Cruden rural steel frame construction

1u111

Hi all,

I've been browsing for a while, but that's my first post.

I've found a really nice house in a good area, with a huge garden... the only issue is the fact that it's of cruden rural steel frame construction.

I've noticed one thrad on this forum from 2007 advising against purchasing this type of house. I was wondering if anything has changed? Are there any new/better ways of maintaining these types of buildings (Structherm)?

It seems like the property has a cavity wall insulation, so it may be hard to inspect the condition of steel frames... is there any way of checking that without too much damage?


Thanks!

1u111

Anyone...?

ClareTeaches

I've just briefly read up on this construction type and it doesn't sound great, to be honest. I'm in the process of buying a different type of steel framed property and the key issue is corrosion of the steel, which could happen due to leaks or condensation.

From my brief read up, it sounds like your type of construction is very prone to issues with condensation and therefore corrosion and it will have been prone to this since it was built in the 1940s.

Imagine the state of steel in damp conditions for the last 70 years. Now imagine that steel is the main support for the building you live in. Not ideal. And that damage isn't something that can be remedied or undone through modern treatments or technologies.

That's not to say these things aren't fixable, but when my partner and I were discussing replacement of sections of steel before the survey came back on ours, we were talking tens of thousands of pounds (he's an architect, so has an idea as he's in the industry, but he's not an engineer/quantity surveyor).

As part of my research into steel frames, I think I've read that cavity insulation in a steel framed building can actually make issues with condensation and steel frames worse, so look into that.

In terms of inspection of the steels, the simplest way is a drilled hole and a camera, but if the wall doesn't have a cavity or has cavity insulation, you'd need to remove parts of the wall to expose the frame for a visual inspection. We had to get a renderer in to remove parts of the render for the structural engineer to view, then replace the render in those patches. I think it was mentioned this could be done from the inside for some construction types, but you're still going to create a lot of mess and damage someone's decoration, as well as the plaster!

Our vendor didn't want to allow this at first, due to the invasive nature of the survey. However our mortgage lender required and eventually the vendor agreed, but it could've gone either way. If we'd not been granted permission, we would have been forced to walk away. Ditto if the steel had been in poor condition.

This all meant that we had to pay for a structural survey as well as the renderer's bill, which on its own was in the region of £400, I think. The lender's valuer was also quite picky with refusing to give a value until they had the survey to ensure the steel frame was a good condition, so we had to satisfy them before we could get a mortgage.

If you're still considering this property (or any other nonstandard construction home), I'd strongly recommend that you do as much research as you can before you fully commit yourself. Check it's mortgageable, check it's not on any defective lists, find out what the perils and pitfalls of that particular type of construction are, as well as the maintenance needs. (For example, we know it's quite likely we'll need to get external insulation added at some point, as our construction type is solid walls, so the U value isn't great. We've known about this since quite early on in the process, before we commited a great deal of money and we're happy to do that work, if needed.)

The BRW produce reports on different construction types and these are really useful as part of your research. We bought the report for ours and it gave UA a good idea of what to expect, as well as the peculiarities of that property. This appears to be the report for your construction type: http://www.brebookshop.com/details.jsp?id=327237