Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PDF Pub Misc NontradhousingBR PDF
PDF Pub Misc NontradhousingBR PDF
PDF Pub Misc NontradhousingBR PDF
housing in the UK
– A brief review
Acknowledgements
This briefing guide was commissioned by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. It was written by
Keith Ross of the Building Research Establishment (BRE).
BRE
BRE is the UK’s leading centre of expertise on buildings and construction and the prevention and
control of fire. Its knowledge-base is available to all in the construction and associated industries.
BRE
Garston, Watford, WD25 9XX
Web: www.bre.co.uk
© Copyright 2002 Council of Mortgage Lenders. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical. Photocopying or other means of recording are forbidden without the prior written permission of the
publishers. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information contained within the guide but the authors and publishers cannot be held
responsible for any inaccuracies that remain.
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Non-traditional housing
in the UK
– A brief review
July 2002
Contents Page
1 Introduction 4
3 Current developments 18
1. Introduction
Lenders are asked to lend money on different build high rise. It looks at particular problems
types of construction every day. It is probably true associated with different types of construction.
to say that there are more types of construction in
the UK than in almost any other country in the Section 3 looks at current developments in non-
world. And the number of different types is traditional construction and more specifically the
growing. The housebuilding industry is changing. drive towards the use of offsite manufacturing
Market forces are driving the industry to techniques.
reconsider their approach to serving their
customers . Government agendas on Rethinking Finally, section 4 considers the pro’s
Construction, planning policy and building and con’s of offsite production and looks at the
regulations are forcing the industry to reconsider technique from the various stakeholders’ points of
the way houses are built. These issues together views – lenders, housing associations,
with a construction skills shortage and a huge housebuilders, surveyors, insurers, warranty
demand for new houses means that providers and building control. For those who
innovative construction types are being want more information about specific types of
developed and used. construction the report contains a comprehensive
list of Building Research Establishment (BRE)
For lenders the issue is not only the new publications relating to these.
construction types but also the old ones which
may not have performed as well as was intended. This report does not attempt to provide all the
They need to protect their existing and their new answers in relation to non-traditional housing.
book. Experiences in the past may well affect What it does attempt to do is provide lenders
lenders’ willingness to lend on new construction with an overview of developments in the market
types which are unfamiliar and which may appear and to raise awareness of the issues . It is clear
to exhibit some of the same characteristics as that innovative construction techniques will
those they have had problems with in the past. It continue to develop and lenders will be faced
is critical that the dwelling holds its value in the with borrowers wanting mortgages for these
medium to long term to offer suitable security for types of property. The Council of Mortgage
the loan. It is sometimes difficult to assess this Lenders (CML) intends to continue to work with
with so many construction types on the market. BRE in development of a benefit realisation
This short report informs lenders about non- toolkit which will try to address the specific
traditional construction both past and present. issues relevant to lenders with innovative
housing. This will help to ensure that the
Section 2 provides a brief review of non- developers and manufacturers of these new
traditional housing in the UK. It considers the techniques consider the mortgageability of their
development of UK systems through the First and products before they are launched to the
Second World Wars and the advent of the system consumer.
Page 4
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 5
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Government Initiatives
During the Second World War, the
Interdepartmental Committee on House
construction, commonly called ‘the Burt
Committee’, was formed. This committee was
in due course to draw on many of the testing
procedures that had initially been developed at
BRS (which later became BRE) for the
evaluation of war-time buildings.
Page 6
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 7
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 8
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 9
Non-traditional housing in the UK
The programme was broadcast at a time However, in Scotland, where, historically the
when the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme was being vernacular is of “stone or timber”, rather than
promoted. Much public sector housing at “clay”, and the timber frame tradition was in any
the time was built in timber frame and the case well established, favoured and respected,
government became very concerned about the timber frame market was hardly affected at all
the negative impact that the programme by the World in Action programme.
would have on property values in general
and the Right to Buy scheme in particular. With the encouragement of Government and the
BRE was commissioned to undertake a Rethinking Construction Agenda, people are now
thorough review of the current moisture once again beginning to experiment with
conditions prevailing at that time in existing alternative construction techniques. These are
and new timber frame dwellings, which it discussed in the next Chapter.
did during the late 1980s.
Few housing systems remain in
In all more than 400 dwellings were production
surveyed, many in areas of severe The UK has considerable experience of
weather exposure. The surveys, which are prefabrication for house construction with
reported in BRE reports BR283 and approximately 1,000,000 dwellings constructed
BR284, found no evidence of decay that by such methods. The range of systems and
supported the projections made during the construction techniques used has been extremely
programme, and the catalogue of failures varied (see for example figure 9); BRE has over
predicted by the programme never 500 systems listed between 1919 and 1976
materialised. Nevertheless, the excluding Rationalised Traditional Systems or
programme is still quoted today as a post 1976 timber frame, (it does however include
justification for choosing a different form of older timber framed systems, many of which were
construction. also of platform frame construction).
Page 10
Non-traditional housing in the UK
in 1986 and 1991, and the following table Trusteel 3M steel 17,000 10
framed houses
(compiled from sometimes contradictory data
from a range of sources) attempts to list most of Unity (pre-cast 19,000 10
concrete) -
the systems that achieved notable production Types 1 and 2
periods and/or numbers of dwellings built. Frameform 13,000 10
(timber frame)
Chart 1: Tenure of non-traditional housing and Quickbuild 12,000 10
non-traditional dwellings by construction type (timber frame)
1200 350
House
1000 1986 survey 300
Flat
Thousands of dwellings
1991 survey
Thousands of dwellings
250
800
200
600
150
400
100
200 50
0 0
Owner Private rented Local Authority Housing Vacant Cast-in-situ Precast Metal Frame Timber frame Other non-
Occupied Association concrete traditional
Page 11
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 12
Non-traditional housing in the UK
The problems of carbonation and the presence Some of the steel clad systems have experienced
of detrimental chloride levels in reinforced condensation problems, where the steel forms a
concrete dwellings led to certain concrete vapour control layer on the wrong (cold) side of
housing systems being designated defective the construction. Problems with steel frame
under the 1984 Housing Defects Legislation systems are documented in a number of BRE
which was then incorporated into the Housing reports on individual systems. In 1987 BRE
Act of 1985. A company named PRC Homes published a report (BR113 Steel framed and steel
Ltd (a subsidiary of NHBC) was set up to clad houses: inspection and assessment) giving
licence repair schemes for housing systems guidance on the inspection and condition
designated as defective under the Act. The assessment of steel framed housing, which was
extent of works and costs involved in some of based on site investigations of a number of
these repairs was very substantial. No steel or systems. Despite the obvious problems observed
timber systems were designated as defective. by the research team the report concludes that
The ownership of these properties by their “…the vast majority of steel framed dwellings
former tenants was further complicated by have given levels of performance not very
these defects , and procedures were put in different from many traditionally built dwellings
place to give the new owners rights of repair of the same age…”
or, in certain specific circumstances, an
obligation for the former landlord to buy back and that, provided the appropriate repairs are
the property. carried out
There were also problems with the cladding “…there is no reason why steel framed and steel
panels to some properties. As these panels clad dwellings and cast iron dwellings should not
were no longer in production they could not give good performance into the foreseeable
easily be replaced, and even if they could future, and certainly on a par with the life
have, it may have been unwise to do so conventionally assumed for rehabilitated
because of the potential for further problems. dwellings built in conventional construction.”
Therefore, it was not unusual for the local
authorities to replace such cladding with, for
example, a brick skin. Although it is unlikely
that the brickwork would ever need to be
replaced during the life of the buildings, this
would be easy to accomplish should the need
ever arise.
Page 13
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 14
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 15
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Many critics of system built housing will point to inserted into the wood before the
problems that have been encountered in order to recommended curing and drying times had
justify the continued use of cavity masonry elapsed then accelerated corrosion could take
construction. It is true that a number of problems place, with possible structural failure of the
emerged with some system built housing, but in joint as a result. Moisture exacerbates the
the main these were no more serious than those problem and, since condensation in a loft
that emerged in some cavity constructions . space is not uncommon, fixings on trussed
During the 1980s and 1990s BRE conducted rafters were particularly vulnerable.
investigations into a large number of different
• Sulphate attack of mortars in brickwork
non-traditional housing systems, the results of
leading to expansion of brickwork and
which are available in numerous BRE reports on
detachment of renders . Sulphate attack can
individual systems (see list in appendix 1). The
occur in situations where there is a source of
majority of problems resulted from poor
sulphate salts and the brickwork is kept
workmanship, poor quality materials or lack of
relatively damp. The source of the sulphates
maintenance – but these issues are equally
could be the bricks themselves, from some
relevant to all forms of construction including
soils where the damp proof course is missing,
cavity masonry.
bridged or damaged or from the inappropriate
Problems with masonry inclusion of gypsum plaster in the mortar mix.
construction Moisture sources include ground water,
construction defects (such as improperly
During the same period that BRE was
constructed or maintained parapets and
undertaking investigations into problems with
rainwater systems), or by entrapment behind
non-traditional systems other investigations were
renders which are too strong. Remedial
also being undertaken on ‘traditional’ masonry
treatments require the removal of the
dwellings . The range of problems being
moisture source to prevent the situation from
investigated was broad and included the
getting worse or, in severe cases,
following:
demolishing and re-building the affected area.
• Lack of lateral bracing to trussed rafters
• Problems with concrete blocks manufactured
leading to the collapse of roofs . When trussed
with low-grade aggregates . Some low grade
rafters were first introduced too much reliance
aggregates contain minerals or substances
was placed on the gable walls and purlins to
which undergo chemical changes when used
resist racking movement on trussed rafter
in concrete. This chemical change can be
roofs . In some non-domestic buildings the roof
accompanied by a physical change such as
eventually collapsed. Subsequently it was
an expansion, which in turn can lead to a
noted that some domestic properties were
weakening of the concrete and structural
showing the early signs of trouble necessitating
damage. An example of this problem was
remedial action to prevent eventual structural
seen in the west country, particularly
failure. The regulations have since been
Cornwall, where concrete blocks made from
modified to require lateral bracing.
‘mundic’ aggregates (the was te from tin
• Corrosion of gang nails used in the mining) can suffer sever failure. These
manufacture of trussed rafters due to aggregates contained deleterious
interaction with certain timber preservatives. metalliferous minerals which led to the
With wood preserved with Copper Chrome problem.
Arsenic (CCA) formulations if the fixings are
Page 16
Non-traditional housing in the UK
• Weak mortar mixes resulting from either the Many of the problems were due to either
use of unsuitable sands or from low cement ignorance or poor quality workmanship.
content. The use of an overly weak mortar can Few people would argue with the fact that there
result in rapid erosion of the mortar from the is now no reason for those problems with
brickwork and structural instability. Depending masonry construction to be repeated,
on the extent of the problem remedial action yet they are. Despite that the problems
varied from some re-pointing to total rebuilding are rarely reported widely, and are
the outer leaf of a cavity wall. accepted almost without question as part and
parcel of the construction industry, rather than
• Wall tie corrosion. This affected a large
the fault of masonry construction. When such
number of dwellings, and as a direct result of
problems arise with non-traditional construction,
that the requirements for the thickness of
however, it is usually perceived as a fault with
galvanised coatings on wall ties was
the system.
increased. Remedial action depends on the
extent of the damage and the type of tie
involved. Ties with thicker cross sections
were potentially more damaging than wire
ties, and in severe cases complete rebuilding
of the outer leaf of brickwork was the only
sensible option.
Page 17
Non-traditional housing in the UK
3. Current developments
Drivers for off site manufacture
M4 I and the Housing Forum
There are a number of reasons for the current shift
The Movement for Innovation was
towards prefabrication. Some are political, while
launched in November 1998 to facilitate
others are the result of circumstances that prevail in
the cultural change within the
the building industry.
construction industry identified as
The most obvious political driver at the moment is necessary in the Egan Report.
“Rethinking Construction”, the report of the M4 I identified four priorities for
Construction Task Force (published in 1998, also innovation and change. These were
known as the Egan Report) and the subsequent product development; project
launch of the Movement for Innovation (M4I) and implementation; partnering the supply
the Housing Forum. chain and production of components .
These are now known as the four ‘Ps’.
In the social housing sector the Housing
Corporation (HC) have strongly supported both Five drivers for change were also
the activities of the Task Force and the Housing
identified which were customer focus; a
Forum and have let it be known that within the
quality driven agenda; committed
coming two or three years they will expect any
leadership; integration of processes and
schemes that they fund will need to be ‘Egan
teams around the product and
compliant’. They launched the ‘Kick-start’
commitment to people. In order to be
initiative for which £80 million of their Assisted
Development Programme (ADP) funding over the able to measure the extent to which
2001/2002 and 2002/2003 financial years was companies were achieving objectives set
ring-fenced specifically for factory produced by the Task Force, a series of annual
housing. targets have been set out
which are:
Many private sector house-builders are also
• A 10% reduction in capital costs
looking seriously at prefabrication. One of the
main drivers for their interest is the skill shortage, • A 10% reduction in construction time
Page 18
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 19
Non-traditional housing in the UK
and site management, but there is one potential operatives who travel some distance to the site. It
is also questionable whether the jobs created by
advantage that some manufactured systems
would have that would not be available with using only local labour would be permanent.
Page 20
Non-traditional housing in the UK
number of units through the factory in one batch is still an issue, but many developers/
(40 is often quoted as a typical viable threshold). manufacturers are making houses ‘traditional’ in
This, though, does not take into account the appearance to make the point that there is no
future maintenance costs . For private sector need to think of them as being different. For
developers maintenance is not their problem some systems this may negate the potential
(although it may be a selling point if they were benefits in the use of prefabrication or result in
confident of the benefits), whereas for a hous ing dwellings that would have performed better had
association whole life costs may be a legitimate they been traditionally built.
way of approaching the issue of cost.
However, many of the houses that are
There are also developments in computing that distinctively non- traditional either have
offer the possibility of linking the production and appearance problems from the outset as a result
assembly line to CAD software. In the future this of the materials used, or because the materials
could enable one-off dwellings to be produced for do not age and weather sympathetically.
the same unit cost as a production run.
Appearance can also be affected by the shapes
Another disadvantage often quoted is the fact involved, by their repetition and by the sizes of
that with factory production the design needs to component involved.
be finalised in much more detail well in
advance, so that material and components can A component basis with a small module gives
be ordered and stocked at the factory ready for greater flexibility. Historically larger units have
use. The latter point means that factories are tended to reduce variety (for example Calder
very dependent on the supply chain. houses illustrated in figure 14) and this is one of
the reasons why volumetric became relatively
Future maintenance is also a potential problem unpopular.
for manufactured housing. Inevitably some
specialised components and materials will be
used during the manufacturing process. These
materials may not be available decades after the
dwelling is manufactured, and may not be
available at all to owner occupiers, which could
prove problematic from a maintenance viewpoint.
This raises the issue of standardisation of key
components and/or dimensions – something the
industry ought to be addressing now. It is also the
case that, because specialised materials are
Figure 14 Calder houses. One of the better
used the maintenance requirements for
known forms of Volumetric housing
manufactured housing will differ from that
required by conventional masonry housing. This
More modern examples of volumetric
too is something that manufacturers should be
construction have demonstrated that variety can
addressing, perhaps in the form of a user
be achieved, as with the Guinness Trust
manual.
development at Chelmsford.
Marketability
Feedback from the occupants of recent
Much effort has been put into making many non-
manufactured developments has been quite
traditional housing systems look traditional.
positive, so barriers to the uptake of this sort of
Historically the reason for this may be due, in part
at least, to planning restrictions. Planning consent
Page 21
Non-traditional housing in the UK
housing does not appear to be the result of public The problem with that approach is that implicit in the
perceptions . There are few, if any, technical issuing of a ten year warranty is an expectation that
barriers to the greater use of manufactured the s tructure would last much longer than that. The
housing. Building science and the way materials whole process of issuing a warranty, with the
decay, weather and interact are much better associated quality inspections and use of standard
understood now than when non-traditional details, gives lenders much more confidence in the
housing was first introduced, so there is no structure than the warranty guarantees . If the
reason why past mistakes should be repeated. structure were to fail before its design life (which
would be long after the warranty had expired) then
Market surveys undertaken recently as part of a confidence in warranty organisations would be
DTI-funded project on off-site manufacture undermined, thus devaluing the warranty.
indicates that the real barriers to the further
uptake of manufactured housing result from risks Registered Social landlords:
(real or otherwise) perceived by a number of • Tenants may not be happy to live in
different players associated with the delivery of manufactured housing
housing. Some of these players, and the risk or
• Cost is an issue for some RSLs,
issue they perceive, are listed below.
although the more forward-looking
ones are considering life cycle costs
Financial institutions:
when making procurement decisions
• The dwelling may not hold its value in the
medium to long term, and thus may not
House Builders:
represent adequate security for a loan.
• Materials being used may not be durable
enough to give required life expectancy.
Warranty providers:
• Potential purchasers’ may not want to buy
Warranty providers have a number of concerns
them.
with manufactured housing. A number of specific
issues are listed below. • If there are failures in the short to medium
• Concerns that a systematic defect should term company ‘brand’ will suffer.
manifest itself during the warranty period,
leading to a disproportionate number of Surveyors:
claims • There may be problems (latent
defects) associated with novel forms
• A lack of historic claims data means that there
of construction that they are not
is uncertainty over the cost of repair of some
able to diagnose on inspection because
innovative systems.
a) they may not be able to get access to
• Life expectancy and the link between certain areas of the structure because
expected life and maintenance (which m ay of the way it has been assembled
not be carried out). b) the technology used to construct the
• Difficulties associated with inspection of the dwelling may be novel and not familiar to
structure during fabrication. them
c) a lack of information on the life
In addition to these specific points there are more expectancy of key components.
general issues that concern warranty providers.
The warranty normally covers a fixed period (e.g. Insurance companies:
ten years) and, given that most structures would Novel construction techniques may make it
last ten years even if they were prone to rapid difficult for insurers to asses the costs of repairing
decay, there ought not to be much of an issue. dwellings if they are damaged by flood, fire
subsidence etc.
Page 22
Non-traditional housing in the UK
as fast food outlets and hotel accommodation, systems certified by organisations such as BRE
Certification and the BBA, in an effort to allay the
however houses will tend to have a longer
design life. Thus some of the materials and concerns of their potential clients and warranty
construction techniques they use may not be providers . One warranty body already has a
scheme for issuing a manufacturers warranty, but
suitable for the new market, forcing them to
make changes to their traditional practices. to date there has been little take up of the
scheme.
What does the future hold?
There is an intention to radically alter the way that The fears and concerns listed above are very
the construction industry operates largely based understandable, and addressing them will not
around the Rethinking Construction Agenda. The be easy. It is, though, inevitable that the way
agencies that are promoting this agenda wish to houses are constructed will change in the
see construction become far more akin to a coming few years. All of the organisations
manufacturing process with greater use of pre- listed above will need to adapt to the new
fabrication and less work carried out on site. market. In some cases this may b e a good
thing. There has been a decline in building
However, this has implications for both new standards over recent years . To reverse that
housing as well as the existing stock. Britain has trend would require a change in culture for
a large stock of buildings that have been which there appears to be little appetite .
produced over a long period. A large proportion
of this stock was constructed using ‘traditional’ A move to a different way of doing things will
methods and much of it will need to be require the workforce to be trained in new skills
maintained using traditional skills . Traditional and will cause many within the industry to pay
craft skills are on the decline and if off site a lot more attention to what is happening in an
fabrication takes hold a new breed of multi-skilled effort to protect their interests . That is probably
workers will need to emerge – those skills will no bad thing for the future of the construction
need to serve two very different markets. industry.
Page 23
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Appendix 1:
List of BRE Reports on Non-Traditional Housing
BRE report Title
number
Page 24
Non-traditional housing in the UK
Page 26
BRE, Garston, Watford, WD25 9XX