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.[/any chance of the floor plans you mention my email is
[email protected]]
