Defective wall construction or no?

moneyistooshorttomention

Does anyone know if I would be correct in thinking that exterior walls of houses done in the 20th century and made of large "brick" like blocks means that these walls are concrete block walls as I believe?

If so, I can see that houses with such walls tend to have a multitude of cracks - quite crazy-paving type look in fact, as they often have so many of them. I am assuming that this means it's a faulty type of construction and the walls have degraded and aren't as stable as they could be. Also wondering if houses with walls of that construction would be prone to damp?

(better just add - and no it's not my current house I'm talking about before anyone starts wondering......). My house is brick.

sinbad182

Why dont you just pluck the answer to this query from thin air, and then pass it off as fact like you do in everyone else's thread?

kingstreet

First thing to do when unsure of construction type is to establish that, usually via the selling agent or local council.

Once you know the name of the construction method and the year of construction, you can check the 1984 and 1985 Housing Acts to see if it has been deemed defective.

How it has been handled since then will determine if it is saleable/mortgageable as a standard property.

For example, a property built of pre-reinforced concrete may have been repaired according to an approved scheme and would now be classed as a "normal" property.

Davesnave

Concrete block cavity walls are a normal kind of construction method still in use.

Hair line cracks are common in rendering over both concrete blocks and brick, especially if the render mix was a bit on the strong side or dried too quickly. Other small cracks also appear on some rendered property, typically running from corners of window & door frames. These may not necessarily be anything to worry about if they're long standing, but a surveyor will advise.

Apart from in Cornwall (Google Mundic testing) there is nothing particularly good or bad about concrete block construction. I'll be using it myself soon.

sandsni

The 20th century covered quite a long period of time (a hundred years, in fact ;-)) during which there were some developments and changes in construction methods. Could you be a bit more specific about the age of the house you're wondering about? My parents' house was built in the late '60s and is brick-built (both internal and extrernal walls) with cavity wall insulation. No sign of cracks or damp so far.

moneyistooshorttomention

The walls I am thinking of were damaged in the 1940s and it looks as if they were replaced with the quickest/easiest option available at that time. I have in fact googled Mundic bricks Dave (thanks:T) and I am wondering about them...