Single Skin Wall Construction House

kittykatkat

We have found out the house we are buying is of a single skin wall construction, with 9 inch cavity breeze blocks. It is fully rendered on the exterior. It was built in the 1960s.

From what I understand of this construction, it is quicker and cheaper, but also may be colder and damper, due to the built in cavity being bridged.

Anyone had any experience of this construction? I had never heard of houses being built in this way until now.

Werdnal

Do you know what "name" was given to the type of construction? Are there a lot of similar houses in the same street/estate? There were many different types of concrete construction properties, often built quickly and cheaply for local authority housing in the 1950/1960s.

The construction obviously affects the value of the property. Some types are actually unmortgageable, or you may get a mortgage but will be limited on the number of lenders you can use. Some may also cause you problems with house insurance.

You need to find out a little more about the type of property before you go any further. Can the selling agent or vendors give you any more info?

Is it on Rightmove? Can you post a link so we can see a photo, or give us the street name for a google street map view? Someone may be able to advise more if we can get a look at it.

PasturesNew

Anything that is labelled as "single skin" or "non standard" construction can be very difficult, sometimes impossible, to get a mortgage on. If this turns out to be the case, the sort of people that would buy it would be cash buyers or people with a good solid history with their lender of being able to fix it quickly and/or a retention and timelimit to get it sorted out.

kittykatkat

I'm not sure if single skin is the right term or not. It is 9 inch thick blocks with the cavity built into them (hollow blocks?). It is not ex local authority. There are 4 like it on the same street. The surveyor did not flag it up as an issue in the full buildings survey or the valuation, so the mortgage company are ok with it, but a builder friend has said he knows the construction of them.

kittykatkat

Anyone heard of this? I believe the type of construction is quite common in Dublin/ Ireland (but probably quite rare in the UK). I would guess the 4 houses on the street like it are the only ones of that kind in the country, it's not a particular style from a mass builder.

DannyboyMidlands

I'm not really sure what you are asking since you do seem to know how the house is constructed and the drawbacks.

The lack of a continuous cavity (the cavity is effectively bridged by each block) mean it will be freezing cold and suffer from condensation problems.

teneighty

I have come across this hollow block construction a few times. It is not classed as system built or prefab and is not really non-traditional as it is generally straightforward masonry construction, so should not be unmortgageable.

I am not aware of any particular defects with the blocks or the construction as a whole. The only downside as others have said is you can get minor cold bridging at the edges of the blocks but it is still superior to solid 9 inch brickwork. With the external render, unless you live in a very exposed location like the coast or the top of a hill you should not get penetrating damp.
I would suggest you get a building survey carried out as with any purchase as it could have the same problems as any other masonry house.