Anothe newbie needs advise

[rai555]

Hello everyone. I like this forum with such amount of experts onboard. After substantial reading i have my questions for your judgent. We are living in Ireland and found nice house built in 1800s for sale. I needs plenty of work but i believe it has great potential. I got impression there's less restrictions for renovation here which is only positive i think.
It is a stone house and every previous owner did own job. I would like to ask completely silly question about the typical stone house smell - someone advised you will not be able to get rid of it. The hose was not heated properly at least for a year or so.
Here the link for the property : http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=742137

Please advise
Thank you

 

[DJH]

Welcome rai. That's a nice looking house. You're right about the more relaxed attitude to enforcing regulations in Ireland but with fewer new applications for building consent planners have more time on their hands to look for things to do!

The smell will dissipate in time. Keep the windows open as much as you can and light a few fires if you have fireplaces. Our house hadn't been lived in for over 40 years and was damp and smelly. It just smells of us now...

Doug from Tipperary

 

[MatthewC]

I would like to ask completely silly question about the typical stone house smell - someone advised you will not be able to get rid of it.

Hello rai

Yes,that looks a nice house, and a lot cheaper than it would be in the UK! Seven bedrooms? 2,500 sq ft? It's huge! Do you have a large family or are you going to start a B&B?!

I don't think there is such a thing a a typical stone house smell - the only likely smell is that of dampness. The question is whether this is caused just by not being aired/heated/lived in for some time, or whether there are significant issues with damp. As Doug says, giving it a good airing might help, but I would suggest that you look for signs of water ingress, and then identify the causes. That's what I did; my 1840s stone house is dry and warm, with absolutely no "typical stone house smell"!

Start from the top and work down: chimneys, flashing, roof covering (are they tiles?), gutters, downpipes, drains and then the level of the outside ground compared to inside. All of these can cause dampness and all are fixable. Check air vents for suspended floors are clear (check both sides!); check the plaster inside for black mould (I can't see any in the photos but then they wouldn't show that, would they?) and for a hollow sound when tapped. I also found a hole in a lead soil pipe under the floor (not nice) and a rotted ceiling above the water tank which had no cover.

Best of luck

Matthew

 

[rai555]

Thank you for advise and all support, actually we put an offer for this house and waiting for the answer from the agent. There's plenty of jobs required and i'm sure will be more than expected with some surprises, but that's life!
We don't have plans for B & B for the moment but you never know
There were at least 2 extensions built and we might convert some space to sunny/summer room or just space for flowers etc.

Seeing the projects from the members i might start adding our own pictures but first things first, we need to buy the house first
Kind regards

Rai

 

[Penners]

Welcome to the forum, rai555. I agree with everything that's been said above.

I bought a stone house some years ago which was very neglected and damp. It had a musty, stale smell about it (although fortunately no active wet or dry rot). I suspect that the smell mainly resulted from a lack of ventilation and dryness, but also it might have been due to decades of occupation by very elderly people, who may not have placed "personal freshness" high on their list of priorities!

Once we had the house warmed up, ventilated, dried out and redecorated, the smell disappeared.

The one thing that you might want to keep in mind is that a smell a bit like mushrooms might just be something a bit more worrying - it could indicate active rot. If this smell is apparent, it might be advisable to seek the services of a surveyor, and see what he/she thinks.