As the title! Looking at buying a house – a semi – built in 1976 has come up for grabs. Great location but are houses built in the 70s any good or just sh**e?!

That is the most random question ever … i don’t think they are quite like bottles of wine.

They’re just fine as long as it wasn’t a Friday afternoon house 😉

There has been some kind of argument that, due to the drought in that year, there is some kind of lasting effect in terms of footings – but I reckon if it’s made it this far and you get a good survey, there’s nothing to worry about. They’re not like Allegros.

I quite allegros. 🙂

The ’76 had a slightly woody aftertase in the kitchen, with overtones of lemon in the bedroom. I would recommend a ’77 to be honest, as long as you can find one that isn’t corked.

CFH. I couldn’t agree more.
My last ’76 had a nose of stonecladding & more than a soupcon of stripped pine.

Probably ok if it was traditional build. Timber frame houses built in the early 70s are possibly more suspect as Britain hadn’t quite got the hang of US type timber framed houses then. Barratts paricularly screwed up – timber framed houses are fine now. Barratts is still imo a crap builder though.

CFH, I believe you’re confusing it with the ’75 which was a little fuller bodied, more rounded with a wider spread of habitation. Oh and it’ll probably be short of socket outlets unless it’s been rewired.

Depends who built it. As with now, could be great, could be shocking. Get someone who knows what they’re looking at to go with you. I would have thought that any ground heave problems due to the dry summer in 76 would have surfaced by now. I quite like 70s places myself, solid if unspectacular.

Mine was built around that time nothing is square including all the doorways 😯 Was’nt a one off either theres about 200 of them in my road, had a Victorian flat prior and that was precision built compared to this

If you’re getting a mortgage on it, I wouldn’t have thought you need to worry too much about structural problems. Just whether you like it or not.

BTW CaptainFlashheart – Thatcher bought a Barratts house in Dulwich for her retirement. That woman really has no taste……..greengrocer’s daughter, indeed.

worked on a few, kitchens, bathrooms, alterations etc.

I’m not keen personally, especially the dormer type.

If it has an internally routed soil pipe, plan to have it moved direct to the outside before you move in. Otherwise it’ll cause havoc and cost a fortune when it leaks.

the roofs sometimes have a crap membrane under the tiles too, check for damp on the rafters.

Honeycomb drywall makes rewires a hassle and they often have no earth on the light circuit so don’t fit fancy metal switches.

Oh and the plaster will fall off the brickwork if you so much as look at it the wrong way!

Agree with grizzlybus be careful of early timber frame houses from Barrats, i think there was a panarama programe about it, if in doubt get a good surveyor there worth their weight in gold, or at least thats what i’m gonna tell people when i qualify.

Most houses in 1976 were built using unexploded bombs from the Franco-Mars war. But if you just have the thermostat on anything under 30 then you should be just fine.

If it has an internally routed soil pipe

Nice….

Funny about the soil pipe, doesn’t EVERY new house built have an internal soil pipe ?

I have to say IMO 70s house are the worst of all worlds – not built with the modern standards of insulation and electrical systems but without the generous room sizes and windows of pre war houses. But if you want the house that is no reason not to buy it

dropoff – Member

Funny about the soil pipe, doesn’t EVERY new house built have an internal soil pipe ?

Nope, have a look at the back of every house you can see today. the fat pipe, going from the ground to the gutter line is the soil pipe.

had a Victorian flat prior and that was precision built compared to this

I used to live in a Victorian terraced house which was the worst built I’ve ever been in. Nothing was square, walls bulging and cracking all over the place and the walls between the houses were so thin that not only could you hear people talking in the next house but you could understand what they were saying!

I then moved to another Victorian house that sloped significantly front to back. Walking from the kitchen to the front door was clearly at least a metre of altitude gain, possibly more. Definitely uphill so that you could feel it in your legs.

Lesson: You can’t tell how good a house is by how old it is.

Funkeymonkey, thanks for the info. But if you take a look at NEW houses you’ll struggle to find a soil pipe outside.