Steel House Construction?

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Look in the loft at the steel work and roof. Look at the wall thickness.

The council's housing department will have the records of its construction. They do keep them, but you need to ask the housing department not anyone else.
 
Steel!

Unless you know what to look for in terms of the design, then you won't know what form of construction it is. It's not easy to say "look for this .... out look for that"

Many (all?) steel framed houses are unmortgagable.
 
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Many (all?) .
I'm pretty sure BISF are OK with some companies.

Oh yes. I know them as "prefabs" (although there are many other types of prefabs).

There must be hundreds near to me, and some have been brick clad, and others just given a coat of sandtex, but they are still going strong and still being mortgaged.
 
Funny you should bring this up I always wondered how you could tell but when u get up in the loft u will find out it is fairly obvious (or the one I went in was)
 
Hi,

I have a steel framed house too and happy. There are many different types too. The idea of steel frames (and variants) was a post war thing and where pre-fab comes from. They were quick to put up as we were short on skill labour. Unfortunately the slabs of concrete type with re-enforcement will be an issue as the steel corroded within the concrete.

There are however some that were “Grand designs” of the time. TruSteel is one and is a steel frame much like commercial building is today. My house is a TrueSteel Mark II. Sadly there was so much rubbish reported and then re-reported that I nearly didn’t go for it. It is true that if you use the internet then only bad news travels and you have to dig deeper.

Worst case is that any sanctions will need repairing at the bottom .. and it is not tens of thousands (had to have a couple repaired due to soil level above DPC but the travel time cost more than the repair .. less than £150. You need a surveyor that knows steel buildings .. I can give you a name too.

As mentioned earlier, get into the loft. If the usual A frame is steel .. take a photo. I’ll only know if it’s a TruSteel MK11. I have technical drawings of the frame too.

They will attract a lesser price etc .. but I live in a very quiet village location with only seven houses in the close and open fields behind me and no noise .. I was looking at how I could buy it rather than how not to .

Hope it works out.
 
That's definitely not a BISF house, even one that's been been reclad in brick as it's the wrong shape, has a hipped roof rather than a simple pitched one, roof pitch too steep, not enough eaves overhang, windows wrong size and position etc.

But I would say the loft is the only place the steel structure (if any) is likely to be visible, though it's possible a steel framed house could have a traditional timber roof. I know my BISF house has only steel for the roof structure, no timber at all. Another clue could be the internal walls. A traditional house will have at least some of the internal walls made out of masonry and load bearing. A steel framed house will probably have a relatively small number of steel stanchions (pillars) in the internal walls because of the greater strength of steel so all the internal walls will probably appear to be dry walls. For example a BISF house only has two stanchions in the downstairs internal walls and none at all upstairs (the roof being entirely supported on the external walls via steel beams and roof trusses). The walls are otherwise plasterboard on timber studs with those two steels hidden inside.

If you can lift a floorboard or two upstairs you may find steel floor beams there too.

Ed
 
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Well Woody, seems that one is in needs of some paint .. and doors .. and windows .. and a wall needs more than a bit of TLC

I thought it was Trusteel too, I'd counted the bricks between window and door for the sanction spacing. Looks like a TruSteel MK2 too (?) with steel in the Gable ends. For mine, the gables are standard block and brick cavity with sanction only on front and rear elevation. If it’s looked after it will be just fine (get good value on screap steel, the land is worth more anyway – large plot) .. I'm happy in a lightning storm too :D
 

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