Concrete house

Has anybody had any dealing with a fully concrete house, that is no stud/plaster walls at all, everything concrete.

I am currently looking at a house to purchase which I assume is ex housing commission, all internal/external walls are concrete and it's also on stumps.
It's not something I've ever dealt with before so I was wondering does anyone have any experience owning/renovating or even living in one of these houses?

Obviously it makes rewiring or plumbing a bit more difficult and I imagine that no insulation could be a killer but are there other problems I haven't thought of?

Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated!

 

Are the internal walls reinforced concrete walls, or are there blockwork walls and/or a combo of the two?

 

I have one of those.... i just stuck to cosmetic renos.
Plumbing - drill through the wall and route the copper pipes on the outside.
Electrical - Did not create any new power points, so I can't answer that for you.

I did however install an air con. The AC installer used a core drill to cut through the concrete for a back to back installation. Quick and much neater than jackhammering through the wall.

 

Reinforced concrete walls all throughout I believe

 

That makes perfect sense, did the cosmetic Reno end up looking ok? The finish of the concrete walls I suppose is never going to look as good as plaster but as long as they end up looking alright that's good enough for an IP

 

The concrete does have the joins in between and it doesn't look that pretty. It's like a massive silicon join.

Just painted it and it was fine. Not really that noticeable. Biggest issue was the older horsehair plasterboard on the ceiling..... even after you fix it, it starts peeling again in <12 months.

Insulation in that house sucks though. Hot in summer, cold in winter... no idea why they decided using concrete internally and externally was a good idea

Monocrete construction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

My building inspector told me this is all he buys. Lot of ex houso like this in Inala, Acacia Ridge, Brisbane. Only thing I couldn't get past was the asbestos in the bathrooms

 

Anyone built with Hebel? Like concrete panels, but external only.

 

What's wrong with asbestos in the bathrooms?
Pay someone to remove it and do a full reno
(Actually this monocrete house of mine still has the original bathroom from the 50's and each time the tiles fall off i just liquid nails it back on )

 

That's interesting, did he elaborate as to why?
My other property is fully clad in asbestos so a little bit in the bathroom doesn't stress me too badly haha

 

You need to talk the perthians they love brick and render on their weet bix

 

I rented in an ex housing commission house in Hampton East in Victoria for a few years. One of the houses prefabed in the old Chadstone housing factory I heard - not sure if it is true.

Very cold as uninsulated and the southern rooms got mould on the walls.

If I owned one and didn't do a knock down rebuild, I would add styrene to the external face and render it or add some other cladding over the styrene. This would result in the equivalent of reverse brick veneer and minimize the temperature difference between inside and outside. This would help with the mould issues.

 

Solid structure and easy to work with

 

A solid concrete or brick internal and external frame house easy to work with ?

Wrong. Buy one, reno it and report back your results. I dare you.

 

Had one of these, so much harder to renovate. Walls are approximately 70mm thick. Rooms get cold in winter and very hot in summer. Never had a tenant stay longer than a year. Can't blame them.

 

They build them like this to this day up here in Darwin....they still freak out over cyclones.

Hot in winter....mind-melting in summer....

 

Is it Precast? Like the massive precast slabs used to build bunnings stores?

 

We have a family friend who swears by concrete houses - has built two of them from tilt slabs, as consecutive PPORs. I think for him one of the big points of appeal is the low maintenance.

 

Hey I wouldn't buy one but he's a builder

 

You are lucky. I wish I could find or build a house like that.