Buying a 1970's house

[chriselevate]

I'm pretty clued up building related matters but mainly from my experience and help on here if my 1936 built, solid construction house that I've now sold! Some of you you who know me and so of the issues I've had will say... thank goodness for that! The property is now lovely but it's been a pain over the last 8 years!! The main issue has been not having a cavity constructed house and fighting the damp.

So... now I've sworn never to buy a house without a cavity again I'm looking at buying a 1970's house near Nottingham that a builder and wife have lived in for 10 years. I wanted some advice on the best things to do to make sure the house is in good working order and it's a good investment.

Firstly... surveys. What would you do? Some people say to get the most basic survey done and then have separate specialist look at other areas. Your thoughts? I was thinking of having... an electrician do a periodic test. A gas safe look at the pipe work. And a structural engineer do the rest. The reason I say this is because it's had three extensions (looks really nice and looks really well done) but I'd rather pay someone to qualify that. What do you think and what sort of prices would all this come to?

A bit about the property...
The owners (a builder) has done two of the extensions as on of the original ones was there already. The local council building control certified 2 of the 3 projects and an independent did the 3rd. I'm not sure which was which though so should I ask (now I've seen the property)?
They have fitted white PVC A rated windows throughout.
They have gone with aluminium bi fold doors on the back in the kitchen and lounge. The vendor said the kitchen ones cost £7k alone and they were much better than plastic ones.
The consumer units and boiler look modern.
They have fitted expensive German integrate appliances throughout.
Annoyingly that have built in (but probably easy to rip out) a set of cupboards in bedroom four making it too small to fit a single bed. I told the agent that due to this, it's technically not a 4 bedroom house as it has a window but can't fit a single bed.
The wallpaper in quite a few places is peeling. To be honest... I like fresh, clean emulsioned walls so wonder if the wall paper on a 70's house will come off easily or will it need a fresh skim after?
This doesn't interest me but throughout the house they have added speakers (in ceilings) tv in the bath and other gadgets such as electric garage door and electric front gates.
They have has central heating and additional underfloor heating in all tiled rooms.

What do you guys think? Help and advice would be really helpful.
Thanks.

 

[footprints]

As I think you realise because he is a builder doesn't mean it's been done well, I was a gasfitter and only realised when I came to sell I hadn't serviced the boiler for years

Lots of added on bits can mean trouble with movement, odd roofing/gutters lay out and the dreaded flat roof.

The 1970's were not the pinnacle of building excellence in the UK a bit flimsy sort of sums it up in my opinion.

Cavity walls have their own problems the ties can rot away but that tends to be mostly early 1930-50 where the ties were not treated against rust well, 1970's should be ok.

They seemed to cut everything to the minium where as victorian houses often were slightly over engineered to be on the safe side, by 1970 the bean counters had their pocket calculators out and things like roof timber loft floors and even bedroom floors had the minium sizes of timber they thought they could get away with. With chipboard floors that creak and bedroom floors that bounce not being uncommon.

There is also the A word to consider, asbestos was very common in textured ceilings, thermoplastic (Marley) tiles on solid floors, often boiler compartments and the soffit boards contained it. Not a major reason to reject a house, just something to be aware of if you want to start doing bits yourself.

 

[chriselevate]

Thanks footprints... appreciate your comments.

Does anyone else have thoughts on this?
Especially regarding what sorts of surveys to have carried out?
Thanks for your help.

 

[dishman]

On the same/similar train of thought....

What was the best era of house construction? Or rather what period was the best quality housing stock built in this country?

It seems that 60s/70s where quite experimental with varying results in quality. The majority of this experimentation seems to have resulted in poor housing stock.

1980s and 1990s and even more modern properties all seem to be so small and built to the minimum standards possible to save on costs.

Victorian era and before, although can be nice and large are showing their age in terms of energy efficiency and construction (solid walls).

So maybe 1930s to 1950s? Cavity walls, large enough to live comfortably. Modern enough to cope with contemporary living habits.

With all the property and design shows of the last 10 years, it still seems that a lot of the new housing developments are just as basic and as small (if not smaller) that they were 10 years ago.

Is that the best this country can do? The best properties we have ever built on mass are from 80 years ago!

 

[tony1851]

TV in the bathroom and speakers in the ceilings ring alarm bells for me. Ditto for the German appliances.
It's the basic structure of the house you need to consider, not the added tat.
1970's- build? Fair-to-middleing construction - pics would help here.
Just because the extensions have certificates, it doesn't mean they're OK.
As for surveys, don't bother paying for a homebuyer's report - they basically just charge you for telling you to get reports from engineers, electricians, gas safe etc., which you can organize yourself.

 

[chriselevate]

Totally agree with the gimmicks!

I think the fat they have used top quality appliances is a small indication the like nice things. I also think that the Aluminium (rather than white UPVC) bi-fold doors shows quality and they have also used A rated windows throughout.

You're dead right that the main concern is the build quality and structure of the house and extensions.

I totally agree anything other than a basic valuation/survey is a waste of money as they will only demand an electrician, structural engineer, gas safe inspection etc.

If I message you the property details, would you mind seeing if you can spot anything that jumps out please? I don't really want to post the rightmove/zoopla details on here.

Thanks