PRC Homes

 

Following the Second World War an urgent need for housing was identified at a time when traditional building materials and skilled labour were in short supply. This led to a need for cheap and easily erected properties to be designed, the component parts produced in factories and then sent out to sites throughout the United Kingdom to be erected by largely unskilled labour. These houses were only ever meant to be a short-term solution however;

 

Tens of thousands of properties still remained and in the early 1980s, following the discovery of cracking in the columns of an Airey property a comprehensive investigation was undertaken to establish the condition of precast reinforced concrete houses built before 1960. Evaluations were carried out on 17 common types of PRC Houses including Cornish Unit, Unity, Wates, Airey, Woolaway, Hawksley and Reema Hollow Panel constructions.

 

The main load bearing components were examined to establish condition along with external and internal concrete elements. The investigations on site consisted of visual inspections, removal of concrete samples for testing and studying of original design and construction documentation.

 

It was discovered that in a long term chemical process known as carbonation, carbon dioxide interacted with the concrete to change its composition so that the protection afforded to the steel reinforcement would eventually be lost and in due course concrete houses would eventually become unsound. Further problems were found where moisture had penetrated the original structure causing the steel reinforcement to rust, the rusting steel would expand cracking the concrete from the inside.

 

It is generally a slow process and it was found that in most cases structural failure would not occur for some time however more than 20 types of PRC houses were classified as defective under the Housing Defects Act 1984. At this time Banks and Building Societies indicated a reluctance to continue to lend on these properties leaving owners and tenants wishing to buy with few options.