60s concrete built ex council house. Any experiences?

[Ace-T]

Hello fellow PH people. I wonder if I may seek your opinions.

My brother viewed a house today. It is a nice 2 bed semi with a garage, pretty perfect for his current needs. The only concern is that it is apparently made of concrete with render, common in the 60s. It is in the middle of an estate full of these types of houses, many of which I have seen come and go on Rightmove.

Neither of us has any experience of this construction so no idea if a mortgage is sensible/available. It must be doable as the couple who own it have a mortgage and pay about 90 quid a year buildings insurance.

Any thoughts, advice, experiences?

[spanner10]

If this is a 'Wimpy No Fines' or 'Laing Easiform' house then although non standard construction, mortgages and building insurance are not a major problem. If first time buyer bigger deposit may be needed and not all lenders will accept. These are poured in situ construction and remain in generally good condition . Bit cold in winter and you need decent masonry bits to attach anything to a wall. Lots of asbestos in built in cupboards, soffits etc unless removed.

The ex local authority pre cast houses covered by 'the Detective Housing Act 1986' are not mortgagable and insurance is a problem.

Lots of info here

https://nonstandardhouse.com/defective-housing-act...

[spanner10]

For some local authority areas there is a downloadable spreadsheet with the address and type of every house here:-

https://nonstandardhouse.com/local-authority-non-t...

Page through to city name- not all are there. Plenty more info on google

[Ace-T]

Thank you very much for the quick and informative reply. Will pass the info on.

[fourstardan]

Surely you do a survey and find this stuff out?

[shouldbworking]

Concrete over steel houses in my area are pretty much impossible to find a mortgage for. Can't tell the condition of the structural steel because it's encased in concrete = can't tell the condition of the house = not going to lend on it.

[Ace-T]

fourstardan said:

Surely you do a survey and find this stuff out?

Not even at this stage yet.

[spanner10]

Easier to find what you are dealing with before spending money on searches. surveys. mortgage fees i m o.

In the ( unlikely ) event its an Airey ,BISF , Reema type you want to bale out quick . See photos


https://nonstandardhouse.com/bisf-house-stanchion-...

[spanner10]

shouldbworking said:

Concrete over steel houses in my area are pretty much impossible to find a mortgage for. Can't tell the condition of the structural steel because it's encased in concrete = can't tell the condition of the house = not going to lend on it.

See link above for the problem that steel framed houses may have. These are not the same as Laing Easiform/Wimpy No Fines ( they do not have structural steel frame) , but do have steel reinforcing in the concrete. Some show evidence of blowing the concrete where the re bar was near the surface/corroded/concrete had cracked- caution needed

[blueg33]

I know of at least one estate of Wimpey No Fines that’s giving it’s council owners some major headaches. We are in discussion to demolish and replace all.

[bsc8180]

To provide some balance, my parents have lived in a no fines house since it was built in 1978 in a new town and took advantage of right to buy. Apart from it being hard to drill the walls for fixings and a bit chilly, there were no issues with construction or mortgage. Indeed there is a good market for those houses in that area. The homes that are still owned by the council are currently having new roofs and external wall insulation added, which would not be getting done if there were issues. In another part of the town there were houses of a different type of concrete construction, they have been demolished.

[ClaphamGT3]

Good advice here from Spanner10 and a helpful balance of experiences from others.

Be aware of a potentially restricted mortgagability and, if your intention is to extend or undertake structural works, that this may be more complex than on a traditionally built property

[motco]

My daughter lives in a Wimpey No-Fines house and has had EWI installed. The comment from Spanner about difficulty in drilling is all too true! I used a 110mm diameter diamond core drill to install an extractor in the kitchen and it took all afternoon to get it drilled. Putting up picture kitchen cabinets, hooks etc., is also a nightmare. Now the EWI is in place there's no prospect of mounting anything such as a security light on the wall. The EWI is fragile and quite thick, and drilling into the concrete substrate through a couple of inches of friable insulation when that substrate is an inverse Aero chocolate bar where the holes are hard pebbles, and the chocolate is hard cement thinly bonding the pebbles together is very difficult. An ordinary masonry drill wanders off like a drunken tramp looking for a bottle, and once there's a hole no wall plug will fit it.

[Biggy Stardust]

spanner10 said:

'the Detective Housing Act 1986'

Worthy of investigation?

[Rockape]

We just sold our ex council no fines house.

Didn't have any issue getting a mortgage. Didnt have any issues with the construction. It was a cold house however we had external wall insulation fitted which smarted the place up I was concerned what this would be like but it was actually done very well) and this made a massive difference to the warmth of the house.

[mike9009]

We owned one of these in Leeds back in 1997. No problems getting a mortgage but by the time we sold in 2000 we had two buyers who couldn't get a mortgage on it.

Ours seemed robust but pretty cold with metal single glazed windows at the time. The rooms were quite large for what it cost. The walls between adjoining properties did not offer much sound insulation - I felt quite sorry for our neighbour and the parties we had . We did warn her in advance..... We made a 50% gain in the three years and thought I was a millionaire until I had to buy another place!!

This was our type- a Livett-Cartright.

https://nonstandardhouse.com/livett-cartwright-ste...

Another edit. Our house was in Cookridge and the estate as a whole was decent. Never had any issues or noticed any problems. Usually when you drive round you can get a feel for what the neighbourhood is like. Ours had well kept gardens and residents seemed house proud too.

Edited by mike9009 on Thursday 1st April 20:49

[austinsmirk]

My thoughts

Don’t buy a council house. It’s on an estate. Estates are full of all sorts of nutters. You might have a good neighbour today: what about the next person that moves in ?

Ditto as everyone else has said: they tend to be solid. Too solid. Has it been brought to decent homes standards and over clad, insulated etc ?

Extending will be an issue unless you use an existing opening: you’re not widening a wall up with ease.

You can get concrete spalling where the metal rusts and blows the concrete off

They can be very heavily clad in asbestos: literally everywhere, I mean ceilings, ducting, wall panels plus all the outside like soffits etc. This means you can do nothing inside them with serious expense.

[Ace-T]

Thank you all for the input. He has decided on balance to pass on this one.

One further question if you don't mind. Who is the recommended PH mortgage guru. I can't remember his name

[mike9009]

Ace-T said:

Thank you all for the input. He has decided on balance to pass on this one.

One further question if you don't mind. Who is the recommended PH mortgage guru. I can't remember his name

Sarnie

[Ace-T]

Thank you