"Mike Mitchell" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 7 Aug 2003 17:18:30 +0100, "IMM" wrote:
The oldest timber framed home in the UK dates from the 11th century.
100,000s are still standing and they amount to millions of old and modern
buildings. Timber frame is brill! Most of modern homes are timber
anyhow.
The roof, floors, doors, stairs, etc. take it awy and there is only a
brick
and block shell left.
But you can't compare those ancient timber-framed buildings with the
modern cheapo variety! Sure, if it's a Swedish, Canadian, or
self-build home, where you can choose a design with really solid
beams, that's a different kettle of fish altogether. Without naming
names (but I sense the first letter was quite like a W or something
similar) those timber-framed houses there was so much fuss about in
the 1980s were in my opinion jerry-built rubbish.
The early 1980s world in action programme killed them off, but they are
coming back big time. World in Action took some poorly built house and
passed them off as the norm. They omitted the poorly built brick and block
houses which suffer from all sorts of ills, like concrete and brick cancer.
The only difference between a brick and block house and timber fame one is
that the inner frame, that holds up the house is timber (which creates a
void which is filled with insulation) rather than block work. Otherwise the
house are the same.
As to the point about most modern homes
consisting of timber, well, no. Increasingly,
it's MDF. I noted in one brochure that the skirting
is all MDF. Now this may well be sound enough,
but it's not "timber".
It's a derivative of timber, that is for sure.
Also, look at the roof trusses in an older
property and compare them
with those in a new house. In the latter the
timbers used are spindly in comparison.
The uprights need not be too thick to hold up a house. With a timber framed
house the rooms are exact in that if it supposed to 4 x 5 metres it is.
They are also square.
In our village, builders recently completed a couple of
very boxy "cottages" which passers-by (me!)
were able to observe from week to week.
Although the finished properties look "okay", I noted
areas during the build which I would have
thought looked like a bodge. A wavy foundation
trench; uneven foundation beams; poorly fitted
fascias, and more. The road has been dug
up twice to fix problems with
the wiring/plumbing/phones/drainage. Yesterday
the BT van was parked outside again. These
cottages sold for £265,000 each!
I would LIKE to buy an old property! I would LOVE to buy an old
property, but everyone I know or knew who did so had tremendous
problems with (a) gazumping (b) vendor withdrawing (c) chains (d)
surveys (e) all the other problems. An old house with vacant
possession might do the trick, though. But there aren't many of them
around.
Build a new one, with state of the eco features, that looks old. Our
Natural snotty uni man did this, or attempted to.
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