Swedish Element House / AB-Elementhus Renovation vs Demolition

That sounds great, thank you very much. Then I wish you much joy in your newly designed home!

As far as I know - I have been living in "Landskrona" since 1974 - you don’t have to worry about that there.

The black panels under the concrete stone facade ("Coloroc") are called "Asfaboard" or something similar = Asphalt = Bitumen.

Certainly not asbestos, I wouldn't know where.

For example, at our place, after completion, chipboard was laid on the floor on the upper floor, bought here, it smelled bad for a very long time, back then people were not as aware that it was unhealthy...

So maybe you don’t know if everything is still in its original condition.

The wood preservatives in the roof truss - I remember - leaked out during rain while being installed, apparently water-soluble.

But: I am by no means a construction expert or anything like that!

Where exactly is your "Landskrona"?

Good luck!
Ybsilon

Thank you very much for your experiences and the information, that helps me a lot.
Our Landskrona is located in Baden-Württemberg, and yours?

Good morning everyone,

this thread is a bit older, but in my opinion it fits best with my questions.

We are going to look at a house in a few days that was supposedly built by "Schwedische Elementehäuser" in 1974. Now, through research and the floor plan, I am fairly certain that it is a "Typ Landskrona" built on a solid basement. The condition seems to be generally well maintained, renovations have been done, bathrooms would need to be renovated. The exterior facade consists of these clinker-like Coloroc panels. The roof is still original, as it seems, somewhat covered with moss.

Now my questions:
1. Is there a high risk that the building fabric of the walls is defective? For example, due to moisture from a weathered building envelope? Apparently, there are no facade damages, but you cannot see the wind protection foil behind it either.
2. How would I install new cables or sockets inside? As it looks, at that time wallpaper was applied directly to the inner multi-layered wood panel. And the walls likely contain wood chips. How can I lay additional cables, e.g. LAN, there?
3. What about the water pipes? Should they be replaced after almost 50 years?
4. Regarding the roof covering, it should probably be replaced as well. Or is there still a possibility to thoroughly clean and seal such old tiles (concrete, Frankfurter Pfanne)?

Presumably, it would make most sense to have a building expert come, but can they assess all this before the purchase?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Best regards,
Benny

Hi!

The wall structure was changed at some point, I don’t remember the year off the top of my head. Therefore, it is possible that your building has a different wall structure.

- You can tap against the wooden construction in the base area. Rotten wood sounds very different from solid wood
- The cables were originally laid in cable ducts on the ceiling. We had an installation level inserted, which I would also recommend to anyone who wants to redo the electronics.
- Our water pipes were completely replaced, starting from the house connection. After looking into the old copper pipes, this was absolutely necessary
- We had a single-circuit heating system installed, with metal radiators and pipes. Just replacing those suggested a complete new water installation
- We have Frankfurter tiles. Since the roof was still intact, I saw no reason to renew it, especially since the construction of the roof frame is not “classic” – many small rafters, often supported. Wouldn’t a completely new roof with the option of dormers or similar be more sensible?!

Thanks for the response!

- True, I’ll have to tap on that. Rotten wood sounds much more dull than solid wood, I hadn’t thought of that at all.
- By installation level you mean suspended ceilings and partition walls, right? It would probably be enough to install a 3-4 cm battens there and then double drywall in front of it, then you could insulate the spaces in between simultaneously with mineral wool, for example.
- If there are cable channels in the ceilings, are there also some in the walls? Possibly one could mill corresponding channels into the inner wooden panels with a router and lay the cables there. The walls will presumably be very straight and perpendicular due to the wooden frame construction, right? Then one could possibly also attach one layer of drywall with channels for cables and another layer on top as "plaster".
- From the photos it looks like the heating pipes are new, the radiators are flat low-temperature radiators and the system is from 2000. These radiators weren’t installed earlier. Possibly the water pipes were renewed at the same time, I will find out.
- The attic is developed and apart from an access to the knee wall I couldn’t easily check the roof structure. From the inside the slopes are wood-paneled. Or are there potentially signs of leaking tiles somewhere? If the underlay membrane is intact, no water should get into the roof structure despite any leaking tiles, except at the edge to the wall of the floor below, right?
Did you just leave the roofing as is or seal it somehow?

Best regards,
Benny

Installation level: We had everything installed, the walls/ceilings were anything but even, so we were able to have a controlled residential ventilation system installed directly. We had the ceiling suspended with 1.5 spring rails and drywall to lose as little room height as possible. We only used a single layer of cladding everywhere (except for new drywall walls), as potentially heavy objects can be screwed directly into the wood. Of course, it also depends on what you have planned. We have a star wiring system and KNX installed; quite a few cables need to be routed somewhere. Cable conduits: For us, they always ran in the joint between two wooden elements. Practically an empty conduit. With single wires. Impossible to mill out without endangering the statics. On the ceiling, everything was installed "surface-mounted" behind the ceiling moldings. Roof: Just get a roofer to come and take a look at the whole thing.