Would you buy a house like this?

[Pigletin]

Posting in AIBU for traffic.

We have found our dream house in terms of budget, space, condition and location. The structural survey returned a couple of major things that concerned us:

• Spray foam insulation on the roof which will cause a huge expense and potentially means replacing the roof (assuming the bank will give us a mortgage due to the type of insulation). We are prepared to split the cost of a new roof with the sellers and they are willing to do the work.
• My husbands’ bigger worry is that it’s a timber frame house with an outer skin of bricks. The surveyor has no way of ascertaining the condition of the frame as it’s all hidden. The overall condition looks good from what you can actually see and the sellers seem to have taken good care of it in the 4 years since they’ve lived there. The house is 30 years old and we have read online that the usual span of life of these types of houses are 50-60 years.

This will be our forever house but is also an investment for our kids for when we are gone. We can potentially move out of the UK when we retire or downsize and would want the house to hold or appreciate in value (London) when sold. From what we read online it’s questionable whether this can happen with a timber frame house in another 20-30 years and people might be reluctant to buy it due to the above (essentially having similar concerns to ours). I know timber framed houses are the norm in many countries but they are built differently to the ones in the UK and there are disadvantages to the building process here. The reality is if we walk away and look elsewhere we will end up with a smaller house in a less ideal location.

Would you buy a house like this? Would the timber frame put you off considering we want it to keep or grow its value?

YABU - Stop worrying, buy your dream house.
YANBU - Walk away.

Run a mile. Be glad you found out now.

As others have said “timber frame” can mean anything, good or bad. You could have a rock solid oak frame under there or something shoddy. Only way you could tell is via research and physical inspection.
FYI if I win the lottery I’ll be building an oak frame dream home so don’t automatically think it’s something to worry about. Just something to clarify.

I live in a timber framed house of the sort you describe - i.e. brick on the outside. I had no idea of the lifespan. We've lived here for 30 plus years and the house is probably 50 years old now. As are all houses on this estate. I can't imagine for one moment that it is likely to cause any issue any time soon. Plenty of houses is my street sell quickly and easily, so other buyers are not put off. As you have had a survey done, ask your surveyor how much longer he expects the timber frame to last.

No advice about the foam in the roof.

Buy it if you love it but it isn’t a rock solid investment.
personally I’d walk away. I’d never feel totally at ease with it.

Having had extensive building work completed on our house recently the idea of the foam and timber - massive no

It’s the biggest purchase you make and for me is way to risky to not know about those two significant- the whole structure and roof are affected.

Lots of people talking nonsense on here. Timber frame is fine, spray foam also fine as long as it's designed to enable the house to breathe with good ventilation.

I live in a timber frame house built in 1978. I grew up on this estate. Neither my or my parents houses have had issues with the frame, nor have any of the others.

The most likely situation is that the mortar on the brick skin will crack, but this is easily sorted by getting the pointing redone.
The house itself is considerably warmer than a standard construction house because the frame has 5 layers of insulation in it.
We've never had an issue getting a mortgage either.

You've got an agreement for the roof, if the houses really had a lifespan as short as 50-60 years then that would be more of an issue for the mortgage company than anything else!

Are the mortgage company willing to give you a mortgage for it? If so I wouldn't be concerned about the timber frame. If not the I would definitely walk away as you wouldn't be able to sell it.
I think it would be sensible to investigate the timber frame though could you find out more about it and the actual expected life time of the house?

This 😄

I mean, these sellers obviously bought the house 4 years ago, so someone out there definitely would buy it (because they did). Probably more hassle than it’s worth though really, if you’re already worrying about it.

I'd run, not walk. Foam and all that. No thanks. How much are you paying for it? I wonder how price would compare with the value of my house which is pretty solid and has no problems with roof or anything.