Non standard construction

Gnome0000

Hi all, looking for some advise if possible please.

I currently live in a small 2 bedroom house with my wife and son. We are exploring the possibility of having another child and would not be able to stay in our current home if we have another.

We absolutely love the area we live in and would need to stay here for various reasons, but 3 bedroom houses are normally out of our price range in this area.

A house has come onto the market which would be perfect for us and is actually within our price range. It is an ex council house.

The only problem - online it states
"The property is of non standard construction but has been reinstated and certificates of work are available".

As far as I'm aware, houses like this were built not long after the war. It originally would have looked something like the image below, built using concrete slabs. Afterwards it looks as though work was done to remove the concrete slabs and brick over. See other image below. 

As the concrete slabs have been removed and the house next door (which is still a council house) also bricked up, are we likely to encounter any problems with the property and also selling the property if needs be in the future?

Any advise or information would be greatly appreciated.

For reference, images included are from Google Maps. 

GDB2222

The reason it’s cheap is probably because of the non standard construction. It may not be mortgageable. Or, there may only be a smaller group of lenders, perhaps at greater cost. 

Why not talk to the agent, and find out exactly what system was originally used, and what remedial measures were taken. You need to know the details. 

housebuyer143

You would have to look into what was done to the concrete. Cornish houses are made of a similar construction I believe and in order to mortgage them you literally need to replace the concrete walls and rebuild. You can normally pick them up though for half the price of one that's been completed, but you need the cash to buy it and then it's huge disruption to rebuild the walls. 

If they have removed the concrete then I don't think it would be calling itself non standard construction - but it's worth finding out what's been done and then speak to a broker to see if it is mortgageable at all. 

GDB2222

It must be incredibly difficult and disruptive to remove the outside walls. You would need to support the roof and floors, to say nothing of needing to renovate inside entirely. It might be cheaper to demolish and replace the house entirely. Would it not be possible just to add an extra skin of brick around the concrete? 

silvercar

Near me, whole streets that were built this way have been sorted and their outside walls rebuilt. The council paid for the work for those still in council ownership, for those privately owned some had the work done by paying the council, others sorted for themselves at a different time. There are still a couple that became private too soon for the council remedy project and haven’t been changed. It may be worth asking the council. You could certainly search building regulations online to see if there is a certificate for the work for the house you are interested in.

stuart45

GDB2222 said:

It must be incredibly difficult and disruptive to remove the outside walls. You would need to support the roof and floors, to say nothing of needing to renovate inside entirely. It might be cheaper to demolish and replace the house entirely. Would it not be possible just to add an extra skin of brick around the concrete? 

Looks like a Cornish type 2 house which does get repaired without total demo.
The type 1 used to be around 30grand 15 years ago, but don't know the current costs. Total rebuild would be much higher. 
They both can be done whilst being occupied.

FreeBear

GDB2222 said:

It must be incredibly difficult and disruptive to remove the outside walls. You would need to support the roof and floors, to say nothing of needing to renovate inside entirely. It might be cheaper to demolish and replace the house entirely. Would it not be possible just to add an extra skin of brick around the concrete? 

Assuming this is a Stonecrete PRC house, it will consist of reinforced corner posts plus ring beams, and concrete panels between. Unfortunately, the concrete cracks, allowing water to penetrate which in turn causes the steel reinforcement to corrode. Putting a skin of brick around the concrete will do little to resolve the structural issues - The steel reinforcement will continue to rust, and much of the damage would now be hidden from view.

Demolition and rebuild could well work out cheaper, but often, these types of properties are semi-detached or terrace. So you'd need all the owners to be on board - Easier to do if the council (or housing association) still own the whole lot.

Removing the walls & beams and inserting new brickwork avoids the need to apply for planning permission. Once repaired and a certificate is issued, the house should be as good as new, but it will still have the PRC stigma attached. On the plus side, it would be cheaper to buy and be better insulated than the original. But it is vitally important to have PRC Certificates showing that the work has been completed - Some properties (mainly in Yorkshire) were repaired under a council scheme and so PRC certificates were not issued.

PRC repair under way from https://www.prc-repair.co.uk

GDB2222

stuart45 said:

GDB2222 said:

It must be incredibly difficult and disruptive to remove the outside walls. You would need to support the roof and floors, to say nothing of needing to renovate inside entirely. It might be cheaper to demolish and replace the house entirely. Would it not be possible just to add an extra skin of brick around the concrete? 

Looks like a Cornish type 2 house which does get repaired without total demo.
The type 1 used to be around 30grand 15 years ago, but don't know the current costs. Total rebuild would be much higher. 
They both can be done whilst being occupied.

This sounds incredible to me. Is there, perhaps, an inner skin that remains in place? Otherwise, looking at Freebear's photo, the place is obviously uninhabitable, I'd have thought? 

Apart from anything else, If you imagine demolishing the kitchen wall, for example, All the kitchen units on that side of the kitchen would have to be demolished. The plumbing and electrics attached to the wall would have to be disconnected ... 

The boiler is attached to an outside wall, so it has to be taken off and carefully stored. A new flue is needed. And then, when the wall is rebuilt,  it all has to be reconnected. Frankly, at that point, you might as well throw in a new boiler. 

stuart45

GDB2222 said:

stuart45 said:

GDB2222 said:

It must be incredibly difficult and disruptive to remove the outside walls. You would need to support the roof and floors, to say nothing of needing to renovate inside entirely. It might be cheaper to demolish and replace the house entirely. Would it not be possible just to add an extra skin of brick around the concrete? 

Looks like a Cornish type 2 house which does get repaired without total demo.
The type 1 used to be around 30grand 15 years ago, but don't know the current costs. Total rebuild would be much higher. 
They both can be done whilst being occupied.

This sounds incredible to me. Is there, perhaps, an inner skin that remains in place? Otherwise, looking at Freebear's photo, the place is obviously uninhabitable, I'd have thought? 

Apart from anything else, If you imagine demolishing the kitchen wall, for example, All the kitchen units on that side of the kitchen would have to be demolished. The plumbing and electrics attached to the wall would have to be disconnected ... 

The boiler is attached to an outside wall, so it has to be taken off and carefully stored. A new flue is needed. And then, when the wall is rebuilt,  it all has to be reconnected. Frankly, at that point, you might as well throw in a new boiler. 

There's no inner skin in place in the Cornish houses. The one in FreeBear's photo look like a Cornish type 1 with the mansard roof. It normally takes around 6 weeks, which much quicker than total demo and a rebuild. I did help a mate of mine with the brickwork on a Cornish house years ago. Firms that specialize in this type of work are geared up with all the trades and knowledge to get the work done quickly.