Finding original house drawings - Wimpey house

Hi,

we've recently bought a new house - it's a 60s Wimpey house just outside Glasgow. Having asked around I've found that the internal configuration varies quite a lot (ours is quite open plan). I'm interested in understanding the structure - does anybody know if these can be obtained from the original housebuilder?

thanks
Keith

I’d be surprised if they could find them for you.
My first step would be to look up your address on your local planning portal and see if there’s any plans submitted over the years for your house - there’s a pretty good chance it’s had something done to it in the last 60 years so you might find some drawings.

Once you’ve got a decent floorplan it’s pretty easy to lift a few floorboards to look at joist spans and go knocking on some walls to get an idea of what’s going on structurally without being too invasive..

Yeah, cannot remember why, but I contacted Barrett Homes a few years back about something - they claimed that everything over 10 years old is destroyed.
Seems an odd company policy, but then, harder for people to prove they did anything wrong!

Have you searched Google image search?
https://www.google.com/search?q=wim...UQQhUIHfhaBgYQ_AUoAXoECBAQAw&biw=1920&bih=937

Or you can pay £30 for this.
The structural condition of Wimpey No-Fines low-rise dwellings (Scanned copy) : BREbookshop.com

Is it a Wimpey no fines, a different system or traditional?

TBH, plans don't help one bit with knowing about the construction.

As it happens I've been researching Glasgow recently and available construction details, building plans etc. Its to do with debunking some utter nonsense from someone in Glasgow claiming the whole area (and the entire globe) was covered in some sort of Victorian era mudflood that filled up all the "original" ground floors thus creating basements that were subsequently excavated by surviving orphans after wiping out most of humanity for a "reset" for the "elites" to take over!
Anyhow Glasgow Archives advertise that most Building Control plans dating back to 1858 are available for viewing.
https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/media/2317/architectural-plans-leaflet.pdf
If your interested there's a lot of drawings, contract docs etc of Charles Rennie Mackintosh available on line through the university.

thanks for the replies. It's not a no-fines house (99% sure! - I'm sure I would have found out when buying the house). Also it's partially clad in brick, and is a detached (which I don't think was a no-fines typology according to Wikipedia). It's not a wide house - around 7m - and I'm interested in whether a single beam spans the walls from side-to-side or whether the wall perpendicular to the house sides is structural. This particular wall would have had a door in it at some point - before the open plan layout was formed.

The link to the Glasgow Archives looks really interesting - I spent many long hours in the Mitchell Library when I was younger - so happy to have an excuse to go there when it opens up again.

The house has been extended at the back with a sun-room (that I'd like to demolish, and replace with a proper extension). Both back rooms have large openings - and again, I'd like to understand what the structure is above these - and whether they're original.

I'll drop an email to building control - I did understand that there was a time limit on how long they'd hold on to plans. I've no idea how much the local authority staff are in the office at the moment, so accessing records might be tricky.

Oh well - something to spend some time on over the next few months - will be interesting.

And as for the mudflood - I'll admit it gets a bit squishy as you get north of Glasgow out where we are on the nearside of the Campsies. I'm always curious as to whether the person making claims about the 'elites' thinks they're in, or out, of that grouping....

duotwr said:

I did understand that there was a time limit on how long they'd hold on to plans. I've no idea how much the local authority staff are in the office at the moment, so accessing records might be tricky.

Click to expand...

There probably is, but all the local authorities I worked for held onto them, I even managed to find the plans for my local pub from 1860. Glasgow do make a point of stating they have most of them, though not on line, so its a trip down to the archives.

duotwr said:

And as for the mudflood - I'll admit it gets a bit squishy as you get north of Glasgow out where we are on the nearside of the Campsies. I'm always curious as to whether the person making claims about the 'elites' thinks they're in, or out, of that grouping....

Click to expand...

There are actually people all over the world wandering round cities filming basements for you tube and proclaiming "no architect would do that" therefore it was mudflooded, then it gets increasingly bizarre, free energy buildings, melted buildings, everything was part of the Tartarian empire, giants, giant trees, really weird ideas about red bricks which I've not managed tow work out. A local lady to me filmed one building and claimed it was an ancient Tartarian empire mudflood building, only problem I watched it being built 6 years ago!!!!

The original plans were found in a Cornflakes box.