New guidance on commissioning services in new homes

The NHBC Foundation today publishes a guide that helps site managers oversee the many commissioning activities that are important to a smooth build programme and delivering high quality homes for home buyers.

At your services – What to expect during commissioning – produced in collaboration with BSRIA, is a response to the ever-expanding family of services from solar-technologies to whole-house ventilation systems that means that site managers will see an increasing range of commissioning activities on their sites, often of a highly technical nature.

While commissioning must be carried out by specialists and competent installers, this new guide fills an important gap, helping site managers to engage more closely with the commissioning process and to ask the right questions at the right time.

In a foreword to the new guide Neil Jefferson, NHBC’s Chief Operating Officer, says: “The reality is that many site managers today feel distant from the commissioning checks and balances that are so crucial.”

He adds: “Commissioning in general has become much more technical and exacting, with processes and language which are not easy for non-specialists to understand. This is not good for the success of commissioning which ultimately depends on good understanding between the site manager and commissioning experts involved.”

The NHBC Foundation guide gives special attention to explaining the reasons for the various commissioning activities and how they contribute to long-term trouble-free operation. It covers the following types of services:

  • Water and drainage
  • Gas connection and distribution
  • Electrical installations
  • Boiler – gas supply and correct operation
  • Underfloor heating pipe loops and manifolds
  • Unvented, indirect hot water cylinders
  • Ventilation systems
  • Air source (air to water) heat pumps
  • Solar hot water systems
  • Grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems

EAN Breaking News

Breaking News from the team at Estate Agent Networking. Have a new story to share with us? Then please get in contact today! When and where we can we will refer to third party websites with a 'live link back' where news was released first.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

Mortgage approvals down 11% in May

The latest mortgage approval data from the Bank of England show that: –   Mortgage approvals on house purchases for May sat at 56,205 down (-14.9%) from 66,034 seen in April. Approvals are down (-10.8%) when compared to the 62,980 seen in May 2025. This annual decline was expected due to wider political and economic uncertainty;…
Read More
Breaking News

Money and Credit – May 2026

Overview These monthly statistics on the amount of, and interest rates on, borrowing and deposits by households and businesses are used by the Bank’s policy committees to understand economic trends and developments in the UK banking system. Key points: Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals decreased to £2.9 billion in May, from £4.4 billion…
Read More
Breaking News

More than 5,300 land listings currently available in Britain

The latest research from LandSale, the property portal dedicated to land and rural property, has revealed that there are an estimated 5,373 land listings currently available across Great Britain, with almost a quarter, 24.9%, listed in the past 30 days. The analysis examined all land-only listings currently being marketed across Great Britain. LandSale assessed the…
Read More
Breaking News

Build to rent completions rise 11.7%

New research from Zero Deposit reveals that the UK’s build-to-rent sector has continued its strong growth trajectory in 2026, with both delivery and investment volumes increasing year on year as demand for professionally managed rental accommodation remains robust. As the sector expands and operators manage larger portfolios of high-value rental homes, protecting rental income is becoming…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Has the doer-upper lost its shine?

First-time buyers, once the doer-upper’s natural market, have changed their priorities – and what they want now is certainty. For decades, the doer-upper held a particular place in British life: the tired house bought cheap, done up over years of weekends and sold on as the home it always promised to be. It was a…
Read More
Crowded beaches - Clacton-on-Sea in Essex
Breaking News

1 in 7 consider moving home to manage cooling costs in hotter weather

Two in five adults (40 per cent) say they would prefer to invest in home improvements to reduce overheating from the outset, rather than rely on cooling devices Three in 10 (30 per cent) are concerned about the impact of using electricity for cooling on their energy bills, while over four in 10 (44 per…
Read More