Hello,

Has anyone bought a Redrow house? We’re looking to move, and there is an interesting development close by, does anyone have any experience?

I’ve looked about online, and there are a few reports of bad workmanship – but my issue with online reviews is that you are unlikely to report an uneventful and easy move, even one that is just relatively average – but a bad one will be very likely to be reported.

Any experiences would be welcomed,

Cheers

Butty

We had one about 5 years back, build quality and fixtures/fittings were very good, snags were dealt with quickly. However a company is only as good as the guys and gals on the site at the time and every site will be different.

Better than Barratts ,but that’s not saying much as Barratts are pretty shoddy.
Was in a new Barratts house the other day and it looks like it has been designed by someone who has never lived in a house.

For example ,you had to walk halfway into the kitchen and then go behind the door and hidden behind another reveal was the kitchen light switch ,al the phone sockets were in totally random places and mounted upside down.

One of my old managers bought a redrow house and he was fairly happy with it overall. same as the poster up above really.

One thing that annoyed him though was that they can’t have put any soundproofing between ground and first floors and as a result he could hear people walking around upstairs and doing their business quite clearly.

not bought a redrow but bought a new home, my tip is very strict about your snag list before you move in, you have to keep ontop of them. dont be afraid to go round while there building it at different stages. ITS YOUR HOUSE ! i had a david wilson which i was awful at the move in tbh. snag list wasnt done, infact bathroom was just bloody awful.

They want your money and wil promise whatever you want, then when they have your money its bye bye, from them, them meaning any house builder.

I work in homes every day and see some terrible work,some great work, poor design.

Best one i saw was the roof guttering sloping away from the down pipe,so when it rained the water drained over the top and down the walls and a loft hatch above the bed, and one on the top of the stairs, the one above the bed was a dummy as the roofing rafters had a piece of wood dropped down onto it, to stop it being opened.

no no no no no no no no non.. can you see a trend.. awful quality finish snagging took up to two years to complete to thier satisfaction..not mine.. everything including the garden fence was ‘extra’ big pressure to sign up and the mortgage guy sogned us up for an insurance deal for 3 years that we didnt know about.. not happy would never buy another would never recommend.. did i mention the wall are nt square and the pointing was done by an apprentice and looks like it was throwen on from the street oh and half the homes on the street had to be retrofitted with bolted on ridge tiles after 6 months of cars been smashed windows broken etc by falling ridge tiles.. did i forget the patio door glass that was scratched replaced on ours with a piece with a bigger scratch.. did i mention the whole side of our street completed on the same day and they ‘ forgot’ to switch the alarmsa on guess what.. no kitchens in them next day.. i think you know where i stand.. oh did i mention the highley desirable 4 /5 bed detached homes we bought then they built half a dozen community housing homes next door without saying anything or did i mention that they came back after 3 months and installed the biggest speed humps i ve ever seen so big that we cant get our caravan over one of them without it grounding and one guy had to sell his lotus as he could nt get it in the street.. I ll let you know where i am with this I m out.

As been said before, all down to the quality of the site manager. A good SM can control site quality no matter what the companies policies or procedures are.
Go visit the site during the week. How tidy & organised is it, are materials being used in good condition.
Whats the form of construction, masonry, timber or steel frame. If it’s frame construction is it being protected during erection.
You can always ask to see the Building Control site records which the SM will have. They may say no if they have something to hide.

I have a Taylor Woodrow house. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. I’ve seen worse, both in the residential and commercial sectors

It’s the nature of the beast I’m afraid. Sub contractor / tender / cheapest price / contract programme / target programme / re-tender / cheap suppliers / bad detailing / no detailing etc,etc

Barratts / like most other house builders have preset house designs. Our hands are tied.

I would take someone around in the profession and do a pragmatic /reasonable snagging list, hand it over and tell them to put it right. I would also do a desktop land review. i.e check out the history of the land prior to the development and proposed substructure solution to rule out any of the major issues…..

You dictate the quality of finish in my experience with new homes.

I had a list of well over 100 snagging items.

Water coming out of a light fitting was the best!

I work for a medium sized builder doing private and H/A new build as well as refurbishment.
If Redrow use the NHBC for quality checking / certification you could ask to see the build inspections – you should be looking for RI’s which are non-conformances during the build stage inspections, also ask to see the CML documentation which is in place before the property is allowed to be mortgaged.

if i was buying new build i would spend plenty of time inspecting the outside of the house, looking at the brick pointing quality, external works finishes, door and window fit, mastic work etc. Inside have a proper poke and pull at doors, worktops, stomp around on the floor listening for creaky floor boards, have a tug at the sockets and switches to see if any of them move. House builders fit low wattage bulbs to get eco points, but it can also mask poor quality plastering and painting – take a bright light and shine it every where.

As stated above by others, it’s a good site manager, his finishing foreman and a good package of sub-contractors that build the job.

We do nearly all of red rows south eastern electrical installations and I agree with the snagging comments above but I can say that Redrow homes do seem to be slightly better quality finish and design than many others (country and metropolitan being the worst)

Pretty certain that Redrow where on a “watchdog” show several years ago due to bad design,the houses in question were 3 storey town houses with the lounge on the 1st floor.
It was found to be impossible to get furniture like sofas and standard wardrobes upstairs due to the narrowness and general bad design of the stairwells and low ceilings above.
The only way to get furniture in was to remove the glazing to lounge windows and use a cherry picker to lift furniture in.
I do remember a Barratts house again that had the heating system plumbed in all wrong ,best part of that was the hot water feed to the toilet cistern probably the worlds only centrally heated toilet ,very cosy for those cold winter mornings.

Have worked in most of the house builders over the last several years and they all have problems to varying degrees,they are probably best judged by how well they deal with your snag list.

As above check out the site for the way it is being run if possible. Very dependant on the site team to manage quality.
Fully snag the property before legal completion, you should have a site/sales handover and spend time rattling everything so its sorted out before you pay/move in. MAKE SURE THE SITE TEAM KNOW YOU ARE PREPARED TO BE A PAIN IN THE ARSE IF THINGS AREN’T RIGHT.
Its tempting to buy buy a house to complete at the builder’s half or full year end to get bigger discounts but this is when there are likely to be issues with plots. The builder will be trying to get as many finished as possible. Up to 30% of the year’s sales may complete at the end of their financial year so they could be flung up to be sorted out later.
Most builders have fair warranties which is an advantage over a second hand property.

I was always told to buy the show house as thats the one most looked at so must look good for customers.

Moved into our 12 year old redrow house 2 years ago and there is no real problems, we’d buy another.

Had to replace the double glazing, so take a close look at it’s finish