Hello all...

[discobarry]

.....Hi,

I just thought i would say hello to you all as i'm new to this period property lark, me and my wife to be have recently purchased lovely 17th/18th century cottage in the Pennines. The reason i say 17th/18th is at the moment we are going through planning permission for replacing the windows back to original hardwood windows and we are replacing the doors and the architect helping out is pretty certain the gable end of the house is circa 1650 not 1750 as originally thought as he has worked our the house was originally of timber structure looking at the cut outs in the timber beams and how the stack is situated on the outside of the house.

The house we have bought is great and liveable although it needs a bit of t.l.c and a good warming up so it can breath and live as it should. The only thing i want to know at the moment is are there anybody on here who either lives up in the Pennines or higher up in Scotland or Wales and how they get on being in less favourable temperatures and more exposure to the elements.

I'll post a pic....

 

[88v8]

Welcome.
Looks like a lovely house, beautiful roof.
Soft south-westerner here, so I'll leave someone else to respond to your question. Look forward to seeing your progress.

Ivor

 

[tycarregydwr]

Hello! What a lovely house

We are in the Preselis in Wales, not as high as the Penines but a fairly harsh climate as the UK goes, it snows every winter and we get very high winds and a LOT of rain! We have a Victorian Welsh stone house which has been abused (pebble-dashing, aluminium windows, etc) but seems to be more or less water-tight thankfully. I can't pass on much wisdom about winter as we've only just moved in and getting ready for our first one up here.

I hope we all have lots of toasty fires this winter, and plenty of warm clothing

 

[MatthewC]

Hi discobarry. That looks like a lovely house, and congratulations for posting a photo with your first post. Presumably your house is as far as the fence on the right? So you've got a older semi-detached bit with a large, old new-build, right?

I'm south of you, but my house was cold, damp and unliveable when I bought it. First warning: I guess it will take a long time to dry your house so wrap up well this winter! Secondly, does the higher ground on the left extend to the gable wall of the house? It looks as though you have earth or stone against the gable wall, in which case I'd try to minimize the damp effect of that as a matter of priority. Thirdly, is that cement pointing that I can see? That's a job for later, but it won't be helping.

I daresay someone with experience of a really cold, high area will be along soon! Best of luck

Matthew

 

[robgil]

That looks like it was once two cottages. Lovely home you have there, very nice indeed.

 

[discobarry]

Hello all,

It would of been several homes at one point, it was renovated in the late 80's(a bad time for building in my eyes) the bottom section for a long time was a barn but for a long time there will many families living in these homes. The gable end is dug out around the majority of it with drainage, there is just one section where it isn't done but we plan on doing that in the future.

The pointing is, well...i don't know what it is, but the architect who has a big interest in the properties in that area says the pointing is beautifull and has been done by somebody who is very interested in pointing?

The house is pretty good inside, just some plastering, new boiler and new windows as a lot of them are gone and a few are PVC which is a big no no as it is listed...Oh and the bathroom needs doing too.

I will post more pics as and when we make progress, i've just been knocking down an old rotten damp shed today in preparation for a the new one being delivered. I need to build a large log store but i can't decide on where to put it, we plan on having a small log store nearer the house for nipping out as and when. We have about 1 acre of exposed land, well it is a field so maybe there would be good for a log store? i'll suss it out.

 

[angrybird]

Hello Barry and welcome to PPUK it looks like a beautiful home you have there and its great to hear that you are changing all the windows back to hardwood.Dating from 1650 that is a great age and im sure that old house could tell many a great tale. I wonder if you will find any hidden goodies?
I am in the process of changing all my windows,only 4 more vile UPVC monsters to go!!!
My house is 1000ft above sea level and sits on the side of a mountain nick named "Windy pass".We seem to have our own climate, when its fine in down in the valley we have snow and its the same with fog! I haven't moved in yet but im sure im going to have the warmest house in Wales with the amount of insulation I have put in .
good luck with your gorgeous new home i wish you lots of love and luck

Jacqueline x

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Hi, Barry,

Nice looking house you have there. I'm on the coast on the Lancs / Cumbria border, so we know a bit about rain and exposure. First bit of advice - get a big woodstove in. It's one of the first things we did here, and we've never regretted it. In fact we've just installed a second one, in order to burn more wood and less gas.

Enjoy your house, take your time, live with it for a bit before starting to hack things around, go on a lime course, read lots of books. And hang about on here, of course.

A

 

[worms]

is there anybody on here who either lives up in the Pennines or higher up in Scotland or Wales and how they get on being in less favourable temperatures and more exposure to the elements.

I'm well to the north of you but only at 100m and not really too exposed (but all things are relative!), probably wetter than the Pennines, probably colder, but as far as I can see, all the principles of looking after an old building still apply!

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Hello DiscoBarry,

I live 800ft up Hope Mountain in N Wales. The climate you get used to, and sometimes it'sin our favour - today we were above the fog level in lovely silent sunshine.

The direction of the wind seems key for us. Most of the time the prevailing wind causes little bother, but when it swings in from the other direction the house is much colder. We haven't done an awful lot to insulate yet, so just chick another scuttle-full of coal on the fire. :roll:

 

[worms]

the prevailing wind causes little bother, but when it swings in from the other direction

I'm with you on that! Anything between SSW and NNW we are used to, but anything from the NNE to SSE is much more problematic!

 

[discobarry]

Andrew, We have got two stoves one which we are replacing the current one in the front room at is is pretty useless and another in the bedroom...we are just waiting on the flue guy coming to install them both properly so i'll put up pics soon....I already have a lot of wood i've seasoned over the last few years so i can't wait to get them going

 

[Schoolmarm]

Hello! I live at about 1000 feet on the west Pennines. The sides facing north and east are always freezing or wet and the other two sides always wet. We have left two horrible carbuncles on the side to give us some protection. A completely knackered lean to and a disgusting porch. Until we have the funds to replace them we are scared to remove them.

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a wonderfully frank summary of life in a period property 'Marm. :lol:

 

[Schoolmarm]

8)

 

[angrybird]

Hello DiscoBarry,

I live 800ft up Hope Mountain in N Wales. The climate you get used to, and sometimes it'sin our favour - today we were above the fog level in lovely silent sunshine.

The direction of the wind seems key for us. Most of the time the prevailing wind causes little bother, but when it swings in from the other direction the house is much colder. We haven't done an awful lot to insulate yet, so just chick another scuttle-full of coal on the fire. :roll:

FW you certainly live in a lovely part of Wales, the country park up Hope Mountain is one of my most favorite places to walk , the views are amazing x

 

[Greg.Hobson]

Hi DiscoBarry

And my apologies if I break any rules or ettiquette - this is my first ever post. I joined to be able to respond with the fact that we live at around 750feet in the Pennines above Holmfirth in a house we are assured was once a barn, then 2 houses then 1 house, all conversion being done pre-ww2 (I think).

I am in my 3rd year of attempting to heat the house through winter using just the 2 wood-burners, requiring (so I have calculated) about 300 to 350 cubic foot of wood that I try to source for less than £1/cubic foot collected. Each year has seen a reduction in our gas bils over winter and this year may well see the first year with no discernible summer/winter profile change. All I can say is that the house feels more "right" in winter than in summer - that is , warmer on the ground floor and gradually cooling through the upper 2 floors to a minimum of 10 to 12 degrees in the bedrooms.

I have a weather station up and running and therefore have lots of data - except that this year the rain gauge has packed in and I have yet to fix it. I plan to consume many kit kats before deciding what to do about it!!

 

[discobarry]

Hello Gary, interesting post there as i live close to you at the moment in Slawit'. I won't solely heat the house off wood but i want to limit the amount of lpg i use and eventually if i get good just use wood but that may take some time.

Keep me posted on how you get on.

 

[worms]

And my apologies if I break any rules or ettiquette - this is my first ever post.

Welcome and no need to apologise!

I am in my 3rd year of attempting to heat the house through winter using just the 2 wood-burners, requiring (so I have calculated) about 300 to 350 cubic foot of wood that I try to source for less than £1/cubic foot collected.

If my maths and metric conversion is right, that might equate to just over 10 tonnes of wood at somewhere in the region of £30/tonne? That is interesting in that my estimate was that I would need 5 tonnes to keep my single 5kW wood burner fully occupied for the winter. When you say "collected" is that firewood collected from a supplier, joinery waste from a sawmill/workshop or DIY scavenging from the forest?

I plan to consume many kit kats before deciding what to do about it!!

That's the spirit! I am in kit kat mode over the decision whether to order 10 tonnes of 3m seasoned, pine logs directly from the forest which should come in at under £20 tonne delivered (but still have to be cut and split).