Another Knackered Old House

[malcolm]

I've been nosing around the forum for a while and thought I'd say hi. I'm bound to post here asking for help soon. I bought a disused pub in a Bedfordshire village and it's brilliant! It had been boarded up and open to the elements for a year so we moved straight in to dry the place out. The place is liveable so the project needs to be confined to one room at a time.

The early parts of the building could date from as early as 1650. There isn't much left of the original timber frame structure, maybe a couple of internal walls of timber, wattle and daub. In 1850 or thereabouts the house was extended backwards and the roof was raised. That extension is sinking a bit and isn't tied in to the timber frame. Then in the 1920s they knocked the front off and replaced it with a bay windowed affair with structural mock tudor (which is now rotten), and extended the extension (not bonded in either). The photo attached shows a gable with the outline of the original structure visible.

The place came with planning approval for residential conversion but the plans weren't very sympathetic to the building so we've reapplied with more sympathetic plans. The backup plan is to make the place residential under the existing plans and go from there.

I'm new to building. I'm handy enough but have rented past 40 years old so have absolutely no experience of building. I'm known in automotive restoration. I'm finding very little advice out there which is why I'm saying hi on here. First steps are mostly addressing damp - making exterior ground levels lower than inside, and stripping the oil based exterior paint (over lime) that probably worked a bit before all the holes were drilled through it.

 

[Moo]

Hello Malcolm, and welcome to the forum. You've certainly come to the right place for advice and encouragement!

You're definitely on the right lines - starting by lowering ground levels and exposing the lime render is spot on.

Bring on the questions!

 

[88v8]

Hello and welcome.

Is that your car-park/future garden?

I always like the traditional pub interior, I think that's pretty much what we bought last year, but without the beer.
You're in the right place for advice on damp - the Damp and Other Things forum

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

If you are known in automotive restoration, my guess is that you might be surprised at the lack of precision involved in building work and strive for higher standards than are normally accepted.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Hello Malcolm, welcome to PPUK!
Good to know another PPUK'er is nearby--- some of us have met up over the years and exchanged trials, tribulations and successes with our period properties!
Massively good advice here too!

I have sent you a PM.

 

[malcolm]

We have about a third of the car park. The rest was too expensive and sold to a builder for a 4 bed cardboard box built in expensive materials specified by the conservation officer.

The pub interior is an acquired taste. They've mock tudored the walls with 2 inch strips which will probably come off. Otherwise it mostly needs a good decoration. I'm supposed to sort out the kitchen first. The plaster and ceiling are in poor condition in there do it looks like it will be a back to structure job with a few knock ons like having to move the stairs. Will need to put some thought into that.