Hi All,
I am looking for some advice guidance..
I have recently had my property in Canvey Island, Essex valued, and the estate agent suggested it is a LPS system and having looked around the internet about this style of build, it seems more suited to tower blocks etc..
Firstly would this be correct, where houses built using a LPS system?
The current construction of the property, is the sides are concrete, and the front and back of the property are timber, with the front being cladded and the back has been rendered..
If this is the case, are you able to change the construction of a property? I want to secure my home for the coming years, and have thought about removing the timber frame from the front and back and bricking removed link
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Hello Matt,
Without a postcode or an image of the property it would be virtually impossible to identify your property, however I can tell you that the LPS or Large Panel System of construction was first used to build houses in Cambridge, following the introduction of the Dutch Occident LPS system and later European imports such as the Larsen-Neilsen, Camus and Jespersen LPS House building systems. As you rightly state, LPS construction was primarily used to construct flats and high rise buildings, however a number of British Post-war housing manufacturers also used the LPS system to build houses. The Reema Hollow Panel House for example was the first home grown production example of large panel concrete homes in the UK.
In theory, LPS construction should be easy to spot, due to the visible mating joints between the large panels of concrete, however in practice, many properties have since been overclad with various products including render or brick slips, making identification more challenging.
The majority of LPS housing in the UK were built using the Reema and Bison systems however to make matters more complicated, some housing was built using large precast reinforced concrete panels (PRC) that were not specifically labelled LPS.
You should also note that some LPS housing has been designated defective whilst others have not.
Finally, I am aware of a number of Non-Traditional construction types in Canvey Island. Take Mornington Road, Cedar Road and East Crescent for example, these streets have houses which could possibly be Unity construction (which I suspect) or Orlit houses both of which are not LPS but are of PRC construction. If so, it's worth noting that both of these construction types have been classified as being defective under the Housing Act, although to be certain of their build type, further investigation would be required.
https://goo.gl/maps/9U1muSyXwsomMrtf6
I would appreciate your thoughts and feedback.
Regards
Marc
