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Can you attach a Conservatory to an Airey house?
- Thread starter keeperofthefluffybot
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ROFLMBO ! . 
Yes, you could stick a conservatory on; however, it is a little bit involved, as the support structure comprises concrete posts at roughly 1'6" centres, cast around a hollow tube akin to a scaffold pole and used primarily for handling during the casting/curing process. The posts are storey height and are jointed at first floor level, with a simple dowel and bolt connection. The external panels are laid stretcher bond fashion, tied to the posts with copper wire, which bites into a timber batten on the rear face.
If you want to form a new opening, again it can be done, regardless of what the naysayers say. Another issue to consider is that of making the junction between conservatory and house weathertight, but, with some thought, it's possible.
Seeing as Airey House design life was only 15 years, they are doing well to have lasted this long. There were issues with carbonation of the concrete and rusting of the tube at the base, due to the lack of concrete cover, arising from the manufacturing process and limited design life. However, the biggest pressure on demolishing them has come from the size of plots on which they generally sit. In non-industrial areas, they tend to still be fine, providing water ingress has not occurred.
BRE Digest whatever the number is sounded the death-knell for a lot of them, by virtue of its over-the-top classification of damage to the columns.
I like Airey Houses. You can probably tell.
If you want to form a new opening, again it can be done, regardless of what the naysayers say. Another issue to consider is that of making the junction between conservatory and house weathertight, but, with some thought, it's possible.
Seeing as Airey House design life was only 15 years, they are doing well to have lasted this long. There were issues with carbonation of the concrete and rusting of the tube at the base, due to the lack of concrete cover, arising from the manufacturing process and limited design life. However, the biggest pressure on demolishing them has come from the size of plots on which they generally sit. In non-industrial areas, they tend to still be fine, providing water ingress has not occurred.
BRE Digest whatever the number is sounded the death-knell for a lot of them, by virtue of its over-the-top classification of damage to the columns.
I like Airey Houses. You can probably tell.
Thank you so much!
I was begining to think I had made a big mistake asking the question!
You are right about the Airey houses - I am very impressed with the size and design of my parents home.
I will pass this information on to them which should make my Mum a very happy person indeed.
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On the assumption that this is still the original concrete shiplap cladding, some form of self-adhesive flashing would be needed, and that doesn't have a good reputation. Most lean-to conservatories rely on structural stability from the house, and fixing into the Airey cladding is unlikely to provide that, and it's probably not possible to fix into the house structural columns.
Long term, external cladding these homes can be worthwhile,
I too own my airey house & think its fab! i agree with what the nice man said about it being possible to attach a conservatory.
we are considering something similar at the back so it would extend the hall & kitchen. my dads a fabricator engineer & works on constructing big buildings with steel & hes said it would be no problem adding to these using steel beams etc
he said as long as loads are supported properly eg not just a steel beam put accross the top of were you remove a post (as thats not how the posts are meant to be) & theres lots of triangles its fine! hehe! I have copies of the original plans to mine if anyone needs them theres 3 drawings very old but give an idea how they are constructed.
I searched for a good 18 months to get info on airey houses on the net & wasnt hugely succesfull as it was so full of pages saying how rubbish they are! so what information i have i will gladly pass on.
we are considering something similar at the back so it would extend the hall & kitchen. my dads a fabricator engineer & works on constructing big buildings with steel & hes said it would be no problem adding to these using steel beams etc
he said as long as loads are supported properly eg not just a steel beam put accross the top of were you remove a post (as thats not how the posts are meant to be) & theres lots of triangles its fine! hehe! I have copies of the original plans to mine if anyone needs them theres 3 drawings very old but give an idea how they are constructed.
I searched for a good 18 months to get info on airey houses on the net & wasnt hugely succesfull as it was so full of pages saying how rubbish they are! so what information i have i will gladly pass on.
Pinkhubz, I would gladly accept any information you may have an airey houses. We are looking into buying one, and until recently knew very little about them, as you have said everything I have found is negative. structurally the house looks find, there is no cracking inside or out, and no discolouring of the condcrete on the exterior.
I agree about the size of these houses, the one we are looking at is huge inside and the garden is massive. However we are probably going to have to have ours recladded (as a condition of purchasing it) this is something i know little about!
Do all airey houses have internal brick construction then the concrete and steel on the exterior? When removing is it possible to do on side of the house at a time or is it advisable to do the whole house in one go? I haven't been able to obtain a quote yet, but does anyone have a rough idea of how much it would cost to have this work carried out?
I agree about the size of these houses, the one we are looking at is huge inside and the garden is massive. However we are probably going to have to have ours recladded (as a condition of purchasing it) this is something i know little about!
Do all airey houses have internal brick construction then the concrete and steel on the exterior? When removing is it possible to do on side of the house at a time or is it advisable to do the whole house in one go? I haven't been able to obtain a quote yet, but does anyone have a rough idea of how much it would cost to have this work carried out?
Hi!
The basic construction is a frame which has every eg.16 inches a concrete pillar which has steel through the centre. these are all the way around the exterior walls & then through the centre wall (usually the long continuous wall along hall & into the kitchen.
The outside concrete slabs are simply hung in a certain order (top to bottom)
If you had the work done of bricking them up they simply remove the concrete posts or make them redundant by building around them this then makes the house of traditional construction & then means you can sell as a normal house & buyers can get a normal mortgage.
The cost of this work i found was not cost effective. as in your case i have such a big garden, big enough to build another house! so by the time i weighed up the different avenues of bricking it up it made the total cost of the house around 150000 which you aren't really going to get as it is at the end of the day on a council estate.
I payed around 57 thou for mine so as you can see thats quite a lot more just for bricks.
There are many companies out there who will quote you to do the above work & most cases they say you get a bridging loan for the works, you borrow for the inital cost of the house & then some to carry out the works in a set time, this all has to be sorted out with the lender. in my case the lender would pay the council for the house then pay the builder upon completion. it all has to be signed off & in a set time. eg the small print ets.
its worth contacting a few companies if you want to go down this route especially now as work is slow & you may get a good deal. do though read some reviews & testmonials before you decide who will do it & make sure everyone involved knows what they are doing & by when just so your not stressing out!
You can find many online by searching prc as this is the certificate you get when you brick them up.
You can live in the property while it gets done & its not that long to complete.
In my case i opted for a special mortgage to lend on a non traditional construction property, it has a higher interest rate than normal mortgages but when i weighed up it was the best option for me, by the time iv payed for it it will have cost roughly 98 thou so i thought i was much likely to get that back even if its just the land not to mention if i decided to rip it down & build afresh on the big land plot.
so its swings & roundabouts & whats best in your own situation.
At the moment iv made the diner & living room into one & have just started the attic (what a lovely space!) taking the wall down between kitchen & hall & extending kitchen into the hall.
we'r going to strip back around the windows to really see whats the story with these pillars & how best to take a few out so i can have double doors out onto the back & also see the best way to support them with steel beams.
The houses are in fab condition considering there age & it was said in the original findings report that they have lasted well if not better in some cases to a traditional construction.
The report i speak about is the who;le reason these houses got the bad label! back in the 80s there was a fire in one, upon investigation they saw signs of deterioration in the steel in the concrete. that house though was near the sea...
from then on everyone freaked & called them defective.... a way of making money i say!
Iv read many stories & done lots of research & the same work was done by councils eg the pouring of concrete around the bottom of the houses this i think was a big mistake as it only made them less energy efficient but thats a whole different story!
If it would have been financially beneficial i would have bricked mine up but it wasnt so im happy to stick with it as it is for now!
if you want copies of my plans let me know they just give a look at how & what they are made of, excellent considering they were built with seconds materials & back in 1940s!
sorry for such a long reply but im truly happy to help as i researched alone for 2 years to find all i know & its a pleasure to help someone out!
you would have all walls done at the same time, as its a new brick shell your putting around the property.
The basic construction is a frame which has every eg.16 inches a concrete pillar which has steel through the centre. these are all the way around the exterior walls & then through the centre wall (usually the long continuous wall along hall & into the kitchen.
The outside concrete slabs are simply hung in a certain order (top to bottom)
If you had the work done of bricking them up they simply remove the concrete posts or make them redundant by building around them this then makes the house of traditional construction & then means you can sell as a normal house & buyers can get a normal mortgage.
The cost of this work i found was not cost effective. as in your case i have such a big garden, big enough to build another house! so by the time i weighed up the different avenues of bricking it up it made the total cost of the house around 150000 which you aren't really going to get as it is at the end of the day on a council estate.
I payed around 57 thou for mine so as you can see thats quite a lot more just for bricks.
There are many companies out there who will quote you to do the above work & most cases they say you get a bridging loan for the works, you borrow for the inital cost of the house & then some to carry out the works in a set time, this all has to be sorted out with the lender. in my case the lender would pay the council for the house then pay the builder upon completion. it all has to be signed off & in a set time. eg the small print ets.
its worth contacting a few companies if you want to go down this route especially now as work is slow & you may get a good deal. do though read some reviews & testmonials before you decide who will do it & make sure everyone involved knows what they are doing & by when just so your not stressing out!
You can find many online by searching prc as this is the certificate you get when you brick them up.
You can live in the property while it gets done & its not that long to complete.
In my case i opted for a special mortgage to lend on a non traditional construction property, it has a higher interest rate than normal mortgages but when i weighed up it was the best option for me, by the time iv payed for it it will have cost roughly 98 thou so i thought i was much likely to get that back even if its just the land not to mention if i decided to rip it down & build afresh on the big land plot.
so its swings & roundabouts & whats best in your own situation.
At the moment iv made the diner & living room into one & have just started the attic (what a lovely space!) taking the wall down between kitchen & hall & extending kitchen into the hall.
we'r going to strip back around the windows to really see whats the story with these pillars & how best to take a few out so i can have double doors out onto the back & also see the best way to support them with steel beams.
The houses are in fab condition considering there age & it was said in the original findings report that they have lasted well if not better in some cases to a traditional construction.
The report i speak about is the who;le reason these houses got the bad label! back in the 80s there was a fire in one, upon investigation they saw signs of deterioration in the steel in the concrete. that house though was near the sea...
from then on everyone freaked & called them defective.... a way of making money i say!
Iv read many stories & done lots of research & the same work was done by councils eg the pouring of concrete around the bottom of the houses this i think was a big mistake as it only made them less energy efficient but thats a whole different story!
If it would have been financially beneficial i would have bricked mine up but it wasnt so im happy to stick with it as it is for now!
if you want copies of my plans let me know they just give a look at how & what they are made of, excellent considering they were built with seconds materials & back in 1940s!
sorry for such a long reply but im truly happy to help as i researched alone for 2 years to find all i know & its a pleasure to help someone out!
you would have all walls done at the same time, as its a new brick shell your putting around the property.
thank you so much for your reply. It has been very helpful, I have had someone tell me that even when the work is done it is still unmortgagable, which was my one concern. The house in question is in a very small village, the house backs onto fields and there are 8 houses in the village that were of the same construction, they are in 4 lots of 2 x semidetached, the one we are looking at is the only one that hasnt already had to work done to it. The one next door (not the one that it is attached to) recently sold for £193k, the house prices in the village are very high. The house is up for auction at 90K, we are cash buyers so getting a mortgaage on the property isn't an issue and neither is the costs of the work as we have money that can be put towards this. We feel that it would be cost effective, its just the mortgageability we were concerned about (after completion) Also the property would be empty until finished as we are renting at the moment. hanks again, and fingers crossed we manage to win it at the auction!
waw well in your situation id say go for it definetely! do your research online to find as many prc certificate bricking up contractors & haggle for a good deal to get the work done especially as you have the means to pay for it. if its done properly with a certificate to say the concrete parts have been either removed or made redundent you will get a mortgage as when i went for a mortgage that was the paperwork they asked for. check it out with a few main lenders hsbc, abbey (santander) etc but from my research if you get the work done properly with the right paperwork then go for it! it will be mortgageable. all the best & im happy iv helped! xx
I see no reason why you couldn't attach a conservatory to an Airey house. The problem is that few poeple really understand them and how they were put together so you will need to search out somebody that does and is able to come up with solutions. Not all the solutions will be ideal and one or two compromises will be necessary but I'm sure it could be done.
Really good to see some positive dialogue about airey houses. I've got a 3 bedroom airey and have baby number 3 on the way in January.
I'm trying to decide what to do to get an extra room. I wasn't sure if the attic had the potential to convert or if I could build an extension. It's really difficult to research.
I'm trying to decide what to do to get an extra room. I wasn't sure if the attic had the potential to convert or if I could build an extension. It's really difficult to research.
Yes, all the good sized ( Parker Morris Standards) council houses were the first to go
Ideally if there is a semi pair of them , long term the most £ucrative option is to both agree and demolish for new build . When the market settles. With modern technology there should be no problem weathering/flashing from a concrete wall to a cons. roof /wall BUT it won`t look pretty. It will have to be "glued" on Traditionalist that I am , I still embrace modern ways Pinkhubz - I won`t waste bandwidth copying your post Very interesting though . One thing I would debate with you tho`. Seconds materials - I would say not . Shortage of timber in the War , but concrete was a technology of the time and I would say First Class materials / technology AT THE TIME . Obviously problems in time with the steels , but I consider this " only built to last X years" lark to be an Urban Myth from the Council House Dwellers of the time. As to £193k council house - add £80k and you`ll get one in Alfriston East Sussex maybe .But it is brick built
Very interesting though . One thing I would debate with you tho`. Seconds materials - I would say not . Shortage of timber in the War , but concrete was a technology of the time and I would say First Class materials / technology AT THE TIME . Obviously problems in time with the steels , but I consider this " only built to last X years" lark to be an Urban Myth from the Council House Dwellers of the time. As to £193k council house - add £80k and you`ll get one in Alfriston East Sussex maybe .But it is brick builtHi Pinkhubz. Regarding your offer of drawings for Airey house. I'd really appreciate getting copies. Can you help me? Boscobel
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