New vs older houses

Mrs_Arcanum

googler wrote: »

The majority of houses these days are built on a 'load-bearing timber frame' with any stonework merely what's called 'architectural brick' - i.e. brick that's put on for appearance's sake, and has no structural purpose.

There was a block of flats erected near me a couple of years ago. They laid the foundations and started putting up the timber frame. Then it started raining. They continued building the timber up. It rained a lot around that time - 'biblical rain', I call it - and before I knew where I was, there were four storeys of soaking wet timber frame right up to roof level with not a bit of metalwork or brickwork in sight.

Then the pallets of 'architectural brick' arrived, and again, in a trice, the frame was externally clad, and it looked to all intents and purposes as though it was built of the stuff.

I have no idea how they dried it out.

Contrast that with something from the beginning of the 1900s, with half-metre thick stone walls; solid timber doors and facings, etc, etc

Our old house was built early 1900's with simple double brick construction - freezing in the winter but cool in summer. Cost a fortune to heat & maintain. Think you are looking at 1700's thick walls and stone floors in the cellar.

Space will be the main difference between old & new. Older places are likely to be more spacious but will require more upkeep. Newer places will be cheaper to heat but more cramped.

pinkshoes

It depends on the builder. Personally I wouldn't touch a timber frame property! Smaller independent builders working on small developments tend to be of better quality than mass produced housing estates done by large building firms.

grizzly1911

We have had two houses.

Our first was a 1950s semi which we brought at the end of the 80s.

The rooms were all a reasonable size, even the third bedrom was a small double. The garden was small.

We spent a lot on it as previous owners had been there since new and whilst very clean it looked like they had not done anything to it.

New Kitchen, Re-Wire, Central Heating, Double Glazing, Loads of cosmetic stuff, Paths, Patios, Leanto replaced, Guttering.

Luckily we had the time and the inclination to do a lot of this ourselves or at least manage it. If your not that way inclined then bear this in mind.

We then moved with work as we didn't know how it would pan out and with a young family in tow we looked at loads and eventually went for a nearly new (actually built 18 years ago now). We knew we would have probably no costs (born out) in the medium term and more importantly was it's location for schooling/amenities.

It was and has been upgraded to make it cheaper to keep war than our first house.

It is built to a pretty good standard and finish IMO.

We have looked at others since but have always been drawn back a big plus is still location.

the issue around the newer housing having a small footprint and small gardens and PP parking is down to the planning authorities as much as the builders trying to max out profit.