Any possible pitfalls?
#31
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
..... I used to work (for many years) in building maintenance in the UK btw, it's hard to generalize because it depends on the age of the housing stock but given that very little of the housing stock in Arizona is old, it's exaggeration to say maintenance costs are generally higher. By definition almost, the average age of a property in the UK is much older than in Arizona. ....
..... Damp is the most common cause of damage and it only happens in Arizona due to plumbing leaks generally.
So I don't think the amount of precipitation has much relevance to the repair and maintenance of homes in either the US or the UK, with the sole exception of doors and window frames, which if made of wood will eventually rot in the UK.
Last edited by Pulaski; Nov 8th 2017 at 2:14 am.
#32
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
..... New Jersey, North Carolina and Georgia are not Arizona. Comparisons you're making are not valid.
So experience of AC systems can be consistent all the way from NJ to Texas, but suddenly there is a whole different paradigm in Arizona?
#33
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
So in other words they melt then, because the air temperature gets up to 120 F in Phoenix, let alone what the temperature would be on shingles. Get on top of a house in Phoenix during the summer with a laser thermometer and see what you get.
Houses in Phoenix generally have tiled roofs, I'm not making this up...
Houses in Phoenix generally have tiled roofs, I'm not making this up...
20 years is about the average life for shingle roofs here in FL, it's actually the heavy rainfall in high heat that is responsible for shingle breakdown here, washing off the asphalt.
You may have worked in 'housing maintenance' in the UK (that means 'flipped houses' to a professional contractor) but you're not going to win an argument about roofing construction with someone who spends much of his working week roofing.
#34
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Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2017
Location: UK
Posts: 18
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
Er, British homes don't have AC systems and British heating systems seem to last for ever, as do British roofs.
My parents had a gas heating radiator system installed in 1976 and it is still going strong. The water heater is linked to it and the related plumbing is original to the house built in 1958. Whereas the original heating system in our house in the US was replaced after about ten years - I know that because the current heating system, which is on its last legs, is about ten years newer than the house, so our house is about to get its third heating system after only 25 years.
Not only did I never need to replace a roof on my house in the UK, nor have my parents never replaced a roof on any house they owned, I don't know a single person in the UK who ever had to put a new roof on their house. Here? My neighbor just had a new roof installed to replace one that was only 11 years old! A roof that lasts 20 years seems to have done very well to last that long.
Trust me, having owned homes in the UK and the US, US homes need a LOT more TLC, and a a LOT more money, to keep them running.
My parents had a gas heating radiator system installed in 1976 and it is still going strong. The water heater is linked to it and the related plumbing is original to the house built in 1958. Whereas the original heating system in our house in the US was replaced after about ten years - I know that because the current heating system, which is on its last legs, is about ten years newer than the house, so our house is about to get its third heating system after only 25 years.
Not only did I never need to replace a roof on my house in the UK, nor have my parents never replaced a roof on any house they owned, I don't know a single person in the UK who ever had to put a new roof on their house. Here? My neighbor just had a new roof installed to replace one that was only 11 years old! A roof that lasts 20 years seems to have done very well to last that long.
Trust me, having owned homes in the UK and the US, US homes need a LOT more TLC, and a a LOT more money, to keep them running.
Might American homes take more TLC and mote Money due to (being southern state oriented here) hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, haboobs, straight line winds, down bursts etc when compared to
The uk? The uk is wet, damp and dank but some stares get greater swings in climate....
#35
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
My advice is quit fixing stuff when only a minor problem remains. You don't know what will unlock afterwards.
#36
Return of bouncing girl!
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: The Fourth Reich
Posts: 4,931
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
I found your post interesting. May I ask a stupid question?
Might American homes take more TLC and mote Money due to (being southern state oriented here) hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, haboobs, straight line winds, down bursts etc when compared to
The uk? The uk is wet, damp and dank but some stares get greater swings in climate....
Might American homes take more TLC and mote Money due to (being southern state oriented here) hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, haboobs, straight line winds, down bursts etc when compared to
The uk? The uk is wet, damp and dank but some stares get greater swings in climate....
It's more to do with the construction materials: wood just doesn't last like brick does - rot, fungus, termites etc. can take hold very quickly. Also, the stucco and dry wall on the wood frame are very susceptible to cracking if the soil expands/contracts regularly so can need a lot of repair.
We bought our house 5 years ago and it was built in 1958. It had a clean termite report when we bought it but we recently had to pay $4,000 for general wood repairs and termite treatments. The sewer was the original one when we purchased... we replaced the lateral line at a cost of $5,000 when we moved in, and just last week had to replace another section (which had disintegrated under the house) at another $5,000 cost. There's only one original section left, and it's under the part of the house that's on slab foundation - when that goes (and it likely will within the next 5-10 years), in order to replace it they'll need to jackhammer up the slab from inside the house so heaven only knows how much that will cost.
So, in 5 years that's $14K on large repairs. There have been multiple other smaller maintenance costs - $1K here to re-stucco an exterior wall, $500 there to fix an interior water leak, $800 to fix a refrigerant leak in the AC system, $400 to fix a major leak in the irrigation system... it all adds up. We're lucky - the roof was new the year before we moved in, so we may get another 15 years out of that.
Speaking of which, there seem to be so many more things over here which can break down and need maintenance. Automatic garage doors, waste disposal units, irrigation systems, air conditioning units, ice makers in fridges etc. You'll quickly learn to save yourself a lot of money by diagnosing and fixing a whole host of minor issues using youtube videos
#37
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
You're talking about general maintenance, not catastrophic repair, so no - I doubt it.
It's more to do with the construction materials: wood just doesn't last like brick does - rot, fungus, termites etc. can take hold very quickly. Also, the stucco and dry wall on the wood frame are very susceptible to cracking if the soil expands/contracts regularly so can need a lot of repair.
We bought our house 5 years ago and it was built in 1958. It had a clean termite report when we bought it but we recently had to pay $4,000 for general wood repairs and termite treatments. The sewer was the original one when we purchased... we replaced the lateral line at a cost of $5,000 when we moved in, and just last week had to replace another section (which had disintegrated under the house) at another $5,000 cost. There's only one original section left, and it's under the part of the house that's on slab foundation - when that goes (and it likely will within the next 5-10 years), in order to replace it they'll need to jackhammer up the slab from inside the house so heaven only knows how much that will cost.
So, in 5 years that's $14K on large repairs. There have been multiple other smaller maintenance costs - $1K here to re-stucco an exterior wall, $500 there to fix an interior water leak, $800 to fix a refrigerant leak in the AC system, $400 to fix a major leak in the irrigation system... it all adds up. We're lucky - the roof was new the year before we moved in, so we may get another 15 years out of that. .....
It's more to do with the construction materials: wood just doesn't last like brick does - rot, fungus, termites etc. can take hold very quickly. Also, the stucco and dry wall on the wood frame are very susceptible to cracking if the soil expands/contracts regularly so can need a lot of repair.
We bought our house 5 years ago and it was built in 1958. It had a clean termite report when we bought it but we recently had to pay $4,000 for general wood repairs and termite treatments. The sewer was the original one when we purchased... we replaced the lateral line at a cost of $5,000 when we moved in, and just last week had to replace another section (which had disintegrated under the house) at another $5,000 cost. There's only one original section left, and it's under the part of the house that's on slab foundation - when that goes (and it likely will within the next 5-10 years), in order to replace it they'll need to jackhammer up the slab from inside the house so heaven only knows how much that will cost.
So, in 5 years that's $14K on large repairs. There have been multiple other smaller maintenance costs - $1K here to re-stucco an exterior wall, $500 there to fix an interior water leak, $800 to fix a refrigerant leak in the AC system, $400 to fix a major leak in the irrigation system... it all adds up. We're lucky - the roof was new the year before we moved in, so we may get another 15 years out of that. .....
.... Speaking of which, there seem to be so many more things over here which can break down and need maintenance. Automatic garage doors, waste disposal units, irrigation systems, air conditioning units, ice makers in fridges etc. .....
You'll quickly learn to save yourself a lot of money by diagnosing and fixing a whole host of minor issues using youtube videos.
I found your post interesting. May I ask a stupid question?
Might American homes take more TLC and mote Money due to (being southern state oriented here) hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, haboobs, straight line winds, down bursts etc when compared to
The uk? The uk is wet, damp and dank but some states get greater swings in climate....
Might American homes take more TLC and mote Money due to (being southern state oriented here) hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, haboobs, straight line winds, down bursts etc when compared to
The uk? The uk is wet, damp and dank but some states get greater swings in climate....
The only plus I see compared to the UK is that most things in the US appear to be designed so that repair is possible - they can be unscrewed or unbolted, whereas things in the UK I remember were more commonly riveted together or otherwise permanently sealed making them effectively unrepairable. I replaced the bearings in our washing machine, see attached picture, which was quite an adventure. The cost was about $70 for new bearings, but paying some one to do it would have been uneconomic and a new machine would have cost around $900.
Consequently the US "equivalents" to B&Q and Homebase have massively greater ranges of tools and supplies for electrical and plumbing work, as well as timber construction, tiling and flooring, repairing yard equipment (mowers and chainsaws, etc.), roofs and guttering, etc. Even small towns will usually have specialist plumbing and electrical supply companies with even greater ranges of tools and supplies.
Last edited by Pulaski; Nov 8th 2017 at 1:15 pm.
#40
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
Give me a cool, autumnal day over the desert any time! What do you mean "the weather in the U.K. for the most part now"? It's always had a cooler, wet climate. For centuries and centuries. I only moved away last December and from memory summer 2016 was very pleasant. But I was in Dorset. I'm sorry to hear you're in the Midlands.
Last edited by AndyMan74; Nov 8th 2017 at 2:01 pm.
#41
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
Ha...Not just the midlands but the top end in the High Peak where its always colder wetter and windier than most other places except Scotland of course. Well when I said cool and wet all year round we did use to get a summer in summer...you cant tell me that you have not noticed this change in the last 10 years or so or maybe Dorset lives in a good weather bubble I guess.
When I was a child my parents took the family each year, to Anglesey and later the central Welsh coast and south west Wales, and after that, Cornwall. We went for two weeks during the school summer holiday, and we always took thick sweaters and overcoats, and used them for several days every summer, we also had warm sunny days too.
And that wasn't any different from my experience as an adult - I have a picture of my wife taken when we visited Hastings in the afternoon of July 4, in the summer of 2001 I think, and she is wearing a thick parka with the hood up, it is blowing a gale, and there are black clouds behind her.
I still lived in the UK I went to several of the rock festivals held at Castle Donnington, in Derbyshire, and it usually rained, and that was in August IIRC. In fact I remember reading that it rained on 8 of the first 11 festivals. Some years it was damn cold too!
So if you think there was a golden age in UK of warm sunny summers and crisp cold winters, then I can assure you that you are sadly mistaken!
Last edited by Pulaski; Nov 8th 2017 at 2:25 pm.
#42
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
I don't know how old you are, but IME weather has always been a cräp shoot in the UK.
When I was a child my parents took the family to Anglesey and later the central Welsh coast and south west Wales, and after that, Cornwall. We went for two weeks during the school summer holiday, and we always took thick sweaters and overcoats, and used them for several days every summer, we also had warm sunny days too.
And that wasn't any different from my experience as an adult - I have a picture of my wife taken when we visited Hastings in the afternoon of July 4, in the summer of 2001 I think, and she is wearing a thick parka with the hood up, it is blowing a gale, and there are black clouds behind her.
I went to several of the rock festivals held at Castle Donnington, in Derbyshire, and it usually rained, and that was in August IIRC. In fact I remember reading that it rained on 8 of the first 11 festivals. Some years it was damn cold too!
So if you think there was a golden age in UK of warm sunny summers and crisp cold winters, then I can assure you that you are sadly mistaken!
When I was a child my parents took the family to Anglesey and later the central Welsh coast and south west Wales, and after that, Cornwall. We went for two weeks during the school summer holiday, and we always took thick sweaters and overcoats, and used them for several days every summer, we also had warm sunny days too.
And that wasn't any different from my experience as an adult - I have a picture of my wife taken when we visited Hastings in the afternoon of July 4, in the summer of 2001 I think, and she is wearing a thick parka with the hood up, it is blowing a gale, and there are black clouds behind her.
I went to several of the rock festivals held at Castle Donnington, in Derbyshire, and it usually rained, and that was in August IIRC. In fact I remember reading that it rained on 8 of the first 11 festivals. Some years it was damn cold too!
So if you think there was a golden age in UK of warm sunny summers and crisp cold winters, then I can assure you that you are sadly mistaken!
Around 10 years ago I went back to the UK for the month of August. July had been a lovely month...so silly me didn’t take winter clothes. I had to by a coat, sweaters, jeans, shoes. Never again.
#43
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Joined: Feb 2017
Location: Newnan, GA
Posts: 802
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
The housing maintenance costs are all relative though, aren't they? I mean, we are selling our UK home right now for approx $250k. A small 3 bed, end of terrace house, less than 1100 sq ft in size even with an extension, wood framed (think those 70's style houses with white fronts). We had to replace the boiler, the electrics and both front and back flat roofs in the 12 years we owned it, replaced the kitchen and had to repair internal damp several times due to the poor construction of the extension - a mix of rising damp and condensation.
Where I am now, that same price would buy me a 4 bed detached home in a resort style community with about 2,500 sq ft of space and a double garage that can actually fit two cars. Not far off the construction method used for the Uk home I am selling, the roof will be a it bigger than the two flat roofs combined and I'll need to replace the A/C within 10 years or so (assuming I live in it that long), along with higher wear and tear costs, I accept. But, I could just as easily spend $100k less and get my UK house here, put the money aside and soak up the rays knowing over the time I would probably live in the house I'd probably come out even, if not a little ahead.
Eyes wide open and all that. I can either trade-up in size and style, but know my maintenance costs will peak a bit (although my tale suggests only in some ways) or I can stay as I was, enjoy the weather and afford the maintenance.
But my case is individual - as are many others. I know plenty of houses in the UK that suffer damp issues, need re-wiring, boiler replacements (not least because legislation change meaning old ones can't be repaired usually anymore) and so on.
Where I am now, that same price would buy me a 4 bed detached home in a resort style community with about 2,500 sq ft of space and a double garage that can actually fit two cars. Not far off the construction method used for the Uk home I am selling, the roof will be a it bigger than the two flat roofs combined and I'll need to replace the A/C within 10 years or so (assuming I live in it that long), along with higher wear and tear costs, I accept. But, I could just as easily spend $100k less and get my UK house here, put the money aside and soak up the rays knowing over the time I would probably live in the house I'd probably come out even, if not a little ahead.
Eyes wide open and all that. I can either trade-up in size and style, but know my maintenance costs will peak a bit (although my tale suggests only in some ways) or I can stay as I was, enjoy the weather and afford the maintenance.
But my case is individual - as are many others. I know plenty of houses in the UK that suffer damp issues, need re-wiring, boiler replacements (not least because legislation change meaning old ones can't be repaired usually anymore) and so on.
#44
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Joined: Feb 2017
Location: Newnan, GA
Posts: 802
Re: Any possible pitfalls?
Forgot one thing, my external cladding was shot in the UK, caused me to accept a lower price for the house as a result.