If your own home is slightly out of the unusual, the probabilities are you’ll need to maintain it protected with non-standard home insurance coverage.
The actual fact is, there are much more non-standard houses in Britain than you’d think about, as a result of home constructing developments have modified a lot with developments in building strategies, supplies and other people’s tastes.
This weblog supplies a information to historical past of home constructing as kinds and supplies modified by way of the centuries and from decade to decade.
Thatched roofs
Thatch roofing goes again hundreds of years. Howick House close to Alnwick in Northumberland is thought to have had a thatched roof and the constructing dates again to the Mesolithic period (8,000 to 2,700 BC). There’s additionally proof that iron age towers and fortresses used thatch for roofing between 1,200 and 600 BC.
In actual fact, is prolific when it cones to the historical past of home constructing. It was the predominant roofing materials in lots of locations till the 1800s and stays the stereotypical roofing of the nation cottage. Right now, there are greater than 60,000 thatched roofs in the UK.
Good high quality straw thatch can final for greater than 50 years when utilized by a talented thatcher. Historically, a brand new layer of straw was merely utilized over the weathered floor every couple of years, and this ‘spar coating’ custom has created accumulations of thatch over seven ft thick on very outdated buildings.
The straw is bundled into ‘yelms’ earlier than it’s taken as much as the roof and it’s then hooked up utilizing staples, referred to as ‘spars’, constructed from twisted hazel sticks.
Round 250 roofs in southern England have base coats of thatch that had been utilized greater than 500 years in the past.
Nearly all of those roofs are thatched with wheat, rye, or a ‘maslin’ combination of each. Mediaeval wheat was an excellent crop that grew to nearly six ft tall, thriving in very poor soils however producing sturdy straw for the roof and grain for baking.
The supply of excellent high quality thatching straw declined in England after the introduction of the mix harvester within the late Nineteen Thirties and 40s, and the discharge of short-stemmed wheat varieties.
Rising use of nitrogen fertiliser within the 60s–70s additionally weakened straw and diminished its longevity. Because the 80s, nevertheless, there was a giant enhance in straw high quality as specialist growers have returned to rising older, tall-stemmed, ‘heritage’ styles of wheat.
You possibly can learn our useful weblog if you wish to know extra about the pros and cons of having a thatched roof.
Lime mortar
Homes have been constructed with lime mortar for greater than 4,000 years. It’s lime blended with an mixture corresponding to sand and water. Its use didn’t fall into decline till the nineteenth Century and the introduction of Portland cement.
This was largely because of the ease of use, its fast setting, and excessive compressive energy. Nevertheless, the gentle and porous properties of lime mortar present benefits when working with softer constructing supplies corresponding to pure stone and terracotta.
For that reason, Portland cement remains to be generally utilized in new brick and concrete building. Within the restore and restoration of brick and stone-built constructions initially constructed utilizing lime mortar, the usage of Portland cement isn’t really useful.
Regardless of its enduring utility over many centuries, lime mortar’s effectiveness as a constructing materials has not been properly understood – its use was based mostly on custom, folklore and commerce information.
Solely throughout the previous few many years has testing offered a scientific understanding of its sturdiness and the explanations that made it integral within the historical past of home constructing. Professionals and DIYers should purchase lime mortar, and have it matched for color and content material, by corporations that concentrate on historic preservation of buildings.
Stained glass
Like thatch and lime mortar, glass is an historic constructing materials intrinsic within the historical past of home constructing. Fragments of colored window glass relationship again to the seventh Century have been excavated at sites of Northumbria-based monasteries in Monkwearmouth and Jarrow.
The Anglo-Saxons made stained glass home windows utilizing colored glass and lead, however basically, stained glass as we all know it was a mediaeval artwork type which was extensively utilized in gothic structure.
It was not till the 18th Century that pictorial home windows had been produced in any quantity. The ‘Gothic Revival’ persuaded many artists and designers to research the strategies and strategies of mediaeval stained glass, about which hardly something was then recognized, and regularly the outdated expertise had been relearned.
The stained glass trade was prolific throughout this era, and plenty of new companies and studios had been established. The glass from Morris & Co (shaped in 1861 by William Morris) dominated the final quarter of the nineteenth Century, and the designs of Burne-Jones and different Pre-Raphaelites rose above the pious sentimentality of a lot Victorian work, and lead strains turned as soon as once more a significant a part of the design.
Learn our weblog to seek out out how to get the Gothic revival look in your home.
Timber building
Timber framing has been standard in constructing for hundreds of years due to the robust, resilient nature of wooden, abundance of provide and relative ease of building.
Conventional timber framing is the creation of wooden ‘skeletons’ for buildings with the house between the skeleton infilled with brick, stone or filler. Timber framed houses are resilient and really enduring.
All through historical past within the UK, timber framing fell out of style throughout the Victorian period, primarily as a result of there was such big demand for wooden within the shipbuilding trade, however the method has seen one thing of a revival because the Nineteen Seventies as architects have tried to create extra sustainable buildings.
Cavity partitions
Cavity wall building was launched throughout the nineteenth Century and gained widespread use within the Twenties. In some early examples, stones had been used to tie the 2 skins collectively, whereas within the twentieth Century steel ties got here into use.
Initially cavity widths had been slender and had been primarily carried out to cut back the passage of moisture into the inside of the constructing. The introduction of insulation into the cavity turned standard in the 1970s and compulsory in the 90s.
Prefabricated houses
Prefabricated houses are manufactured off-site prematurely, often in commonplace sections that may be simply shipped and assembled on web site.
Within the 19th Century 156,623 prefab houses had been constructed utilizing flamable and non-combustible supplies for fast mass lodging. They had been initially scheduled to final 10 to fifteen years however many are nonetheless being lived in right now.
Felt roofing and EPDM
Felt roofing was launched within the Nineteen Thirties – it comprised skinny constructing paper which was exceptionally water-resistant. These days, Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer is the really useful roofing materials.
EPDM is an artificial rubber which lasts for much longer than different alternate options, is simple to scrub and is environmentally pleasant.
Ban of flamable supplies in flats
In 2018, following the Grenfell Tower catastrophe in West London the earlier 12 months, the ban on combustible materials in flats over a certain height was introduced altering the way in which multi-storey flats can be constructed.
Multi-storeys that included combustibles already had been ordered to be stripped of such supplies and different fireplace retardant insulation utilized.
Solar energy roof panels
We in all probability consider solar energy as a twenty first Century innovation, however the first photo voltaic cell was designed by Swiss scientist Horace-Benedict de Saussure in 1767.
Between the 2000s and 2010s, solar panels turned extra environment friendly, handy and simpler to entry for home and business owners. Quick ahead 250 years from the primary photo voltaic cell’s creation and photo voltaic panels have turn into common-place on our houses.
It’s at present estimated that greater than 1.2 million houses within the UK have photo voltaic panels fitted.
Our blogs helps you to seek out out how much money you can save on your electricity bill by fitting solar panels.
3D printed houses – now and the long run
3D expertise is within the vanguard on new dwelling building. 3D printed houses are constructed layer by layer utilizing industrial-grade, 3D-printing expertise. 3D tech is the long run, reasonably than the historical past of home constructing.
There are solely a handful of 3D printed dwelling developments world wide however as a result of the tactic is so fast and low-cost in comparison with commonplace home constructing, curiosity within the expertise is rising quick.
The expertise is so new that Adrian Flux launched the UK’s first commercially available 3D printed home insurance policy earlier this 12 months.
Adrian Flux family insurance coverage
Rejoice your own home’s distinctive options with Adrian Flux non-standard insurance. Name 0800 369 8590 for a quick and fuss free quote – 81.5% of all prospects receiving a web based quote in August 2022 may have obtained a less expensive quote over the cellphone. Alternatively, request a callback at a time that fits you higher.
