Brits will never understand this and will keep saying their houses are very well-built, they last for centuries and so on, but as a foreigner, I know very well what you mean.
Yes, houses in Britain do last for centuries. So they’re not badly built in this meaning. It’s more about the quality.
- Insulation is atrocious. Again, Brits will disagree, but when compared to other European countries (especially the ones where we have real winter), insulation is really poor.
- Building materials are often not really good and the emphasis is on price. Internal walls are almost exclusively drywalls, external walls are usually cavity walls using hollow bricks. Blocks like on the picture below (which are very common elsewhere and which are really great in terms of insulation) are rarely seen.
- Windows. Many houses still have those ancient sash windows. Again, please explain how the houses are well insulated with sash windows. Last time I stayed at the hotel, there was a centimetre wide gap even when the window was closed. Besides, I still occasionally get a flyer in my mail advertising double glazing. I thought the rest of Europe was starting to implement triple glazing now…
- Floors are usually made of wood. Honestly, with no exaggeration, I’ve never been to a house where floorboards don’t creak yet. Plus they are sometimes not completely level. But they are usually covered by carpets, so you can’t see it, but still, you often feel the floor is not even. Especially when you’re barefoot.
- Plumbing. This is a chapter on its own, but what shocked me the most is this:
Yes, it’s an old building (but aren’t they all?). It does occur on new ones from time to time as well, though.
- Electrical installation? Very often Brits (especially on Quora) brag about having super safe regulations and the best plug in the world… Well, I’d be careful with the superlatives, but I don’t disagree in general. But a few things are really odd. First of all, pull cords in bathrooms instead of light switches? No, thanks. Then the question of sockets in bathrooms, many people here are convinced that people in countries like Germany, France or Italy are dying every day, because they have sockets in bathrooms. They even have washing machines there! That’s a big no-no in the UK. But a 12kW electric shower directly above the bathtub? Yeah, that’s perfectly normal. But the most peculiar thing these days would be the fact that practically every house here only has one phase. It causes other issues as well, but if we’re pushing on electric vehicles, well, good luck with one phase chargers.
- Garages. They really are called garages, but even the newly built ones will hardly fit a car in.
- One small detail, but quite quintessential. There are virtually no roof overhangs. I understand there is usually no rendering and it doesn’t snow much, but still, I find it personally much better to have some overhang and be able to stay dry when standing at the door looking for a key.
- Then there are small things like separate water taps (the worst invention ever), door handles, funny hinges, no shutters, holes in doors instead of mailboxes and so on.
Of course there are houses that are absolutely spot on, nice and highly practical. Just like anywhere else. But in my opinion, majority of houses have at least some of these issues. And newly built houses usually have no corners left uncut.
I get it, different country, different habits. But surely, when the floor creaks, it shouldn’t be considered normal anywhere! This really gets me, when I was looking for a place to rent, I visited tens of properties. And usually the agent acts like they can’t see it and they have no idea what you’re talking about. You put a bottle on the floor and it rolls away. But they don’t understand why you don’t like it. It seems like everybody got used to mediocrity, or even substandard housing?
I love many things about Britain (especially music and raspberry trifle), overall I enjoy being here. But the quality of the housing stock is in my opinion not something to be proud of. After having lived in three other European countries and visiting many more, I’d say it’s really bad in Britain. Of course it can be (and outside of Europe often is) much worse, but that shouldn’t be a consolation.
Martin Zak
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/mar/11/why-are-britains-new-homes-built-so-badly
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