Canadian build houses

K_S

moulty58 said:

I’ve got an option to buy a Canadian build bungalow. Originally built for the Canadian Air Force in the UK. I can’t find much information on these although they were built in their thousands in Canada. They are timber frame with brick exterior. Has anyone any experience with these.?

@moulty58 Hopefully I'm not misremembering but if this is the same construction referred to as 'Canadian Timber House' and built back in the 60s/70s, I'm pretty sure I did a Nationwide remortgage for one a few years ago. Can't recall whether there were any invasive surveys required or what the LTV was.

Generally speaking, from a mortgage point of view, modern timber framed houses with a brick/stone outer skin are usually mortgageable at mainstream rates. But once you go backwards from the 80s it'll depend on the specific construction type and so sometimes gets tougher and can require a low LTV.

stuart45

The timber framed houses built in the 80's and earlier did have a few problems. Mainly these were due to the lack of experience in this type of construction in the UK.
For example with a traditional build being an inch or 2 out in the measurements in the foundations isn't such a problem. In Canada and the USA it isn't either as the frames are stick built on site. However in the UK the panels are made up in factories, so there is less room for error. 
When you put the brickwork up you often found you had either a big cavity and the ties hardly reached it, or there no no cavity and the brickwork was tight against the timber.
Breather membranes were also damaged and not repaired.