HELP! - Failed Survey - Single Skin Brick

MrRee_2

If you are worried, instruct your OWN Survey!

You can then either walk away, or use it as a lever for your mortgage.

But, you MUST satisfy yourself!

The other sales may have been Cash sales - rental properties, maybe? Or bought with no mortgage because they are very cheap ... and cannot get a mortgage at all?

Tread with care! If a cautious Bank won't invest in it - should you?

propertyman

teneighty wrote: »

The term "single skin" here is causing confusion. Technically it means a solid wall with no cavity.

.

First I am not picking on your post or effort.

Secondly no it doesn't mean that , if properly used ie they misspoke.

Solid wall construction of two brick thick, in the various alignments, a common one refered to as "header - stretcher" is just that. Single skin is what is says a single thickness of brick.
I have seen older structures with a single skin often rendered, but rare to be more than one storey except for additions over two or three floors at rear.

Single skin is common in even older properties such as timber frames as infills. I wont forget the survey where I doubted the integrity of the rear walls and how well tied in they were, as one was very near the base of a stair case- one fall, smack the 400 year old wall, and chances are....

And the new owners moved in the movers dropped the couch.. and the wall nice and square neat fell, in one part, into the garden! Cue negligence claim, refered to report, advised not to purchase without considering cost of tieing in or rebuilding. Her attitude, it's 400 years old what does he know!

leveller2911

Just my penneth worth but "single skin" can mean "rat trap " bond, headers and stretchers laid on edge. We have a fair few cottages around here which are "Rat " bond . It was a cheaper way of building but not as strong as conventional brickwork. So if you have a 9" header(brick laid on end) next to two stretchers laid on edge it would make a single skin wall of 9" thick..


http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1221869

From what the OP states it fails on being a "single skin" doesn't actually say its 4" think. OP needs to clarify.. Or am I missing something? ..

andybenw

If you cannot speak to the surveyor then it sounds to me like only a basic mortgage survey has been done. If you are serious about this house you need to instruct your own survey, at minimum homebuyers but sounds like full structural may be required. You will then be able to read the report produced which will give you not only a valuation but also the surveyors assessment of the building.

propertyman

leveller2911 wrote: »

Just my penneth worth but "single skin" can mean "rat trap " bond, headers and stretchers laid on edge. We have a fair few cottages around here which are "Rat " bond . It was a cheaper way of building but not as strong as conventional brickwork. So if you have a 9" header(brick laid on end) next to two stretchers laid on edge it would make a single skin wall of 9" thick..


http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1221869

From what the OP states it fails on being a "single skin" doesn't actually say its 4" think. OP needs to clarify.. Or am I missing something? ..

Sorry but I disagree, whehter they are on edge, or on their backs, that is much the same and header stretcher ( the difference is 90 degrees and an inch or so, roughly how much space Mrs Propertyman thinks there is when parking, and crashing. )

This solid wall construction of typically 9 inch or more would be acceptable for mortgage purposes ( if in good order).

The use of single skin would be for a single run of brick laid as stretchers, perhaps with some tying in here and there. A drive through Sussex and the older parts and you can't go far without seeing one.

I remember at the old Vuaxhall School of building that they could build a single wall and then deflect, literally bend it, and a 4 inch wall will bend. However its rapidly weakens when it gets higher, far more quickly that a solid or cavity wall.

(it was very cool when it exploded)

Finally I suspect it was the later and yes a structural survey is essential as to be fair not every surveyor gets familiar with older buildings.

I was just lucky to deal with everything from estate houses to ones built of "sh*t" and straw- wattle and daub.

leveller2911

Just out of interest Propertyman how is Rat trap not single skinned? given that the wall is 9" thick and the header is 9" long?.If you have 2 stretchers next to each other laid on edge it has a 2"-3" cavity but only for the 9" length of the brick which is next to the 9" header.

I'm not being picky but as the header runs full width theres no proper cavity so would be single skin thick.Surely the key is the bricks are laid on edge so 3" thick and not 4".

Your quite right there are many Rat bond houses in Sussex, guess they were short of cash back in the 1800,s..

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/471574

moneyistooshorttomention

Just come across this thread - as my estate agent has told me that a lot of houses in a "rival" street to my own for sale are single skin and that this means heat and mortgage problems for them.

Is that why the guy who did the energy assessment on my Victorian one opened a window and measured the thickness of the brickwork on mine and then smiled in a gratified way? - ie because my walls are correct thickness (meaning double thickness).

I am assuming from the fact that my house has been D rated and only missed being C-rated by literally one point (ie if I had had energy-saving lightbulbs, rather than the standard type, it would have been rated C - darn it I'd have changed them specially if I had known that!) that that satisfied smile and energy rating means my house is safely doubleskinned okay.

NB: I've just opened a window and tried to measure as best I can myself and its certainly easily more than twice as thick as the around 100mm that I think single-bricked is.