A house built between 1965 and 1982 usually has big picture windows, tile hanging or timber cladding between the windows and a low-pitched or flat roof. Many have a garage built into the house and an open-plan front lawn with no wall or fence, on an estate of similar homes.
The short version
- These homes date from 1965 to 1982.
- Big picture windows fill the front with light.
- Tile hanging or timber cladding often fills the panels between the windows.
- Roofs are low-pitched or flat. Many homes have a garage built into the house.
- Open-plan front lawns, three-storey town houses and tower blocks all belong to these years.
How to spot one, from the roof down
Start at the roof, which you may barely see. Roofs from these years are often low-pitched with wide eaves. Some are completely flat. Chimneys get smaller or disappear, because central heating was becoming normal.
The windows are the star. Big picture windows, often a single wide pane, fill the living room with light. The original frames were timber or aluminium, though most have since been replaced.
Between and below the windows, look for panels of tile hanging, timber cladding or coloured boards. They give many homes from these years their layered, stripy look.
The walls are usually brick, often buff, brown or a mottled mix. They're cavity walls, so the brickwork shows only the long sides of the bricks.
At ground level, an integral garage is a giveaway: the garage built into the house, sometimes with a bedroom above it. In plenty of homes it now holds everything except a car.
Out front, many estates have open-plan front lawns with no walls or fences, so the grass runs from house to house along the street.
Then there are the shapes of the time: three-storey town houses with the garage on the ground floor and the living room upstairs, split-level houses on sloping sites, chalet bungalows with rooms in the roof and, in the cities, tower blocks.
Builders had their own house styles and regions their own materials, so treat these as clues rather than rules. This guide is written for England and Wales. Fancy testing your eye? Play What era is this house?
Where you'll find them
Homes from these years fill the estates built around towns and villages as more families owned a car and wanted a home of their own. Later New Towns grew in this period too.
In the cities, councils built tower blocks and large estates of flats and maisonettes, alongside lower-rise housing. Private builders put up detached and semi-detached houses, link-detached houses joined by their garages, town houses and bungalows.
National building regulations arrived in 1965, so most of these homes were built to a shared rulebook from the start.
What tends to need looking after
Sixties and seventies homes are often light and roomy, with layouts that suit modern life. Their care is mostly about the roof, the panels and the materials of the time.
Flat roofs need checking more often than pitched ones, because water can sit on them. Puddles that hang around, blisters or cracks are a sign to call a roofer, who can tell you whether it needs a repair or a new covering.
Some textured ceilings, boards and tiles from the 1960s to the 1980s can contain asbestos. If something might, leave it alone and get it tested by an asbestos surveyor before drilling, sanding or scraping.
Tile hanging and timber cladding can loosen or rot over time. A roofer can deal with slipped tiles and a carpenter can replace tired boards.
Wiring from this period may well still be in use. An electrician can test it and tell you what they find.
Most homes from these years have cavity walls, which may have been filled since. Any early loft insulation is likely to be thin by today's standards. Your EPC shows what the assessor found.
Thinking of turning the integral garage into a room? The council can tell you what consents the work might need before you start.
Keep your 1960s or 1970s home's story
Log when the flat roof was last looked at, keep every test and certificate together and let homehogs remind you when the next job is due.
Start free
