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"Isshooos" with 400 year old building.

13 replies

Rollmops · 17/10/2011 09:38

In no particular order.

As expected, there are some damp areas within the cavernous and mysterious openings within its meter-thick walls (bread-ovens, secret hiding places, who knows).
The builder didn't seem to be too concerned though, lack of ventilation was his initial diagnoses.

The building has a flaking exterior of some type of render, could that be keeping the moisture in?
How big of an undertaking would be removing the render. Replacing it with lime-render (that let's the house 'breathe') won't be suitable as it's not recommended for thatched roofs.

Oh, and the Aga. Love to have one but being put off by the stories of gargantuan oil bills that one is faced with - according to Aga lovers. The said Aga is there for a pretty touch and cooking, central heating is done by oil (aaarghhh) fired boiler.

I know and understand the fierce love many Aga owners feel. Dear parentials have an ancient stone/cast iron built in oven/cooker and I LOVE want it.
But.............

Would be eternally grateful for any hand-holding/wise words/magic potions and flagging up any other potential issues one will eventually encounter while residing in an old house.

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fivegomadindorset · 17/10/2011 09:45

With regard Aga's ours did water and cooking with a boiler doing the heating, our oil bills hae gone down quite a bit since we got rid of AGA.

Not to sure who is telling you about lime render as a pretty much all the thathed cottages here are lime rendered. DH has asked if it is listed as you would have to adhere to the conservation planning officer.

We have damp patches to, nothing significant but age of the building.

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champagnesupernova · 17/10/2011 09:50

What fivegomad said about the listing - but you may be able to get some kind of energy saving grant to help?

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Rollmops · 17/10/2011 09:51

Thank you for the reply!
No, the house is , surprisingly, not listed. Lime render story was told by master thatcher?!
How are you heating your house now, post-Aga?

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champagnesupernova · 17/10/2011 09:55

We have a gas aga.
It doesn't do anything except cook and warm the kitchen but I heart it.
You could poss convert the aga to gas?
If you are worrying about £ then can you have an alt cooking option and turn it off in summer?

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fivegomadindorset · 17/10/2011 09:56

Just been to check with the guys who do all the building works on all the estate properties round here and lime render is what they put on, so not sure where you Master Thatcher is getting is info from.

Aga never did the heating we have a boiler for that and now have three wood burning stoves downstairs, which in the winter are on all day.

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KirstyJC · 17/10/2011 10:00

Our main problems (although our house is only 250 years old) is lack of insulation in the loft space and dodgy poorly maintained windows.

Oh, and the fact that anything you try and mount on the walls, such as coat hooks or curtain poles, falls off. Not quite sure what the walls are made of - suspect it's cardboard. When we stripped off the woodchip from one room the wall fell down. (well, the plaster did anyway). So now we're trying to pretend we love woodchip......not really working but we can't afford to replaster the entire house!

Actually, by far and away the worst thing about this house is the spiders - they are everywhere and there are so many nooks and crannies for them to hide in.

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queensusan · 17/10/2011 10:01

Not being listed is a real positive.

What fivegomad said about the lime-render - not sure why you wouldn't have it with thatch. There are alternative breathable renders/paints on the market though.

We have lots of damp issues and are dealing with them room by room as we renovate. Bear in mind you are never going to get rid of it completely.

We have oil-based heating and cooking. I find that when we are just using oil for cooking the cost isn't too bad. Once the central heating kicks in then it gets expensive. We get around that by relying on wood-burners to heat most of the downstairs and leave the bedrooms to get chilly, just using the central heating in the morning.

If you are timber-framed then you need to keep on top of timber treatment and replacement. Some of our major expenses have been to do with roof timbers.

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fivegomadindorset · 17/10/2011 10:04

We have also had secondary glazing put in most of the rooms this past year.

YY to insulation, although living under thatch is allegedly warmer Grin

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queensusan · 17/10/2011 10:04

Oh yes.... the spiders! We have nooks and crannies everywhere for spiders and dust to gather. Cleaning takes for ever when you insist on vacuuming around the roof beams....

We also get quite a few mice at this time of year as there are far too many gaps in the walls for them to sneak through.

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Rollmops · 17/10/2011 10:26

Thank you, all!
Arghhh, the spiders. There's no place one could be without them I suppose, sadly.
Woodburners would be definitely included, 3 of them downstairs and that should take care of general heating bits.
The walls are so thick that to reach some of the pretty leaded windows, one must crawl onto the sill. Tres glamorous, Hmm and secondary glazing would not suit them. Thick curtains or somesuch will be the way. [Pictures frozen mini Rollmops' twins]Sad
No idea what's in the loft as haven't done the survey yet but imagine re-wire needing to be looked at.

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scaryteacher · 17/10/2011 13:34

Check if there are any air bricks and if anything is blocking them on the outside of the property. Pils place is 450 years+ and dry.

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Pendeen · 17/10/2011 14:29

Thick walls rendered on the exterior. Are they stone? Re-rendering can be horribly expensive however, as 'queensusan' says there are modern insulating render systems however the aga of your house suggest that it will be listed and you are therefore very much at the mercy of your local council conservation officer as regards changes to the building fabric. There's nothing wrong with lime render as regards fire or thatch however they do require more maintenance than modern systems.

Agas? Love 'em but if you are worried about the bills there is a thriving market for refurbished Agas.

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Yankeecandlequeen · 31/10/2011 10:12

We have a traditional welsh stone cottage (its dated about 1800) we're renovating & we exposed the humongous inglenook last yer - BEAUTIFUL if I must say! I noticed during warm summer days the odd stone used to be damp. Got my builder up & he said its condensation from the stones as they're porous. So far so good. I love the nook - its my baby!

Re: the outside? its a mess. Its been patched, painted, patched & painted & its now flaking. We'll sandblast the old walls & re-render the whole of it & make it look uneven & as natural as we can & paint it white. The new extension has to be cladded with stones we have lying around but that is another story - and one which can wait till we get the funds. The priority is moving in ASAP & leave the outside looking as it is!

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