Do You Live In a BISF House?
Share your views and experiences of living in a BISF house.
Created by BISF Owners for BISF Owners like you.
One of the greatest features of owning a BISF property is the ease of which the interior design can be changed.
As none of the internal walls are load bearing many owners have made considerable interior layout design changes.
BISF House would love to see examples of your work.
Please take a few minutes to let us know your experiences good or bad in relation to these properties by adding your comments below. You can even upload your own Photographs.
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pauline376,
Hi Pauline, thanks for posting your pictures. My first thought was surprise as your render looks to be intact and of good condition but it does look as though it has been re-rendered over in the not so distant past, possibly due to a local authority upgrade. This could have concealed any previous poor render which could have allowed water ingress.
This is the most common reason for stanchion corrosion but I have just also read your later response to Susie and I see that it was brought to your attention by a section of loose render.
I think in this case you will need to obtain several quotes for the repair work as although the stanchion repair in itself is not complicated or very costly by way of materials and labour you probably will find that because it is a structural repair many businesses tend to hike the prices considerably under the guise that it is a specialist job. However finding the right people familiar with BISF repairs can be more of a challenge as I'm sure you have already found.
As for checking the other stanchions of the property you could always ask the structural engineers if they can check them using a boroscope which is less intrusive. This is basically a miniature camera on a flexible tube that can be inserted through a small drill hole but much depends on how much room is inside the cavity.
Just another thought, when you purchased your house what type of survey did you have? If it was a standard non-intrusive home-buyers survey then you probably wont have any recourse but if you had a full structural survey carried out you may have a case against the surveyor as this should have been highlighted in the survey.
It would also depend on how long ago it was since you purchased the property as it could be argued that the corrosion occurred recently which I highly doubt.
I think as time goes by more and more properties may suffer from similar stanchion corrosion at the base but the good point is that it can be repaired and in effect prolong the life of the building.
Much of the post war steel used in the construction of BISF houses was of a lower quality than that used today. Repaired and properly treated, the replacement steel will probably outlive the entire house. :0)
Keep us informed though Pauline as sharing such situations is what the site is all about. It's just a pity that you are the first to experience this particular problem on here otherwise you could have had more references available to you.
Marc