Hi, I'm hoping that someone here can help? I'm thinking of buying a house that I've been told is constructed with a steel frame (I think they said it was a Hawksley type!). Various people have tried to put me off, including my current mortgage lender, because they say there are problems with the design. I'd appreciate any other points of view on it. I believe it was built sometime in the Seventies!
TIA
Walk away.
These houses were built as cheaply as possible, there's an estate of them around here - most of them have a corrugated steel roof. Someone I know purchased one (very cheap) mainly for the massive rear garden....the 'walls' are chicken wire mesh, rendered and pebbledashed (outside) and the same inside but skimmed....this is only downstairs - upstairs is the same as the roof - corrugated steel. Their only advantage is the price, they're as cheap as chips, other than that, they're horrid. If pricewise it's the only thing you can afford, then go for it, but bear in mind that they don't go up in value very much due to their construction
OTOH calculate what a decent house at £60 a sq foot construction would be worth on the same site.
Then sweet talk the bank manager into a loan, knock the steel down and rebuild. You MIGHT make a profit.
There's an estate of them near here, owners can't sell because no one will lend on them. Problem as I understand it is there is no cheap or easy method to reliably test the condition of the steel framing so the lender can't tell the condition of the property.
Peter
Price of scrap steel is high at the moment - knock it down and start over building a proper house
AWEM
And steel doesn't perform well in a fire...
Owain
I'd imagine its a semi tho.
Marginally better than softwood though.
We had a problem where the people buying our house were trying to sell a steel framed house. Their purchaser's mortgage lender (C&G) had just been taken over by Lloyds who had parachuted in their own surveyors and mortgage advisors who kicked up a fuss. Once they found a surveyor and advisor with local knowledge and experience who understood the issues and knew what they were talking about, the transaction went through very quickly.
MBQ
Sounds good, though might not give good yeilds if sitting in a sea of other steel frame houses. Here most are semis so that solution is not so easy. Some people have had cladding added in an attempt to 'disguise' that its steel framed. Doesn't really wash if the adjoined neighbour doesn't do it though.
Peter
I was thinking for insurance purposes ...
Owain
Still better than softwood.
If its been built to regs. Steel needs fireproofing thats all.
Not possible I'm afraid, these types of houses were built as cheaply as posible and are usually in pairs or blocks of four or six...therefore the steelwork frame is 'shared'.
The OP doesn't stipulate whether it's a semi or a mid terraced, but I'm prepared to wager the larger of my gonads on it being a semi. :-p
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