“That’s within tolerance” — what a builder actually means

At some point during snagging, you’ll point at something and be told it’s “within tolerance” or “acceptable.”

It’s worth understanding exactly what that phrase means, because it isn’t the builder’s personal opinion — they’re referring to published industry standards, and knowing those standards is how you tell a genuine fob-off from a fair one.

When a home is built it’s inspected against the standards of its warranty provider — usually NHBC (National House Building Council) or LABC (Local Authority Building Control). The NHBC publishes a document called A Consistent Approach to Finishes, which sets out measurable tolerances for the finish of a new home. When a builder says “within tolerance,” they mean it falls inside the limits set out in that document.

The key thing to understand — and this catches almost everyone out — is the viewing-distance rule. Many of these standards are judged not from up close, but from a set distance, in daylight, with the lights off.

“Within tolerance” is a real, published benchmark — it’s not made up, and a fair builder isn’t lying to you when they use it.

But it’s also the industry’s minimum acceptable standard, not a measure of good work, and it does get used to wave away things that could reasonably be put right.

Two practical lessons fall out of this:

1. Inspect at the distance the standard uses, then decide for yourself. If a scratch or a crack only disappears when you stand back 2 metres and turn the lights off, expect the “within tolerance” answer. If it’s still obvious at that distance — or it’s something the standards don’t allow to be fobbed off, like a non-working socket, a leak, a door that won’t close, or unsealed silicone — stand firm. Those aren’t tolerance questions, they’re defects.
2. The viewing-distance rule is exactly why scratched glass and paintwork matter so much when you snag — they’re the two areas where the standards give the builder the most room, so they’re the two areas where your careful, close, in-the-right-light inspection makes the biggest difference to what ends up on the list.