New Home (a bit OT)

[John]

A programme on TV a few nights ago made me realise how a builder can get a bad reputation for doing some poor final fix jobs. The whole house can be damned because of poor fittings.

It made me wonder if they use the right people / skills to do the final fix (and buying) of items like shower screens and kitchen appliances.

Regarding the actual shell - it ain't rocket science - yet some manage to mess it up. I had to have some outer wall rebuilt as they had put scaffold poles into it before the mortar was set. This had caused bowing.

Factories seem to go up with less problems than houses. Is this because they are designed with the build process in mind and have better project planning?

There seems to be a reliance on inspection rather than building in quality. Inspection is like a wicket keeper.

I found this site and hope it may help people having problems or about to buy a new house.

I thought my house was going to be good quality because it had nice brass door handles!

[Mary Fisher]

So do some coffins.

Sorry, caskets.

Body boxes.

Mary

[Andy Hall]

On Thu, 1 Jun 2006 21:20:13 +0100, Mary Fisher wrote (in article ):

Cardboard box in the woods. That's the way forward.

[Mary Fisher]

Or down.

I'm going to be wrapped in a winding cloth and supported by a reclaimed floorboard. It's all arranged. Loaded by the family into the back of the estate or a van and put in a hole in Wales. They don't make cardboard boxes in my size.

Whatever happens no bl**dy undertakers will be involved.

The money saved will go towards a long party with lots of champagne. Music played by the family, it will be a happy time. No tears by request.

Mary

[EricP]

Nah!

Cardboard box, bake n shake.

[Owain]

I think they have them in Argos - called "home mover cardboard wardrobes"

Owain

[Phil L]

Sounds fab, can I come?

:-p

[Owain]

They use the same people as they use for the rest of the house, except on the very posh ones. And on the posh ones you are at the mercy of designer kitchen fitters.

Oh, they did use mortar? Builders on one scheme I know of went bankrupt three times during the build and couldn't afford to buy cement. Walls were blocks laid on sand and rendered over. Same houses were also a bit short of floor joists - "oh! the washing machine has sunk into the crawl space" syndrome - and electric sockets (2 sockets between 3 bedrooms).

Factories are usually based around structural steelwork, which to a large extent is pre-fabricated, with standardised cladding or curtain walling. There is also a lot less detail to the internal finishes and things are usually chosen for price vs. fitness for purpose, rather than what an interior designer has picked out from the Argos catalogue as inoffensive to the greatest number of potential buyers.

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

Oy! You can go right off some folk ...

;-)

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

EVERYBODY can come!

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

NO! Global warming.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, but why can't houses be built like that?

Mary

[Owain]

Be honest Mary, even your petite and delicately feminine frame won't fit into an A4 Archive Box.

Not unless Spouse is going to feed you through the multi-fuel stove first.

Owain

[Owain]

They can be, but generally houses are smaller than factories so structural steelwork isn't needed or cost-effective. Pre-fab or modular housing is certainly possible though - Yorkon have done some interesting projects.

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

You're right.

His favourite toy is a shredder ... :-(

Compost! That's the way to go :-)

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Not cost-effective? That surprises me - bricklaying take a lot more work.

I loved pre-fabs in the war and always wanted to live in one. Compared with our back to back two bedroomed scullery house they were palatial and luxurious! Why, they had lavatories and hot water, even fridges (what's a fridge, Mum?) and didn't have to go down the road to have a bath.

Whole estates of pre-fabricated proper houses were built in Leeds (and no doubt elsewhere) later. They gained a bad reputation and were demolished - to be replaced by pretty rabbit hutches. I suspect that the tenants might have been partly to blame.

When I think about it, pre-fabricated houses were built in the middle ages. Timber frames were built off-site, taken apart and re-erected in the selected place, that's why you can see marks on ancient timbers, they were used to match the members.

Last weekend we were with a family who live in a permanent yurt, two other families were living in temporary yurts, built on the spot.

Makes our inter-war 3 bed semi feel very boring.

Mary

[ARWadsworth]

Could you set a date so I can organise my diary ;-)

Adam

[Mary Fisher]

When I know a date I promise to post it.

Mary

[Derek ^]

They would be cold/noisy/clanky/echoing

I wonder also if scaling down the steel frame structure in proportion wouldn't result in a frame that was strong enough to stay up but which deflected a lot under the normal loads / wind loadings etc. making it springy. Some of the smaller prefab setups built up like that I come across at work at work are like that

In the '50s / 60s some councils got together to create pre-fabricated system built houses made of pre-cast concrete that turned out to be a disaster.

That damaged the reputation of the whole Genre.

Some of the subsequent private attempts also turned out to be disasterous.

Whatever, at the moment, Building Societies shy away from non - traditional methods of construction.

Others were in fact more successful such as aluminium mobile homes. But they having a limited life, don't appreciate like traditionally constructed houses. I inherited a share in one in Florida and it turned out to have a negative value, (we had to pay to have the site cleared).

However my uncle who bought it 35 years ago had enjoyed a very low cost of ownership over that period. Good on him.

DG

[Mary Fisher]

er - why?

And some weren't.

And some weren't.

Mary