The first houses to be put up after the war were the
Howard and Orlit houses. The Orlits
were flat roofed semis made of concrete. Concrete posts were erected and
concrete panels were slotted in between them to form a cavity
wall. The Howard houses and the
Glen Lyon bungalows were steel framed,
the former originally covered in steel panels. The Minnox
houses were timber framed with wood panel and brick infill.
The standard of construction of the pre war houses was very high.
The building process was determined by the
by-laws, which were quite advanced for their time. Some of the prefabricated
houses were eventually to experience structural
problems. In some of the Orlit houses the main concrete beams were
liable to deteriorate; in some cases this led to subsidence. This was
a national not just a local problem, and the council made improvements
to the structure of the houses and central government made very substantial
grants available to those who needed to rebuild.
