Help in suggesting How to Sell Property

klsallee wrote:

....So a Radon test in any house in Hungary, especially one that is sealed under modern energy conservation regulations, is also a good thing to do. This is a topic not brought up enough in Hungary. In fact, I would recommend anyone, before buying a property in Hungary, to insist on a Radon test of the house.

We have Radon problems in the UK in some areas.  If I remember my geology, Radon is found mainly where there is granite and the country (UK anyway and I suspect HU too) is so well mapped geologically everyone knows where the locations are.  Anyone digging to depth in the right kind of geology would indeed need to check that out for sure.

Guess cheap safety standards go with cheap  housing.
One can not put a price on ones health though.
What I find a bit off is most flats have only one entry and no fire ladder or fire escapes.
I know in the US that would not fly.
I suppose one could order a fire ladder online, never really looked into it.
Could always tie sheets together and pray.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

....I suppose one could order a fire ladder online, never really looked into it.
Could always tie sheets together and pray.

One can get a roll up ladder you can throw out the window.  It does assume one has mobility and have would not be afraid to climb down the outside of a burning building.

A thing recently in the UK I've seen is to hold fire and other emergency drills with the family and involving all the kids.  Not such a bad idea really.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Radon is found mainly where there is granite

Radon is everywhere. Uranium ores (Hungary has theses), phosphate rock, shales, igneous and metamorphic rocks (Hungary has a lot of theses too, such as granite, gneiss, and schist and even limestone) can have radium-226 which produces radon.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Anyone digging to depth

While it is true there are worse places than others, and basements are more a problem than other parts of the house, due to the density of Radon, you do not have to dig down to have a Radon problem in your house. "Every square mile of surface soil, to a depth of 6 inches (2.6 km2 to a depth of 15 cm), contains approximately 1 gram of radium, which releases radon in small amounts to the atmosphere." (source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon#Natural and http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvstox/i/full … /radon.pdf)

When you build a house that is sealed, Radon gets in and can not get out, and it can build up over time.

Of course, some places, there are higher concentrations of radon source materials than others, and some house construction methods can cause more problems than others. All I am saying is a test kit is cheap, and easy to do.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Bad self-build construction, no damp proofing and even mud as walling.

Actually, they are rammed earth walls. And there is nothing really wrong with this type of construction. Modern "Earthship" houses use the same, ancient construction concepts.

But it does create a house that has certain maintenance requirements, especially in wetter or colder climates (proper drainage from walls for example needs to be maintained). And it is a type of house that is meant to be lived in as normal internal winter heating helps to also maintain the walls. And they are actually rather cheap to cool and heat as they really do not have much internal thermal variation (not so much from isolation since dirt is not a great insulator, but by mass effects -- which does mean of course these type of houses are lousy "vacation homes" in the winter months as you will never feel warm if you just come for a week and try to heat them up -- but that is the owners fault, it is not a fault of the house itself).

Most Hungarian houses that are rammed earth and showing wear typically just suffer from neglect. But they can be restored.

So if one has a rammed earth home in Hungary, it simply needs a buyer that understands this type of construction (or a buyer who has a good contractor who understands this type of construction).

fluffy2560 wrote:

Ah well, if you had a RCD (US term: GFCI) back at the switchboard, then it would have switched off before you got your shock.  False economy not to have one of those installed.  They don't cost very much relatively - about 80 EUR if I remember correctly.

For what it is worth, our house only has an external switch box. Nothing inside. Can you explain a RCD more, and where it should be installed, and what I need to tell my electrician how to install it in Hungary.

A friend of ours lived in the US and his parent left him one of those country houses in Hungary.
He was not able to visit the house for a couple of years, came to Hungary to find it had basically washed away from the rain.
My husband loves to call them,"Mud Houses" just sounds so raw and native.
I do not worry at all about radium , grew up in Simi, Cal. the largest nuke accident in US history happened there back around 1959. Worst then 3 mile Island. Of course the home builders covered that fact up since Simi became a very desirable area for families to move to, a quiet little town near LA but safe and far from the city hassles.
Have so many friends and family with cancer issues. One old friend now has brain cancer another is in a wheelchair because of some sort of nerve damage. She used to roam and play in the stream with her bros as a child in Simi. Justy too many people to mention got ill.

You can look it up on U Tube or the History channel. The co. was Rocketdyne, my mom even worked there for a few years... cancer got her too.
A bit more radioactive glow won't do me much more harm I figure.

klsallee wrote:

....For what it is worth, our house only has an external switch box. Nothing inside. Can you explain a RCD more, and where it should be installed, and what I need to tell my electrician how to install it in Hungary.

You should have a bunch of circuit breakers (CBs) on your switchboard.  These are divided up amongst the phases and the types of circuits.  Each one has a different rating according to what they are used for - for example all the lights downstairs might be on a 6A circuit breaker, all the sockets in the kitchen on a 32A breaker, water heater on another circuitbreaker of say 16A. Essentially the circuit breakers are like the fuses of old except you can reset them. 

Here's what you want:

RCD (aka GFCI)

In HU, one usually has 3-phase to the house. In which case a 3-phase RCD is needed.  The installer connects each phase (usually black Live - L - cable) separately through the RCD along with the Neutral (N) wire.   

The RCD measures the current flowing through the L and the N and if they are not balanced (i.e., it's flowing through YOU to ground/earth) then the switch is automatically thrown.  If there's a fault in the wiring, the switch will activate as well.   The current imbalance is usually 30mA in these devices.  This is not likely to be fatal for an extremely short period.  An RCD operates incredibly quickly.  One would be shocked but it's unlikely to knock you off your feet.  More like "ouch". 

Usually important items are on separate circuits and may not be on an RCD. Typically things like central heating has it's own RCD.  So that this operates regardless of the state of other parts of the electrical installation.

A really important design "flaw" of electrical installations in Hungary (and plenty of other countries) is the lack of knowledge of ring mains.  Basically the sockets in the walls are wired from the CB, daisy chaining around the sockets in an area, then back to the CB.  Here, and in other countries, they wire them in a star topology without cabling back to the CB.   That puts heavy loads on the cable and causes a voltage drop on the last socket.  Bad design really.  Electricians be taught how to do ring mains in HU.  What they do now is just tradition.

Wasn't this topic about selling property  Maybe a new topic should be started about building standards/practices in Hungary 

Romaniac

Yes I love having a mud house but the wireing is **** It needs proper rewireing . A job for one of my English visitors . I provide the materials. They do the job then free holiday etc ..think his name is John . Or Paul .

romaniac wrote:

Wasn't this topic about selling property  Maybe a new topic should be started about building standards/practices in Hungary 

Well, maybe you have a point. We do tend to drift here at times.

But..... then again:

Selling a property is also about knowing what you have to sell. As well as understanding by the seller, and communicating both to the buyer, exactly what is being sold.

Also selling a property is about how the seller can improve on the house to market a property to get a better sale (i.e. installing proper wiring may cost "just" a few hundred Euro, but may also increase the resale value by much more than that cost), or that a seller should know about their house type, why it may be more difficult to sell since one should explain to a buyer about the construction so they know what they are buying (i.e. does a buyer understand what is involved with owning a rammed earth house, and is the buyer willing to deal with such a house). And so on. I think it is complicated. But I defer to the moderators.

That's funny Ann, being an "inside" joke and all !!
John the houseman and Paul the gardener!!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

That's funny Ann, being an "inside" joke and all !!
John the houseman and Paul the gardener!!

Pool man is George and the chimney sweep is Ringo perhaps?

Good one!! very witty!

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Good one!! very witty!

Thanks, I forgot Pete (the fifth one who could be the butler).

Yes I can have a whole band. But in reality these cheap country cottages are not worth very much, and never will be,  so the whole point is to just enjoy them while they are still standing ( that could be a song).

Pls send to my law firm a  good description of the property  as I have the opportunity to send it to an Egyptian agent. It would be nice if you gave us what potential the place has for a future owner.

@drveghistvan please note that advertising your services in not allowed on the forum.