Boot houses were houses built in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 to accommodate the housing boom following the war. They were named after Henry Boot, whose construction company produced an estimated 50,000 houses between the end of World War I and the start of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Due to a shortage of bricks, boot houses were built using precast reinforced clinker-concrete columns. Structural tests in the 1980s revealed significant deterioration in the concrete as a result of carbonation

Carbonatation

Carbonatation is a chemical reaction in which calcium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide and forms insoluble calcium carbonate:The process of forming a carbonate is sometimes referred to as "carbonation", although this term usually refers to the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in...

. The Housing Act of 1985 provided government grants for homeowners of such 'defective' houses.