buying a victorian house that needs renovating

[ilovecats]

Hiya
I am in the process of buying a 3 bedroomed victorian house and it needs work. I am not sure where to start and could do with advice!

I want to take up the carpet and restore the floorboards. This is a priority.

Then I have no idea!
The windows are awful PVC chunky things- I have no idea how much this will cost to sort, I'm hearing £1000 per sash window?? I also need a new front door.
The front garden is concrete and I want tiles- maybe black and white but I don't want to get the wrong look for the period
The fireplace "platforms" have cheap looking black tiles and I want them to look nicer. Not sure how. I am considering taking out a fireplace in the living room and installing a wood burner.
Also considering a side extension for the kitchen.. which is making me think about keeping the current horrid kitchen for a while.
Do you think that a side extension and removing the fireplaces will be a decision I'll regret in 20 years? I don't want to ruin its charm with tacky changes!

Any ideas welcome, I can post links to the house if any one is interested too.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Sounds like you are planning on doing a lot! I would hold off the extension until you move in a live there for a bit, unlesss you are aboslutely certain you need the space. Would a rear extension block light to the middle room?

Depending on the type of house I would perhaps look into PVC sashes. I know this is against the ethos of this forum, and in my humble 3 bed terrace, I am restoring the original windows, but if I had to replace, then getting wooden ones, or making them would be either cost or time prohibitive.

http://colinssashwindows.co.uk/

This place (which I have no affiliation with) do sash windows for £300 (£250+VAT). If you do go down this route though, please please please fit the windows into the recess behind the outer skin of the bickwork as the original sashes would have been fitted. So many people fit the windows flush with the outer skin which looks really bad. Fitting flush also reduces the glazed area of the window as the entire frame is on show, where as the traditional way hodes much of the frame behind the outer skin allowing more light in and it looks much better. Here are pictures I have taken off the web to illustrate what I mean. the top is not as nice as the bottom in my opinion.

Wood burners can be expensive as they usually need the chimnet lining. If it is not going to be the main heat source for your house fireplaces can be more attractive and cheaper. If you do put in a woodburner please keep the surround, as a hole in the wall with a modern stove in it doesn't make the most of the features of a period house.

 

[JBean]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

We recently bought an Edwardian house and before we moved in had a long list of jobs we were going to do straightaway. But after just a few weeks living here, I can see the sense of the advice to draw breath, get to know the house and ponder before rushing into all sorts of work. Things that seemed urgent slip off the agenda and other more pressing jobs emerge. The house will have its own personality and quirks and you need to get to know it.

But very glad you found this forum - it has been so helpful already for me.

 

[88v8]

Hello and welcome.

Edit your profile to show the area of your future house, may help in giving you local recommendations.

I endorse the advice to live there a while before doing stuff.

The floorboards are ?pine ?hardwood? Quite a lot of threads on how to restore, and how not!!
Here's one
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10941&p=137169&hilit=floorboard+sanding#p137169
Toby Newell is our expert.
Here's his website
http://newellwoodworks.co.uk/about%20us.html

As regards the extension the (many) previous owners have managed for 100+ years. Not to say that an extension can't look good, but I know from experience it's a struggle to get even good builders to build in an accurate old style, and so many extensions simply look hideous.
I detest kitchen/diners so perhaps better not to pay attention to me on that subject!!

Find your local salvage yards for a door.

And tiles.

Yes, we'd love to see a link to the house.

Ivor

 

[88v8]

....PVC sashes...

Well, they are getting better, aren't they?
We're not sashed here, they were a couple of hundred years in the future, but with units made of wavy glass, and then the plastic painted - green/cream, brown/cream, dark red/cream - I guess those you've flagged could be OK from a distance. The proportions and detailing look not bad.
I've never understood why plastic windows have to be so clumsy.

Ivo

 

[kreyszig]

you may be lucky and have a completely leak free roof/chimney situation, but I would prioritise ensuring that is the case before most other things.
as others have said, take your time and get to know the house before hacking away at it.

+1 for pictures!

 

[plasticpigeon]

....PVC sashes...

Well, they are getting better, aren't they?
We're not sashed here, they were a couple of hundred years in the future, but with units made of wavy glass, and then the plastic painted - green/cream, brown/cream, dark red/cream - I guess those you've flagged could be OK from a distance. The proportions and detailing look not bad.
I've never understood why plastic windows have to be so clumsy.

Ivo

Yes I know, a compromise. I think a lot of people think it's expensive wood or cheap casements, and for me plastic sashes have got cheap enough and good enough to be a valid compromise. Not my first choice, but if used with common sense, can look pretty good, and compared to the usual horrid casements they look fantastic. It is just a pragmatic and affordable choice for those who maybe don't have the money or commitment for wooden ones. In the pictures I was trying to illustrate that the top one looked poor flush with the brickwork, and the bottom one better as it is installed as the original would have been, recessed a half brick's width from the front.

Having said that I couldn't bring myself to replace old with plastic, but I could happily replace poor quality plastic casements with pvc sashes and sleep easily!!! I agree with you about kitchen diners, even the word(s) kitchen/diner sound rather naff, a bit like "knock through", "open plan" or "en suite". We have a nice old scrub top table in our kitchen, and sometimes we have breakfast or a light lunch there, but we always have dinner in the dining room!

 

[Tony.]

I would leave the floorboards until later...

Get the electrics, plumbing and heating checked out to see if they are safe and functioning correctly.

Then decide what you want.

I'm planning a side extension, whinstone, wooden sash and case windows, slate roof to match the house, the planners were delighted.

Need some downstairs facilities ( for the old age, as I don't want to ever leave) and a bigger kitchen would be nice.

Because it's our forever house, we have taken 10 years to get things done, but that's
Rewriring
Re plumbing
Installing central heating
Plastering
Decoration
Sanding floorboards
Damp work
New Kitchen Floor and new kitchen.
New fireplacesx4
New wood burning stovesx2
Excavation of 130 tonnes to create off street parking( live on the main road)
Just finishing the back garden!

Thinking about excavating the original garage wall, foundation to get a ground floor store.
Garage foundation wall is about 8 ft high due to garden slope.

Enjoy your house, take your time and we had 2 kids too, which slowed us down a bit too.

 

[Flyfisher]

Although you say 'needs renovating' it sounds as if quite a bit of 'renovating' has already been done and what you're talking about is largely restoration. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I wonder if it would be better to find a property that has not had the 'benefit' of being 'renovated'? It would likely be cheaper (because despite what we may think on here, PVC windows and other insensitive modifications do seem to be rather popular) as well as being closer to the end result you seem to be aiming for. Just another way of looking at things, especially since you seem to be thinking of staying for the long term.

 

[mims&pip]

Hi and welcome

We've restored a few Victorian houses - our first was a three bed/three reception + original conservatory terrace back in the 1990s - and I'd definitely agree that it's usually advisable to live with it a while before diving in at the deep end with changes you may later regret. That first one was quite straight forward - although we fitted a new kitchen and bathroom, stripped floors and decorated, all the original features were in tact (dividing doors between two of the receptions, all fireplaces and some amazing cornicing in the two main receptions) - with no structural changes or major expense, other than central heating as there was none when we bought the house!

By the time we moved to our *forever* home (we actually sold it after ten years as we felt 3500 sq ft was too big for just the two of us when DS went to uni - a decision we've regretted ever since), we were into our stride and took things more gradually. With that one, it was quite obvious where to start as it had previously been converted to four flats so all the partitions needed removing, the wiring replaced, all meters consolidated into one again, and a new heating system put in. Moreover, the house was so large there was no need to extend - although we did eventually replace a previously demolished Gothic style conservatory. We were fortunate that with four kitchens :shock: - albeit pretty awful ones - we could camp out in various parts of the house while working on the ground floor, which was the worst part (pretty much uninhabitable) getting the new kitchen fitted and stripping layers of textured wallpaper/grotty carpets. The garden was inaccessible when we bought the house with shoulder-height brambles throughout, so again that took priority as DS needed somewhere to let off steam! I should point out that Pip and I did/do most of the work ourselves - with the exception of electrics, heating stuff and roofing.

Structurally the house wasn't too bad - we had some repairs done to chimneys, lead work and roof, plus repointing done quite early on in the process. We did remove one (load-bearing) wall to open up kitchen and breakfast room - we had a further two receptions plus the conservatory so we're still able to have formal dining when necessary :wink: Just before we sold we had a new roof and did succumb to a few plastic d/g Windows (rear only!)......something we regretted and wouldn't do again :roll:

Long story short, it's great fun and hugely rewarding - our last house was a real labour of love (non-listed Georgian thatch that was unmortgageable when we bought it in 2011) that we threw our hearts, socks and all our cash at - and DS has now started restoring his own period home, so years of living on building sites didn't put him off, lol! It can also be tiring and a great drain on finances and energy, but sooooo much better than living in a Barratt box :lol:

Look forward to seeing some pics/link!

Mims x

 

[ilovecats]

Just saw you guys had replied! I will have a read! In advanced, Thanks for your help!
Here's the house anyway
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41274849.html?premiumA=true

 

[StripyCat]

:lol: I was expecting a complete wreck!

 

[Feltwell]

I *know* how exciting it is to get a new home, but I really would move in and live with it for a few months at least before committing to changes. I can pretty much guarantee that you'll change your mind on a lot of things. The house looks very livable indeed as it is, better than my Victorian house now after 9 years of my being here!

Regarding floorboards, sorry to say, but there may be carpets down for a reason other than warmth & comfort. Electricians and Plumbers in particular can do some horrible damage to floorboards if they've been in a hurry in the past. Not impossible to repair, I've used some good bits of floorboard from storage cupboards in my attic to patch up elsewhere in the house.

I like exposed floorboards, but we have a bit of a compromise with floorboards and rugs downstairs and carpets upstairs - for warmth & comfort - as well as the bedroom floors having been abused by electricians and plumbers of yesteryear!

Windows - I'm not a fan of UPVC at all, but I do take PP's point, and UPVC has got better - just avoid shiny white whatever you do. I'd still rather have wooden windows though. But what you've got is keeping the weather out and the warmth in - it's not a top priority job I'd say.

The unexpected can happen - we moved in knowing the central heating boiler was old and likely to need replacing at some point, we thought it would last longer than 3 days though........