I obtained copies of the 1956 Housing Regulations and the plans for No. 56 Carlisle Park, Ballynahinch. I could not get a copy of the specification and only saw it for a few minutes during a heated meeting in the Council chamber when I demanded from the Council officers present that I be allowed to see it. The site plan itself was a revelation. According to this site plan there should only have been two semi-detached houses where No’s 52, 54, 56 and 58 now stand. The builder had built four houses where there should only have been two and it seems that he built four for the price of two. I obtained a copy of the 1956 Housing Regulations through the local library.
Under the heading
"Schedule lV",
subtitled
"STANDARDS OF CONSTRUCTION"
was listed the following six simple and straightforward items.
"The standards in this Schedule are prescribed without prejudice to the application of any enactment or bye-law.
Materials, fittings, articles, workmanship and methods of work shall be in accordance with good building practice, and shall not be inferior to the requirements and recommendations of the relative British Standard Specifications and Codes of Practice. If clay bricks are used they must comply with
specification for Clay bricks in Northern Ireland.
(3) Ground Floor
The ground floor shall be constructed:
(a) in one of the recognised forms of solid construction, having a concrete ground slab, or
(b) in the form of an adequately ventilated timber joisted floor with tongued and grooved boarding.
Upper Floor.
The upper floor, where constructed of timber joists or similar form of hollow construction, shall be covered with tongued
and grooved boarding or other not less suitable material.
External Walls.
(a) External walls shall be of cavity construction, formed with an outer and
inner skin of 41/2 inches thick
brickwork adequately tied together across a two inch cavity with wall ties
which are free of mortar droppings. (My emphasis is in red)
(b) So that the inner skin cannot be affected by weather penetration of the outer skin, damp- proof coarses and membranes,
or other recognised barriers shall be provided at parapets, lintels, sills and jambs of windows and doors, and other places where the cavity may be bridged.
Party Walls.
Party walls shall be:
(a)of cavity construction, formed with two skins each of 41/2 inch thick brickwork adequately tied together across a 2 inch cavity with non-rigid wall ties, or
(b) of 9 inch thick solid brickwork, and continued to a height not lower than the under side of the roof covering. (My emphasis is in red)
The reader will see from the photographs in my photo album that a massive volume of legally required solid material is missing from the walls of these houses. Furthermore, we now knew that in spite of this calamitous violation of the law, a publicly funded subsidy had been paid to the building contractor on the word of local Building Control Inspectors who were well aware of that violation. In the following months some people came and told me that their homes were built with the
same material that was now being shown in photographs in newspapers. Some concerned people even brought me into their homes and showed me the terralux blocks in their walls. The terralux blocks were easily seen in the roof-spaces of these houses.