A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?

Mark Carver wrote:

A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?

possibly "no fines" concrete?

On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?

I couldn't find anything specifically mentioning PRC and rendered block
at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefabs_in_the_United_Kingdom, but I
suppose there could have been dwellings built of that sort.

--

Jeff

On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?


Concrete raft?

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In article ,
alan_m wrote:
On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?


Concrete raft?

does anyone remember "Bayko" - a children's building set at the time?
Steel roads and plastic panels. Must have been based on something real.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

"charles" wrote in message
...
In article ,
alan_m wrote:
On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?


Concrete raft?

does anyone remember "Bayko" - a children's building set at the time?
Steel roads and plastic panels.

Must have been based on something real.

Not necessarily, the model railways werent.

On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?


Dunno if it may help, but googling the words "characterisation study"
may hopefully find a comprehensive council document for the location. I
found mine a goldmine of local information on building history and
amenities features of my local district.

--
Adrian C

On 05/04/2021 08:49, alan_m wrote:
On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the
last few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a
large pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses,
and why ?


Concrete raft?

Having made a second visit, this might be it. The footprint left is only
the exterior walls, and huge chucks of concrete slabs piled up.
Mrs C reports two days of concrete 'smashing' noise last week. So a
suspended reinforced concrete floor ? The interior walls were block,
and presumably also contributing to supporting the roof structure, so
quite a load on it in total ?

On 04/04/2021 18:47, Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?

Building materials were in short supply after the war, some right into
the 1960s. Lots of different non-standard building techniques were
tried. Step grandson lived in a house from the period that had two
massive reinforced concrete beams running across the ceiling of the
living room.

--
Colin Bignell

In article ,
Mark Carver wrote:
A knackered old 1950s bungalow near me has been demolished in the last
few days.

I went to look at the remains. Rendered block construction, and a large
pile of steel reinforcement rods ?

Was that a standard construction method back then for small houses, and
why ?

Was it once a council house? Councils seemed to experiment a great deal.

--
*Ah, I see the f**k-up fairy has visited us again

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 05/04/2021 10:16 am, Chris Hogg wrote:

JNugent wrote:

[ ... ]

Not bungalows and probably not within the definition of prefabs either,
but many council houses were built in the 1950s as "Cornish Units", with
the walls made of slabs (*big* panels) of reinforced concrete and
mansard roofs.

As they were sold under the RTB, the difficulty of mortgaging them
became a problem. The remedy seems to have been the support of the upper
floors with Acrow props and the replacement of the walls with brick.
There are some not too far from here.

And see:

https://cockrams-surveyors.co.uk/cornish-unit-type-1/

Yup. 'Cornish Unit' houses and bungalows were prefabricated, quick to
erect, and fulfilled an urgent need for housing in the years
immediately after WW2, a result of bomb damage and slum clearance
schemes. Much used by local authorities at the time and whole estates
of Cornish Unit buildings were put up all over the country. The panels
were made at a blockworks near St. Austell in central Cornwall, and
made use of the extensive mountains of sharp sand available as a
by-product/waste from the china clay industry. Later, the blockworks
became the pilot scale laboratories for the main china clay producer
in the area.

See
https://www.metrotile.co.uk/history-...possibilities/
and https://tinyurl.com/yffmjknq for images

Thanks for that.

On 06/04/2021 15:24, JNugent wrote:


Befo https://ibb.co/LgPLjdP

And after: https://ibb.co/c2P6sTq

Those houses must have been freezing in cold weather. Zero
insulation.

On 09/04/2021 03:45 pm, Andrew wrote:
On 06/04/2021 15:24, JNugent wrote:


Befo https://ibb.co/LgPLjdP

And after: https://ibb.co/c2P6sTq

Those houses must have been freezing in cold weather. Zero
insulation.

They are (or more usually, were) equipped with a very robust dry wall
liner with a fair sized air gap.