How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

If I inspect houses/bungalows built in the last 20-odd years, how
might I ensure that the external walls are brick/block construction,
and not an outer skin of brick and inner "layer" of timber?

MM

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

In article , Mike Mitchell
wrote:
If I inspect houses/bungalows built in the last 20-odd years, how
might I ensure that the external walls are brick/block construction,
and not an outer skin of brick and inner "layer" of timber?

Unless it's a hip roof detached house look in the loft

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

I used to live in one. Rapping on an external wall from the
inside the house produced the same hollow sound & feel as
knocking an internal plasterboard/stud partition.

Knocking an outside wall in a normally constructed house produces
the more resilient feel and sound of solid masonry. If a house
had plasterboard stuck to studs mounted on a masonry wall you
would get the wrong answer of course.

You could also ask the owner what fixings he uses in external
walls, e.g. for shelving - special plasterboard fixings as would
be used in a stud wall, or normal plugs.

Removing a light switch or electrical socket would show you.

Those were the only tell-tales in mine apart from drilling a hole
from inside. Oh, and the bottom-head at work who nearly every day
used to come up to my desk and ask if it hard rotted away yet,
this being at the time when Barrats screwed up by putting plastic
sheeting inside the cavity and promoting rot very quickly. Mine
was by another builder, didn't have the plastic, and is still
standing, as is the rest of the estate AFAIK.

W.




"Tony Bryer" wrote in message
...
In article , Mike
Mitchell
wrote:
If I inspect houses/bungalows built in the last 20-odd years,
how
might I ensure that the external walls are brick/block
construction,
and not an outer skin of brick and inner "layer" of timber?

Unless it's a hip roof detached house look in the loft

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser
http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

Mike Mitchell wrote:

If I inspect houses/bungalows built in the last 20-odd years, how
might I ensure that the external walls are brick/block construction,
and not an outer skin of brick and inner "layer" of timber?

MM


Slam a door. If the whole house sounds like the inside of a timpani, its
timber framed.

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

In message
"Woodspoiler"
wrote:

I used to live in one. Rapping on an external wall from the
inside the house produced the same hollow sound & feel as
knocking an internal plasterboard/stud partition.

Knocking an outside wall in a normally constructed house produces
the more resilient feel and sound of solid masonry. If a house
had plasterboard stuck to studs mounted on a masonry wall you
would get the wrong answer of course.

You could also ask the owner what fixings he uses in external
walls, e.g. for shelving - special plasterboard fixings as would
be used in a stud wall, or normal plugs.

Removing a light switch or electrical socket would show you.

Those were the only tell-tales in mine apart from drilling a hole
from inside.

[snip]

What differences does it actually make to be living in a timber-framed
property. Builders obviously construct using this technique for some
properties for a reason.

Is there anything sinister to look out for when living in one?

--
Dane Koekoek

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

Dane Koekoek wrote:

In message
"Woodspoiler"
wrote:


I used to live in one. Rapping on an external wall from the
inside the house produced the same hollow sound & feel as
knocking an internal plasterboard/stud partition.

Knocking an outside wall in a normally constructed house produces
the more resilient feel and sound of solid masonry. If a house
had plasterboard stuck to studs mounted on a masonry wall you
would get the wrong answer of course.

You could also ask the owner what fixings he uses in external
walls, e.g. for shelving - special plasterboard fixings as would
be used in a stud wall, or normal plugs.

Removing a light switch or electrical socket would show you.

Those were the only tell-tales in mine apart from drilling a hole
from inside.


[snip]

What differences does it actually make to be living in a timber-framed
property. Builders obviously construct using this technique for some
properties for a reason.

Is there anything sinister to look out for when living in one?



Its sounds different. That's the only thing I have noticed.

Damp if left untreated is more likley to result in serious structural rot.

It's harder to hang pictures :-)

Its easier to modify things that require holes in walls.
#

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 21:16:47 GMT, Dane Koekoek
wrote:

What differences does it actually make to be living in a timber-framed
property. Builders obviously construct using this technique for some
properties for a reason.

The kind of timber framed houses I'm thinking of here are jerry-built
crap, thrown up as quickly as possibly to make as much money as
possible by cutting as many corners as possible. That is NOT to deride
ALL timber framed buildings, as I know that other countries such as
Sweden, Germany, Finland and America can build highly successful,
durable and pleasing buildings using timber.

The kind of "home" I am thinking of is the typical "Wimpey" style
house of the mid to late 1980s. Avoid them like the plague.

MM

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

In message
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Dane Koekoek wrote:

What differences does it actually make to be living in a timber-framed
property. Builders obviously construct using this technique for some
properties for a reason.

Is there anything sinister to look out for when living in one?

Its sounds different. That's the only thing I have noticed.

Damp if left untreated is more likley to result in serious structural rot.

Yes, I can see that could be a slight technical problem!!!


It's harder to hang pictures :-)

Its easier to modify things that require holes in walls.

Surely though you'd only notice this difference on external walls (assuming
that inside walls in the property would be plasterboard).

--
Dane Koekoek

How to tell whether house has timber framed external walls?
 

On Fri, 26 Dec 2003 13:17:12 GMT, Dane Koekoek
wrote:

Surely though you'd only notice this difference on external walls (assuming
that inside walls in the property would be plasterboard).

Bit of a comedown if you have been used to the immense solidity of an
ex-council house, where *ALL* walls are solid masonry, upstairs and
down. My dream, really, would be to port my existing property to
another part of the country. You can't get much more structurally
sound than many 1950s-built council houses. Of course, some were crap,
too.

MM