I'm looking for an official statistic for the percentage of Victorian houses in England or the UK - statistics gov uk isn't getting me there though. Does anyone know of one?
Stats on cavity walls in such houses would be even nicer :)
thank you
NT
IME best starting point for such things is the UK Stats publication site
Of those the best bet looks to be
"1.22 Looking in detail at the stock in 2011, 95% of it was traditionally built using masonry or timber as the main structural component (Table 1.1). Some 64% of all homes were built with traditional cavity walls, where all of the external walls are loadbearing. These external walls consist of two leaves of brickwork or blockwork with a cavity in between that is typically around 70mm wide; the width varies by dwelling age and location. The two leaves are held together by wall ties and the cavity may contain insulation - either built in or added later "
You need to read more though to get context etc
HTH
I should be surprised if there are any Victorian houses built with cavity walls - mine is 1897 and there is not a cavity anywhere. The main walls are brick, faced in stone. I'm in Scotland.
our last house (part of) was Edwardian (1908) with cavity walls; present house GeorgeVian (1911) with solid walls and render. Rain has been penetrating for the first time in the 35 years we've been here.
I'm told there are - but I've never come across one. In Scotland it's more common to have lath and plaster internal walls even on outside ones - which will provide a degree of insulation over ones plastered directly on brick?
However, the vast majority of Victorian houses have solid walls.
IIRC from when we were being lobbied for incentives for insulation we were told there were plenty of cavity walls being built outside London at the end of the Victorian period but that amounted to only a tiny proportion of the stock; and that many of those few cavity walls weren't suitable for added insultation in any event.
In the form we recognise them today, they start around 1880 IIRC, in wind-swept coastal areas.
However, even before that you have 9" wall construction which is modified to prevent moisture penetration, as an early form of cavity. This was initially done by the use of snapped headers in the flemish bond used to make conventional 9" brick walls, so that only about 1/4 of the headers (in the header-stretcher-header-stretcher pattern) actually tie the two sides of the wall, the rest being snapped in half to reduce cold bridging. This gets you a 1/2" rough cavity.
An alternative is a slight variation on flemish bond with fewer headers, called flemish garden wall bond, where you'll see the pattern header-stretcher-stretcher-stretcher-header-stretcher-stretcher-stretcher... if you look at the wall face. This also gets you a 1/2" cavity, although not as much attention was paid to keeping the cavity clear as is done noadays.
The one remaining wall from the ~1900 house that ours is a "conversion" of (*) is rat-trap bond, so there must be a cavity.
(* The conversion apparently consisting of driving a bulldozer through it and building a new house on the site.)
A 2008 government housing survey showed that 21.4% of the housing stock was built before 1919. It didn't break it down any further than that.
Very rare. There are cavity walls known from the early Victorian era and most construction manuals from the 1880s onwards include them. However, until the 1920s, cavity wall construction was primarily seen as a way to provide better weather protection in very exposed locations.
Colin Bignell
In my Victorian terrace built 1892 I was surprised to find the party walls had a cavity. The block of four is 18" stone front and side walls, brick cavity party walls between the houses and between number 2 and 3 and the gennel, timber lath+plaster internal walls staircase wall), and brick cavity offset kitchen.
jgh
I've come across Vic cavity walls, meaning much more than 1/2" cavity, inde ed the wall types have existed since long before Victorian times. Some were done as a damp preventing measure, some are simply an inherent part of the type of wall construction. What I don't know is the figures, and I'm getti ng the impression such stats might not exist.
NT
Yes, in my old BCO patch (New Malden, SW London) spec builders (Wates was the largest by far) only switched to cavity walls c.1937. A colleague who joined us from Portsmouth where driving rain would have been much more prevalent was quite shocked by this - IIRC he said that there cavity walls were the norm from the late Victorian period. Most of the interwar spec- built houses were rendered or pebble-dashed so water penetration through solid brickwork was less of an issue.
I suspect it is not something many people would need to know :-)
From a practical point of view, without a detailed survey of every house, how would you know? A stretcher bond (1/2 brick) wall probably is the outer leaf of a cavity wall, but some Victorian cavity walls had one brick thick outer leaves, which would be indistinguishable externally from a solid wall.
Colin Bignell
unless you are getting cavity wall insulation.
and if the wall was rendered (harled), who would know?
Having misread your question (for which grovelling apologies) I asked a former colleague. He couldn't find anyone in DCLG who admitted to knowing anything. Only suggestion was that you approach BRE direct to see if they can at least tell you if they have an estimate for the pre-1919 population - if that'd be of any help.
indeed the wall types have existed since long before Victorian times. Some were done as a damp preventing measure, some are simply an inherent part of the type of wall construction. What I don't know is the figures, and I'm g etting the impression such stats might not exist.
Survey a small number...
Yes, one never knows if headers are snapped or not, if stretcher bond is 4" or untied 9", etc. Some walls types are easily spotted like rattrap bond, but usually the only way is to drill, look into a vent, or otherwise get ac cess to the possible cavity.
CWI companies dont seem to bother finding out. There's political will to CW I the nation, but seldom enough political will to get the facts right. So I expect no-one knows.
The last Vic house I checked out had no less than 7 external wall types, an d this sort of mix & match was common, so its not quite as simple as it mig ht sound. The cost/trouble of doing so paid off, part of it I CWIed.
NT
As a rough guide stuff built as late as 1906 round here in North Yorks is solid brick construction. My house is older and the guys installing a vent for our new stove blunted their corer drilling a hole through the three bricks thick outer wall. Round flints in the clay didn't help.
Interesting secondary question at what point did damp courses become a part of standard building practice for new build?
Even if I had the British Standards on statistical sampling to hand, it doesn't interest me enough to do the calculations, but I suspect that, given that there are regional variations, it would need to be quite a large number over many areas.
I'm not surprised. I would expect that, if it was to improve weather resistance in an exposed location, only one or two wall might be built with cavities.
Colin Bignell
Much earlier than cavity walls, but I don't have a date. Often a line of slates at the time, which works OK.
However, not always used everywhere it would be nowadays. Areas often omitted were the support for a chimney/hearth, as the heat from the fire kept it dry (until the fire was no longer used in the 1950's, and then the joists hooked into it go rotten). Also, sleeper walls often had no damp course, relying on their honeycomb construction and sub- floor ventilation to keep them dry.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.