It should be, however in a survey carried out by an air leakage team old UK houses with proper plastered walls etc the air pressure loss was 4m³/h.m². New homes in the UK are ok in test if they are up to 8m³/h.m². So we are going backwards 
Anyone know how new build French houses get on?
@Shiba ?
The French (or other EU countries) have great low level shower traps allowing minimal upstand for shower trays. Taken some of those back to the UK over the years to get around issues.
Compulsory in new builds here for a few years now and have to be sited above all taps, baths,showers and toilets and utility rooms where there is water coming in and being used. Mine are hardwired into the fuse board so can be turned off but they work on sensors when the seperate WC is approached on entry, the shower is turned on as its above, same with the bath, the kitchen has one above the sink and the cellier works also by sensor. I have no damp and the temperature in the house never hardly drops and if it does, the reversible clim just automatically kicks in to compensate, same with the hot weather, comes on when the house gets above a set temp. The shower floor is about 3cm above the bathroom floor but is such that any water never gets to the edge and goes straight down the drain at the rear of the non slip concrete base. As an addition we went all round the edge of the base and the tiles with silicone for bathrooms to protect it going black from shampoos and gels, my son’s is always black with use and is weekly bleached, mine just needs a wipe over and occasional Cillit Bang to clean any residue on the concrete off.
Did they carry air leakage tests on new homes Shiba?
I have no idea, not something I would know about nor would have asked the builders/plumbers/sparks but I suppose there are checks to make sure the norms have been followed.
Agree wholeheartedly. I don’t think I’ve had a bath for 40 years or more, and have no desire for one.
I think the newest house I’ve lived in was Victorian, with the present UK home being from the 1700s and the French house pre-1900.
From memory, the maisonette we owned 1982-85 had a bathroom that was very ‘inside’ with a door to the lobby for the back door, and that would smell a bit damp sometimes, although mould wasn’t a problem. That particular apartment was fitted with double glazing so efficient that if you ever cooked a curry the flat would smell of it for days afterwards, and there was little sense of air movement through the rooms. Quite unpleasant actually in retrospect.
I’ve had one Regency (180), one Georgian (1758), one brand new (1987 city centre apartment) one 1970’s architect designed bungalow and the present c.1400 pile, but TBH only the first had problems - a flooded basement full of noisy frogs .