NHBC, the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK, has published its new-look Standards for the house building industry.
For more than 80 years, the NHBC Standards have been the go-to source for trusted technical guidance for the house building sector, having been consistently developed, reviewed and revised.
The new 2016 edition of the Standards maintains this tradition by offering the most complete set of technical information yet, published in a user-friendly, up-to-date format and the inclusion of a new chapter on re-occurring basement issues. The Standards will support the industry in the delivery of high quality new homes as production levels continue to increase across the country.
Last year, more than 145,000 new homes were registered in the UK, with NHBC reporting that volumes so far this year are showing an increase on the successful year in 2014.
Commenting on the new publication, Standards Manager Paul Cribbens, said: "The revised version features a completely new design, greater use of technology to deliver technical information and revision of all illustrations into a consistent and modern style.
"The new guidance in Chapter 5.4 'Waterproofing of basements and other below ground structures' is the culmination of a two-year NHBC campaign responding to a spate of serious issues with leaky substructures; this cost us £21million in claims between 2005 and 2013. We are confident that these changes will help bring down costly claims, with new technical guidance and benchmarks where the structure is required to resist the ingress of water from the ground and ultimately improve construction quality."
The new Standards 2016 will become effective for every new home registered with NHBC where foundations are begun on or after 1 January 2016. Until then, the current Standards remain in place.
