insulation for concrete pannel houses.

[bruce2110]

hi. i live in a mid terrace 1960's concrete pre-fab (pannel house), we are thinking of buying it from the council, i have got a mate who has done drilling test's on the conrete and says it's not at risk from 'concrete cancer' and has given me the report (cost me £150.) bargin!!

my next question is, is there a way to insulate the cavity? we did ask a company to come and give us quote about 6 years ago and they said it could not be done due to the construction type and the fact it is a mid-terrace. i was wondering if building/insulation technology has improved for these types of houses to have cavity wall insulation installed!?

any thoughts??

thanks, bruce2110

 

[^woody^]

System built properties have different defects depending on their construction. This "concrete cancer" is not one of the significant issues, so I don't know why the concrete was tested.

Things like failure of connection brackets and bolts, wall ties, panel movement, foundation movement, roof truss assembly are but a few. But it depends on exactly what system the house is.

If you are thinking of buying, the council is obliged to tell you of known problems and must rectify significant defects before selling it.

Some systems do have a cavity which can be insulated. But many are solid concrete - in which case you have to insulate internally on the interior wall face

 

[bruce2110]

the tests they carried out did involve exsposing the foundations at the front and the back, they also drilled several holes at the joins in the pannels, they were looking at the bolts, and the joins between the pannels in particular(thats what he said to me anyway), he also spent time looking in the loft looking at the trusses, is this the sort of thing that he should have tested then??

i am aware that there is a cavity as i had to drill through in several places when i replaced the bathroom + kitchen(at the rear of the property anyway!!)

 

[jimbobmills]

It is the concrete panels that are the problem. Most lenders wont touch it unless they charge you for it 8 to 11% typical mortgage rate.

Even if you insulate it, the original insulation is still inside the cavity. Not exactly enough room to do anything with.

Best approach if you can afford it is a PRC repair. I did about 6 months research into prefabs for my paper. Any info you want regarding this let me know.

In the mean time there is one site that really does paint a picture of the problem and a visual solution

http://landmarkprc.co.uk

I had a look at other sites but they lack images to show exactly what these prefabs are made of , frighting stuff