Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 6:43 am  

Are these Huf jobs expensive? They certainly look it.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:11 am  

Rock God X wrote: Are these Huf jobs expensive? They certainly look it. Oh yes, £1m+ (plus land) ain't out of the ordinary. On the flip side, we also have Earth Pods

Rock God X wrote: Are these Huf jobs expensive? They certainly look it. Oh yes, £1m+ (plus land) ain't out of the ordinary. On the flip side, we also have Earth Pods

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:23 am  

cod'ead wrote:

So a company that could rip the arse out of the vast majority of UK building companies can't get "registered" for warranty purposes?

Sounds sadly about right

Where did you see 'can't' in my post, I said 'aren't'. They probably could if they wished. To get a mortgage in this country a warranty is needed from a UK based insurance provider such as NHBC, Premier or similar and most provide a 'self build' warranty, which is actually a bit misleading as anyone 'self building' has to have professional input, either as some form of project management or a full build package. Either way, an inspection regime to satisfy the warranty & building control is necessary no matter how 'genius' the builder is.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:25 am  

cod'ead wrote: Oh yes, £1m+ (plus land) ain't out of the ordinary. On the flip side, we also have Earth Pods Modern take on the stuff archaeologists are digging up and wetting themselves over currently.

cod'ead wrote: Oh yes, £1m+ (plus land) ain't out of the ordinary. On the flip side, we also have Earth Pods Modern take on the stuff archaeologists are digging up and wetting themselves over currently.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:34 am  

rover49 wrote:

Modern take on the stuff archaeologists are digging up and wetting themselves over currently.

Straw bale and cobb houses have been built in these parts for centuries and are still being built today.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:38 am  

rover49 wrote:

Where did you see 'can't' in my post, I said 'aren't'. They probably could if they wished. To get a mortgage in this country a warranty is needed from a UK based insurance provider such as NHBC, Premier or similar and most provide a 'self build' warranty, which is actually a bit misleading as anyone 'self building' has to have professional input, either as some form of project management or a full build package. Either way, an inspection regime to satisfy the warranty & building control is necessary no matter how 'genius' the builder is.

Sorry, I suppose the individual nature of a Huf Haus makes it not worth the company's while in obtaining necessary warranties. Whereas the Barratts, David Wilsons et al find it easier with their one-size fits all builds?

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 8:01 am  

cod'ead wrote:

Sorry, I suppose the individual nature of a Huf Haus makes it not worth the company's while in obtaining necessary warranties. Whereas the Barratts, David Wilsons et al find it easier with their one-size fits all builds?

The big boys go for what is known as 'type approval' which requires them only to meet local planning for such as exterior brick/stone and roof materials to suit the local vernacular, the internal layouts, structural calculations for roofs etc are all done for the repetitive production. The only thing they cannot do en mass is foundation designs, which are determined locally.

If anyone want individuality, they need to look at local builders, some of whom are vastly superior to the big nationals in quality and usually give more square footage for a similar price.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:28 pm  

A lot of the clearance schemes are where the high rise blocks are stricturally unsound and the local demand is for low rise, a bigger concern is organisations making a decision to only build 2 bed+ properties and the impact of the Underoccupancy legislation.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:40 pm  

Standee wrote:

A lot of the clearance schemes are where the high rise blocks are stricturally unsound and the local demand is for low rise, a bigger concern is organisations making a decision to only build 2 bed+ properties and the impact of the Underoccupancy legislation.

That reminds me of a project I worked on in the late 70's in a high rise block in Hebburn, someone at the council had decided that it would be a very good idea to convert dozens of one and two bed flats into three and four bed "maisonette's" (nice 1970s word) by simply shuffling around some internal walls and then cutting through each floor slab to put some internal stairs in, a single floor flat would become a two storey house inside a block of flats, twelve storeys would give you six layers of maisonettes, one on top of the other, bobs your uncle.

It coincided with a period of very high winds that winter and this particular block of flats would actually move in the wind, if you stood on the top floor and watched the horizon carefully you could actually see it moving - then some of the labourers who were drilling and cutting through the concrete floors started to question the logic behind cutting several big holes in every second floor when it was well known that the floors were part of the structural integrity of the 1950s poured concrete tower blocks, when the building was already shaking with pneumatic hammers, dust and noise levels at levels that wouldn't be tolerated today, and then the wind started to blow hard, you felt a bit vulnerable working on the top floor.

Fantastic views of the Tyne though.

Re: Destruction of housing stock : Fri Apr 26, 2013 7:58 am  

JerryChicken wrote:

That reminds me of a project I worked on in the late 70's in a high rise block in Hebburn, someone at the council had decided that it would be a very good idea to convert dozens of one and two bed flats into three and four bed "maisonette's" (nice 1970s word) by simply shuffling around some internal walls and then cutting through each floor slab to put some internal stairs in, a single floor flat would become a two storey house inside a block of flats, twelve storeys would give you six layers of maisonettes, one on top of the other, bobs your uncle.

It coincided with a period of very high winds that winter and this particular block of flats would actually move in the wind, if you stood on the top floor and watched the horizon carefully you could actually see it moving - then some of the labourers who were drilling and cutting through the concrete floors started to question the logic behind cutting several big holes in every second floor when it was well known that the floors were part of the structural integrity of the 1950s poured concrete tower blocks, when the building was already shaking with pneumatic hammers, dust and noise levels at levels that wouldn't be tolerated today, and then the wind started to blow hard, you felt a bit vulnerable working on the top floor.

Fantastic views of the Tyne though.

Some of the internal walls were likely to be acting as diaphragm walls as well. If the council there is anything like North Lincs the designers had probably just been moved from street cleaning to avoid laying them off.