Found a house I liked and I was told it is British Steel and Concrete foundation… structure??? BISS or BSSI or something like that…
Tried searching on the net but cannot find anything, seems to me most modern houses have steel foundations… this house seems to be cheaper than what I expected… is this structure thing affecting the price?? no idea. Was told that this might affect the bank, rate… insurance??? The house is located in Loughton, was told most hosues there have this kind of structure. Hell I just wanna know what the difference is between this structure and a proper structure… if a brick structure is a proper one???
So just wondering if anyone has any ideas about this…
Also if any financial savvy people want a new client for mortgage applications, solicitors surveys etc etc conatct me as we are looking for a new property. If you can get a better deal hell:) I will forever be greatful…
In laymans terms I would imagine it is just " reinforced " concrete - something like steel cages laid into the foundation trenches and then filled with concrete ? - would imagine it will be somewhat stronger than " traditional " concrete filled foundations ? - do you know what sort of depth ?
Also may well be built on " made up ground " ie - looser soil etc - my brother in law is currently building an extension for somebody who has had to incur extra charges due to the engineer not checking the ground type and now , because the ground is " made up " they have to go deeper with foundations AND have it " piled " ( extra £10,000 of labour and materials ! )
From my understanding of buying a house this is how it goes.
you get a mortage offer from a bank/broker based on your income, what you are payting deposit …etc …etc thus giving you a budget of some sort when looking for a house.
You find one put in an offer and lets say its accepted (they verify you have funds and that your a serious buyer)
Your solicitor/mortgage broker/bank should arrange a surveyor to come and check out the property and ensure it is worth what your paying. This will be where u find out if its all ok.
Your solicitor will pay the money, stamp duty, deed transfer fees and arrange when u get the keys…
well I called again and asked to clarify what the steel foundation was… and yeah it is concrete with steel in it… don’t make any sense to me as that is supposed to be stronger, and I was unaware houses can still be on brick or simple concrete foundation??
Anyhow, it seem there was an offer made just under the asked price and the bloke gave that guy 2 weeks to sort everything, if that doesn’t happen we will be conatcted. We made an offer for the asked price… so no idea if they are playing around or simply the owner “gave his word”.
Thats just reinforced concrete foundation, thats not prefabricated, they are cast in situ. It may be this way due to poor subsoil, but your more likely to have a piled foundation in this case. Its likely that some underpinning works may have been involved in the past, in which case you should get a building survey done for any structural problems that may exist. Its a good idea to get a survey done independantly anyway if your serious about the Mortgage, MORT meaning death and Gage being a queloquial for forever
FYI, brick foundations are now not acceptable to building control and are out with the fishies so to speak, and solid concrete foundations are the norm unless ground is poor/waterlogged.
Cheers for the info, indeed the agent said they have an offer under the asking price, the agent is Bairstow eves. No idea how serious they are but after all they can always lie about the prices since there is no way checking if there is an offer and how much.
I was going to do a structure survey anyhow but I rather know ahead if it is worth or not. Coming to next question:) anyone know one???
Hmm that says a lot:( maybe I started on the wrong foot already… I saw their financial advisor in Wanstead right by the station think they working with Countrywide Mortgages and the agency for the house is the Chigwell one.
If you don’t already have a mortgage in place you are not considered in a position to make an offer. The estate agent works for the property owner and takes their instructions form them. Too often people forget that and think the estate agent is just making stuff up - I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but nowhere near as much as people think. In this climate, the agent will want the most secure buyer to proceed with.
My advice to you, as an ex sales manager of an estate agents, is to get yourself an AIP (agreement in Principle) asap and then make an offer. If the agent says he wont make the offer, he is not acting in the best interest of his client. It’s up to the client to decline an offer or not. If you want to be really sneaky, go and visit the property owner and tell him you’ll offer the asking price. It will still need to be dealt with through the agent but at least you’ll know that your offer was made.
This is largely unrelated to your original question, and sorry if you have already thought of these things, but I’m stuck in a house I’m not mad about because I didn’t check some of these things before buying it… just trying to be helpful, not trying to teach gradma to suck eggs or anything, honest…
Does it have a tap outside or some way to get a hose to your bike? If not, you’ll likely face loads of grief trying to keep it clean. I have to lug buckets around, so obviously I don’t clean it as often as I’d like. Just hosing the salt off daily would make a big difference to me!
Is the main electricity distribution board fuses or breakers? If fuses, are the plug-in breakers available for it? If it’s a fuse board without drop-in breaker modules available, try and knock a couple of grand off the price because getting this replaced can be pricey and a PITA.
When last was the gas setup checked by a corgi registered bod? If not, get the price of this check + any remedial work required knocked off the price. If nothing else, you could have grief with your insewerance company if you need to claim and this hasn’t been checked recently
What are the walls made of - We never realised that a house could be plasterboard internally (we’re furrin you see :)) and this obviously impacted on some of the renovation / fixtures work we wanted to do.
Again, just trying to help, honest - you may well already know all of this and I’m just a thick twat who didn’t think to check these things
I believe some of this has to be done by the seller now for example the gas check has to be done, a mate bought a flat a while the guy selling ended up having to spend £1500 on work before he was aloud to sell it.
After 40+ years as a building professional designing all sorts of stuff from garages to a mortuary with a few hundred houses, lots of flats and a few schools in between, I’m not sure where to start.
Except in very exceptional cucmstances, there’s no such thing as “steel foundations”. But that seems to have been sorted.
There have been and are still a lot of steel framed (above ground floor level) houses. Some of the past systems are proving complete cack and cannot be mortgaged.
Go to the local council, Building Control Section (used to be District Surveyors) and ask to see the “deposited plans”. Public Records so free but it might take them a few days to get them from archives if the building is more than a couple of years old.
You won’t probably understand the drawings in detail so act naive and ask is there is anyone that can help you. Due to their job, before ten a.m. and immediately after four p.m. are the best visiting times. They should all be out on site inspections between those hours.
If your luck, you’ll get the full SP. If your not, somewhere on the drawings will be a fullish description of the system. You are allowed to copy that into your own book no matter what is said to you. (Public Records again.)
Once you have the full SP, go on line. Amazing what’s out there.
Or you could appoint a building surveyor to do all this for you. Cheaper start than asking for a structural survey and needs doing anyway as part of the “search” if you do elect to buy.
Odd bit. Bairstow Eaves are a franchise operation. Each branch is only as good as it’s owner/manager. But that’s true of a lot of things in life.
Are you sure it’s the foundations that all this fuss is about (i.e. the bits under the ground)? From reading your original post could it be a steel-framed building or maybe a reinforced-concrete frame building? If it is a steel-framed building then it is quite possible that the steel frame is encased in concrete. A reinforced-concrete frame is concrete with steel reinforcement bars in it.
There could be several possible reasons why a steel-framed or r-c frame house is offered for less. You haven’t given much to go on in your post but depending on when the house was built and what kind of method was used it could be a structural problem. In the 1930’s reinforced concrete frames started to be used more widely for house building and more often for things like blocks of flats, cinemas and office blocks. Unfortunately, ‘more widely’ also tended to mean ‘more shoddily’ and with this type of building if the details weren’t right the thing will start to fail eventually. Because older concrete frames were often exposed to the elements the steel reinforcement inside over time can start to rust and ‘blow’ the concrete.
If you are concerned that the reason this house is cheap is structural then you should get a structural engineers report before you consider making an offer- you’ll probably need to anyway to reassure your mortgage lenders. The good news is that if the struture is okay there’s no reason why you can’t live as happily in a concrete or steel framed (or foundationed for that matter) house as in any other- just be aware you’re heating bills could be high (they didn’t bother with much insulation in the '30’s).
I will forever be greatful…
