What will happen to all the houses built on estates in the UK from the 1930's to today?
Posted by Sad-Vanilla-8038@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 33 comments
Will the houses all still be there for centuries to come, or if not, what?
dbltax@reddit
That largely depends on the quality of the builds.
A lot of the 1930s developments are pretty damn solid, but there are houses on new developments (i.e. within the last ten years) that are already having issues beyond the normal snagging points.
A couple of years ago I pulled out of buying a place as the surveyor went there expecting the foundations to be 1m deep in line with the spec on the development for the soil type and topography, only to find they were 60cm deep, unsuitable for the soil type, found evidence of subsidence and records of other properties on the same street having to be underpinned.
Developers do whatever they can to cut costs.
Bacon4Lyf@reddit
The 1930s developments that are still standing are pretty damn solid, not the rest that fell down in the nearly hundred years since they were built
Prestigious-Salt-245@reddit
How many fell down? If you're waving survivorship bias around you really need evidence of signifiant casualties.
jimicus@reddit
How did your surveyor do that? They’d have to dig a hole at the edge of the house, surely?
Particular_Tune7990@reddit
This wasn't in Selly Oak Birmingham was it? Sounds pretty bang on for my 1st time buy - which to sell I had to get underpinned. (yeah should have got a proper survey but I still live)
dbltax@reddit
Nah, down south.
Inevitable-Debt4312@reddit
Interesting. Did the surveyor dig test pits to check the foundations?
Was it a specialist survey in view of the dodgy subsoil or something?
goldenhawkes@reddit
Near me there’s new builds that are definitely on flood plains. And I can only imagine them becoming so hard to insure, or damaged by floods and not worth repairing, that they’ll be demolished within the next 100 years.
jimicus@reddit
Half the undeveloped land in the country is flood plain; we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with water in a way that isn’t “leave vast tracts of land to get covered in it”.
fussyfella@reddit
Given the UK preference for established buildings over new ones, I expect the large majority to still be there in 100 years time. A lot are very well built and there would be no reason to demolish and replace them. Even those at the lower end of the market will likely last a long time.
Perhaps fashions might change but unless they do, I think well over 90% of the houses around today will still be there a century from now.
johnnycarrotheid@reddit
I bought an ex council 4-in-a-block from the 20/30's and the thing is solid, proper solid.
It'll survive longer than the new build flats they've built. Brick built inside n out Vs new things with paper walls
romeo__golf@reddit
In the 1950s and 1960s literally hundreds of thousands of Victorian-era homes which weren't fit for habitation were torn down in the UK. The ones remaining are only the best ones of the era, and a lot of the time this is down to personal tastes in that people think the home "looks nice" and thus justifies the large sums of money required to repair/maintain it.
Many poorly designed tower blocks built in the 70s have been torn down and replaced in the last 20 years, and no doubt the modern apartment towers being built today will face similar fates if tastes change and people no longer like the style/don't want to live there.
All homes built today have this potential future. Those built well, in both quality and design, will stay for 100 years or more. Those which suffer from structural issues and which are deemed too undesirable for modern tastes to be repaired, will be removed and replaced.
Wise-Youth2901@reddit
I would argue people's tastes are subjective. Councils our lots of poorer, working class people in council estates so they became associated with poorer people, which make them unpopular. People subconsciously can come to these thoughts. My in laws live on a council estate in London and the immigrants that are doing alright financially and can afford a nice, 3 bed family sized home on the estate don't seem to have qualms about buying them. A more middle class English person though probably wouldn't want one. The immigrant doesn't have the same cultural snobbery. They don't associate postwar council estates with working class people. If modern apartments are lived in mostly by middle class professional types, they will probably remain somewhat popular. It would shift if poorer people began to live in them.
soulsteela@reddit
My house was built in 1947, it’s so solid we’ve snapped off multiple expensive drill bits in the walls, chasing in 2 electric cables 4 foot took 2 of us with cold chisels 9hours. The new builds are known to be so bad they are going for less than half the price of older houses.
oliverprose@reddit
I'm hoping mine sticks about for a bit longer certainly, but it'll take maintenance to keep it that way.
It's been rewired to recent specs, the roof has had a tickle to allow the solar panels, and no doubt there will be more work in a few years to disconnect the gas supply when that becomes something worth doing. It's a bit Triggers Broom, so it's really a 2020s house built in a 1930s shell now.
DrHydeous@reddit
Most of them will be knocked down within a couple of centuries. Not because of anything inherently wrong with them, but because almost all buildings get knocked down within a couple of centuries as people think of better things to do with the land on which they are built.
DameKumquat@reddit
Yeah, there's a beautiful mansion block, all Victorian red brick and wrought-iron balconies, on Victoria Street, that's just been knocked down. The ones on side streets behind are still there and been done up recently, but I guess the site on a prime highway was wanted for something else.
yolo_snail@reddit
You can't keep everything though.
You have to draw a line somewhere.
I'm personally more worried about all the 60s and 70s brutalist buildings that are being demolished.
I know a lot of them have issues with the concrete, but we should at least make an effort to preserve the ones that are still good.
Just think, in the 60s, all those Victorian buildings that are loved today were seen the same as the brutalist buildings are now.
In another 60 year, they'll be saying the same about those and complaining about all the things they're building today.
DameKumquat@reddit
Yeah, that's true. And I'm sure those flats were a nightmare to fit cables into and certainly couldn't be made accessible. A few Brutalist buildings will be kept, but many of them like the council estates had their own problems.
It'll be interesting to see which modern designs survive the test of time. I find a lot of modern blocks all look horribly similar, but the ones round Battersea Power Station actually look rather good. And any new building will be better than a badly-maintained old one.
tetlee@reddit
I really love the Barbican, such a great example of that design era... Coventry where I'm from however it's nice to see it evolving
Actual-Audience8165@reddit
As my builder recently found when building an extension - my 1930s bungalow is built like a brick sh*t-house
OutrageousRhubarb853@reddit
I live in a 1930’s house and it is solid! I’m not sure what it’s built from, but even trying to drill a hole in a wall is an experience!
Still-BangingYourMum@reddit
Some will survive, mostly it would be the older houses, with denser building materials, newer lightweight construction houses will suffer far more wear and failings.
The more traditional house builds with solid brick interior walls, instead of stud wall, wood and plaster board, will last longer.
I lived in an old house in Lynton that was nearly 200 years old, external walls 3foot thick, original roof and tiles, solid doors etc. The only parts of that house that caused issues, were the parts that had been updated during the 1980s using modern building materials.
The point is that the buildings built after the 1940s, suffered with limited resources due to the heavy demand for replacement houses, factories etc after the war.
Fruitpicker15@reddit
My 1929 house is solidly built and has a huge garden for a small semi detached house. It just needs routine maintenance like any other home. I wouldn't swap it for the world.
Obvious-Water569@reddit
The ones built up until maybe 30 years ago will be around for a long time.
Modern ones built with spit and duct tape will decay and fall to pieces.
Educational_Way3900@reddit
It's the houses being built now that I worry about!!
Timely_Egg_6827@reddit
Unless there is a plague or a zombie invasion, people will still need to live in them. All houses need maintenance but they aren't badly built at strutural level usually.
Mickleborough@reddit
Torn down and rebuilt, as and when required (including when land values go up). Centuries, probably not.
Western_Rooster_4832@reddit
I live in a 1920s/30s house, originally built by the council but very generously proportioned on a great plot, quite near to the centre of the town. It's wonderful - it has done all of the moving and settling that it's ever going to do; it is incredibly well-built, and we fully renovated it about 5 years ago.
On the further extremes of the town are numerous new builds, with much less desirable plots, further out from the centre, and much more built on a template. I wouldn't swap my house for them if you gave me twice its value. I think the country is full of architectural examples like this, and I can't ever imagine a house of this size in this position not being desirable to big swathes of society.
Taking all that into account, I really can't see a reason it wouldn't be maintained for centuries to come. We still have wonderful Georgian and Victorian houses which people are all too happy to reinvest in.
benjymous@reddit
I imagine the 1930s houses will still be here long after the 2030s houses have all been knocked down.
Fine_Analyst_4408@reddit
My flat was built in the 1930s and they're pretty solid. As long as it's being occupied and maintained, I can't see why it wouldn't be around for a long time.
Sladekious@reddit
They'll be fine. Over time the roofs, electrics, plumbing will all have to be replaced, maybe even the floors, but providing the foundations are solid, the buildings (brick and mortar) aren't going anywhere.
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