My experience of watching two new build estates being constructed over the past three or four years suggests that the build quality is inherently pretty poor. I've seen several houses with missing or very badly fitted cavity wall insulation, absence of cavity closers around openings, dormers built with no roof insulation and pretty poor internal blockwork. This is just stuff that's been easily visible from the road by the estate, and it seemed that the builders really couldn't care less who saw the poor work, as no attempt was made to hide what they were doing. I discussed it two years ago with our then MP, who strongly defended the right of builders to self-regulate and not be subject to independent inspections. We've since seen, from Grenfell, the consequences of a regime that allows self-regulation and poor inspection practice, plus product approval that bordered on being fraudulent. I think we can reasonably assume that there is an endemic quality problem with the UK building sector. My own view is that we've had a problem developing ever since the building inspection procedure was opened up to a competitive market, as it seems inevitable that there would be a loss of independence, and that inspection companies that found faults in new builds probably wouldn't win contracts from that developer in future.

or they weasel out of it as per the two posts above

My Aunt has a simalar exsperience She has to pay a set amount Refunded if the claim was upheld When the lead valley was striped It was found that the contractor had Nipped the lead with his grinder They stated it was bad work and not covered

We spent well over a year trying to get NHBC to cough up for a leaking roof before we gave up and just had the flashing fixed ourselves, and if our experience is typical then it suggests that there is a long delay in settling claims, so what NHBC might be reporting now could well be defects that in reality date back two or three years or more.