Specification by Period

Specification Notes

Foundations - Concrete strip foundations typically 600mm wide and 150-200mm thick. Some houses, mostly system-built ones had raft foundations. Piling not unknown and usually in the form of short, bored piles and used mostly on shrinkable clays. Most 1950s and early 60s low rise development tended to be on agricultural land so piling was not normally necessary.

Walls - Several hundred thousand houses were system-built. These included precast concrete column systems, panel systems (pre cast and insitu), and timber framing. Note that the bottom two images are system-built properties - see System Building section from Home Page for more information. Most houses in mid 50s built in 250mm cavity construction with brickwork in both leaves or with brick outer leaf and block inner one. By the 1960s, blockwork almost universal in inner leaf. Wall ties mostly galvanised steel, twist or wire type. Mortar was usually cement based, sometimes gauged with lime or with an added plasticiser. DPCs mostly lead cored bitumen coated, or bitumen felt. Rendering was popular, as was tile hanging.  In the 1950s many plasters were still lime based, possibly gauged with a little cement (sometimes gypsum) to speed setting. During the 50s gypsum based plasters became more common, at first these were usually mixed on site with added sand. By the mid 1960s most builders were using pre-mixed lightweight plasters such as Carlite.

Some houses (1960s) were built with brick and block cross walls (gable and party walls) with timber studding to front and rear walls.

Windows - Galvanised metal windows very common in 1950s.  In the 1960s timber casement windows and centre pivot windows became popular. Most windows built-in with galvanised cramps. Towards the end of the period some developers were using aluminium windows - usually horizontal sliding sashes. Most windows single glazed. Concrete boot lintels or steel lintels over openings. 

Roofing - 'Cut' roofs not uncommon in the 1950s but there were restrictions on timber imports and new techniques were developed. One of these was the TRADA truss. These were spaced at 1.8m - 2.4m centres, with common rafters in between. By the mid 1960s most developers were using trussed rafters. Bracing and strapping requirements were less onerous than today.

A few houses had flat roofs or even shallow pitched roofs covered in bitumen felt or copper. Most houses were covered with granular faced interlocking concrete tiles with a bitumen felt underlay. No roof insulation in 1950s (apart from the felt); perhaps 50mm by mid 1960s. Guttering and downpipes usually cast iron or asbestos in the 1950s, plastic by the late 1960s. In the 1950s a few house had concrete Finlock gutters (see Drainage section - Rainwater - Old materials).

Ground Floor - Most floors were concrete, often comprising a layer of hardcore (often industrial waste), a 100mm concrete slab and a granolithic screed covered with thermoplastic tiles bedded in bitumen (often with no separate DPM).  A few floors were finished with wooden blocks laid in bitumen.  In some houses the floors had separate pitch or bitumen DPMs. No polythene DPMs until the mid 1960s. In some areas of the UK screed and waterproofing function were provided by 20mm asphalt on slab. 

Upper Floor - Softwood joists built into the inner leaf or supported on joist hangers, joists covered with t&g boarding. Floors strutted with herringbone struts. Ceilings often asbestos composition boards or fibre board in the 1950s, mostly plasterboard in the 1960s. 

Internal walls - Half brick, studding or blockwork for loadbearing partitions. Non loadbearing partitions included clay blocks, studding, lightweight concrete blocks, and stramit (straw based walling panels).  Flush or panel doors.

Services - There were a variety of heating systems including coal fires, gas fires, storage radiators, warm air systems with ducting. Central heating as we know it today was the exception rather than the rule. Plumbing pipework was mostly copper but lead in common use well into the 1960s. Galvanised cold water tanks in 1950s, gradual change to plastics in late 1960s; copper cylinder. Combined or separate mains drainage depending on local circumstances; rigid jointed salt glazed clay pipes; Hepseal (flexible couplers) became popular in the early 1960s.  Two-pipe system of above ground drainage at start of period, single stack system at end; waste and foul pipes cast iron or asbestos, some plastics at end of period..