Advice needed about expected longevity of older building made of "red brick" (อิฐมอญ อิฐแดง)

[wml22]

Hello all,

 

I've gotten some amazingly sound advice from this community in the past so I wanted to ask for your insight about a condo purchase my girlfriend is considering in Bangkok. She doesn't have a large budget, but found a condo in Ekkamai for 600,000 baht. The building is 30 years old but it's made of this material: "อิฐมอญ อิฐแดง". I don't know the right translation but it's a type of red brick (can see photos from Google: see search results).

 

She's been told by the owner that this material is quite resilient and the condo, having been built 30 years ago with this material, will last many more years. At 600,000 baht I think that as long as it will last another 10 years it's not a disaster and if it lasts another 40 years it's a good deal. The on-site visit seemed OK, there were no obvious maintenance defects in the walls, ceiling, or floors.

 

Do any of you have insight about how much longevity a building constructed 30 years ago with this material should likely have?

[transam]

Think some photos of the build would be helpful.

 

Most builds now are concrete frame in filled with red bricks, my house is.

[wml22]

4 minutes ago, transam said:

Think some photos of the build would be helpful.

 

Most builds now are concrete frame in filled with red bricks, my house is.

I think that the brick is painted over but these are the photos I have:

[transam]

2 minutes ago, wml22 said:

I think that the brick is painted over but these are the photos I have:

That building is what I described. Those lines are etched in marking the frame edge, don't know why they do that.

 

So, frame, infill with bricks, render it all with sand and cement, paint. You will get some cracks in the rendering in places with settlement. If this place is 30 years old it's doing OK, though that ground floor shot looks like the render has come away for some reason........ 

I would have a walk around the building to look for stuff that hasn't been toshed up in a while, get a bigger picture...

[wml22]

1 minute ago, transam said:

That building is what I described. Those lines are etched in marking the frame edge, don't know why they do that.

 

So, frame, infill with bricks, render it all with sand and cement, paint. You will get some cracks in the rendering in places with settlement. If this place is 30 years old it's doing OK, though that ground floor shot looks like the render has come away for some reason........ 

I would have a walk around the building to look for stuff that hasn't been toshed up in a while, get a bigger picture...

Thanks for your response. We're not very qualified to assess the condition based on our own inspection of finer details, so generally speaking, how long do you think this type of building typically lasts in acceptable condition? 50 years after it's built? 70 years after?

[transam]

1 minute ago, wml22 said:

Thanks for your response. We're not very qualified to assess the condition based on our own inspection of finer details, so generally speaking, how long do you think this type of building typically lasts in acceptable condition? 50 years after it's built? 70 years after?

Dunno, but bricks and mortar don't degrade, the concrete shell/frame is its strength, that is ironwork encased with concrete. Should have many years of life ahead of it. Here's my build at the time..

 

[wml22]

15 minutes ago, transam said:

Dunno, but bricks and mortar don't degrade, the concrete shell/frame is its strength, that is ironwork encased with concrete. Should have many years of life ahead of it. Here's my build at the time..

 

Cool, it is very helpful to hear your reassurances. Really appreciate it. At least seems we don't need to worry about much risk of the building collapsing after ten years lol. Probably can't take that for granted with some of the newer construction projects these day!

[HauptmannUK]

I used to regularly stay in a 1980-built condo of this type of red brick construction.  It was a little shabby (broken tiles and cracks in rendering) but the structure itself seemed very solid and little sound transmission between units. IMO it was much better built than most of the newly-built condos that I've stayed in.

[carlyai]

See where they get their water from. Do they pump from underground? See if the basement ground has sunk. 

Also look for rusty rebar where the plaster has fallen off. 

Not saying this is totally bad but ...good to know.

Plaster or mortar gives those red bricks their strength I think..