Thoughts on possible project

[stevec]

I am now (finally) getting into the final stages of my current house restoration, and am thinking about the next property.

In a village not too far away stands this long unoccupied cottage. It was originally part of a longer terrace of 3 cottages, but the first 2 were demolished some years ago and only the ground and first floor frontage survives (they have been infilled to form a yard area with attached garage)

The render (no doubt a cement render) is still in good order and shows no sign of structural cracking (certainly nothing like the structural cracking that was demonstrated at the SPAB homeowners course I attended!). That said, the front elevation is nicely bowed...my thoughts were that this is possibly historic settlement- character- rather than a sign of impending collapse.

The property has been empty for many years, possibly knocking on 10 years, hence access points have been bricked up to stop squatters. The 2 upstairs windows have no glass left, so the rooms are open to the elements.

From this view taken from a nearby hill you can just make out a small tree that is growing out of the gable end wall by the chimney where some roof tiles have slipped off- this has caused a section of the upstairs ceiling to collapse, so may very well mean a lot of rotten timber inside.

My thoughts are that this property does not have much time left before it becomes a complete wreck, but is still quite saveable at the moment (maybe not the castle-effect bits though- they really are awful). It seems that a new roof structure would be needed, plus works to repair rotten flooring/joists inside (as well as handy things like doors, windows, electrics, heating, plumbing etc).

Apart from the first major hurdle of contacting the owners and seeing if they want to sell, then getting an inaccessible property valued, I am a bit worried about the issues of returning such a semi-derelict property into use- with regard to planning and building regs.

Do any of you have any tips or advice from experience on these sorts of projects at all?

Many thanks

 

[biffvernon]

Contacting the owners and seeing if they want to sell might be the biggest hurdle. It's funny how some folk just don't want money.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

That's an interesting project! Trying to recognise it from the pics, but struggling a bit - is it in Halton?

As you say, it's at the stage of dilapidation where prompt action is needed. Another year or two and the roof will be off, and then it's rapidly downhill.

A friend has been tackling a similar project here (Silverdale) for the past few years. So long as you don't have to live in it then it shouldn't be too hard. Assuming that the basic wall structure is good it's a case of stripping out, re-roofing, repair /replace windows & doors, then make good the inside. So about 5 years or so. Beacuse you are renovating rather than new-building you should be able to work around a lot of the regs. Taking the building back to a shell gives you the opportunity to get the services in the right place and to put in good levels of insulation etc. Perhaps the most challenging part of the project would be planning the rebuild, and deciding what features to retain whilst exploiting the full potential of the property.

Certainly worth further investigation.

 

[MdB]

Is it just me that can't see the pics?

 

[Penners]

Is it just me that can't see the pics?

I can see them fine. You shouldn't drink before lunch.

 

[Penners]

stevec - I take it the building isn't listed? That being the case, and assuming you manage to find the owners and buy it, I can't see that you're going to have many problems - provided you have sufficient money.

Our first renovation was a listed timberframe cottage in East Anglia that was in almost as poor a state as this one, except our roof was rather better. As regards LBC, planning and building control, we had a few problems, but these were mainly due to the listed status of the house. And after a couple of brief tense moments between the CO and the BCO, we got all our consents. Broadly, everyone was just glad to see the building being saved.

As I said, I really don't think you'll have too many problems, provided you have the necessary funds.

 

[MdB]

Is it just me that can't see the pics?

I can see them fine. You shouldn't drink before lunch.

I've only had a couple....

The problem turns out to be a DNS issue. My ISP hasn't heard of http://img3013.photobox.co.uk/ so doesn't know where to get the pictures from. Fortunately, it is just an alias of http://img301.photobox.co.uk/ which does work so I can see this images from the following links (just in the case that somebody else can't see them too) Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3 and Pic 4

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The castle-effect bits seem to be a rather interesting (though somewhat butchered) folly screen wall - is it near to either a genuine castle site, or a largeish house whose view it interrupts?

 

[stevec]

I really appreciate all of your responses- thank you!

Biff- it is a long shot, as there has to be a reason for someone to own a property for many years (miles away from where they live) and yet do nothing with it- long term speculation, family ties? It could take months to get nowhere, but I have that little ***** of hope. Perhaps the thought that it is now getting close to a derelict (and potentially dangerous) condition could encourage the owners to look again at the future of the building.

Andrew- yes, it is Halton- quite a varied village in terms of architecture- lots of period properties, as well as interwar, 60's/70's boxes and modern stuff. It's a shame it is a bit too close to the M6 to be a quiet rural backwater though.

Penners- I'm not sure on the status- I suspect that it isn't listed, but it is definitely within a conservation area (hopefully that has helped prevent the house being knocked down and turned into some sort of executive pad). I've emailed the council's CO to check though.

In the third photo down, in the background, you can just see a larger house, which does have nice decorative crenelations. The hill from which I took the final pic might have been a small castle or tower of some sort- grassy mounds on the ground are the only traces (apart from a large flag pole).

This is certainly a more in-depth project, and no doubt I will scare myself with the potential costs.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The mound is a motte and bailey castle, and looking at the aerial photos on Maps Live I suspect the battlements were added to the cottage you're interested in ;
a. To pick up the "castle" reference from the site, and
b. to look impressive when approaching from the east - what you're photos don't make clear is that the cottage sits in a tight wedged-shaped junction at the east end of the village street, with the main road running along the front and a lane to the church along the back. The battlements (especially with the battlemented house across the road) make a sort of "gatehouse" effect as you enter the old part of the village.

As I said, interesting and worth looking out any older photographs to see how it was.

 

[stevec]

The battlement effect is quite a statement when you drive along that road- I think it is the contradiction of being attached to such a low status building- maybe a bit tongue in cheek?!

I took this pic through one of the slits in the wall, and it is quite a dodgy sub-Barry Bucknell effort- rough concrete cast in sections over a series of weekends no doubt.

Thought I would finish off with one of the few internal shots I could take from the small step ladder I brought with me. I like the tree root dangling down through the hole in the ceiling- very organic interior decor. Doesn't quite go with the woodchip and stripey wallpaper...

 

[biffvernon]

I'd vote for keeping the battlements. You never know when they might be needed and it's daft things like that that add interest to our townscapes.

Ruskin argued that the difference between building and architecture was that building was the fuctional part while architecture dealt with the useless bits.

 

[Penners]

Bear in mind that, as you're in a Conservation Area, or the building could be listed, you'd need LBC to get rid of that tree root. :wink:

 

[AMc]

http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141023366,00.html
"How to Rescue a House" by David Ireland - has a chapter on tracing an owner and negotiating to buy a house that isn't for sale. Might be worth ordering it or getting the local library to get it for you if your serious.

In case you didn't know, If it's been vacant for a long time then you get a VAT break which you claim at the end IIRC.

Looks like a hell of a lot of work, but could be great.