Does anyone live in a very old house? Please advise me...

[IrisJoy]

Hi all

I am looking at buying a very old house (circa 1500) but I have only lived in modern ish houses.. The plumbing, electrics and boiler have just been done in the new house,and half the windows (I would do the rest of the windows). I love the house; but would it be a constant stream of repairs and things wrong with it? I don't have a lot of spare budget for repairs.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me!

Is it listed?

Is it a listed building? This is every important I live in a listed building built circa 1450 and there are a number of limitations as to what I can do to the house etc.
Are the chimneys in good order?
I love my house but it's a labour of love, I'd say it constantly needs low level maintenance but nothing major general,y, on the plus side though it's chocolate box pretty, quirky and incredibly cool in the heat 👍

Not as old, but we bought a 1900s property and gutted it. Other than the staircase everything was taken out and replaced. The whole place went back to brick and we replaced plumbing, electrics, windows/doors etc.

Since then we've not really had to pay for repairs, and the house in good condition. We've been in 5 years and we'll go another 5 before an extension and a refresh of kitchen/flooring etc.

That aside, I'd be looking careful at the following:

• What is the roof like (could be very expensive to resolve)
• Is there any issue with damp? Does the property have cellars, what state are they in? Do they flood?
• Is there any issue with subsidence?

All of this will be reviewed during a survey. In our case, our house was structurally sound, so mainly needed modernising and cosmetic updates. That may or may not be the case with yours.

Mine is 1880. Just under 3000sq ft. I totally renovated it but there’s a constant list of things that need doing. I sometimes dream of a new build but I’d have to build it myself as I won’t give up my 11ft ceilings and large rooms with huge windows.

I live an early 1800s and we've spent around 40k on it in the last 4 years, this includes:

• new water tank system
• installing a shower
• new roof
• complete knock off and put on of render
• several instance of curing damp patches

Then general decorating stuff like replacing kitchen cupboards, flooring, carpets etc.

I don't think you can categorically say because they're all different but I would recommended getting the highest level of survey that you can.

Thanks all. It is grade 2 listed. I don't think that will be too much of a problem as one of the reasons I like it is that I wouldn't want to do anything to it (never found a house like that before!)
I will get a survey and yes wouldn't be able to afford to do major works like roof and chimney so if they needed doing then it would have to be a no unless I can get the priced reduced.

We live in an early 1600's house. I'm in Scotland, so it's Grade C listed.

No major problems at all, but we do pay a roofing company to come round annually & check the roof. We also have a scaffolding tower so we can do minor repairs if required.

We've found the only issue is checking the whole house thoroughly twice per year, so if there are any problems, we can do something about it immediately.

We also asked the vendors for their list of contractors when we moved in, so we have a decent chimney sweep, roofer, and an old chap in the village who can repair the original windows, and do wall repairs with lime.

That's a great idea, thank you @HouseOfGoldandBones what sort of things do you check twice a year and how do you know what to look for?

BTW, bare in mind mortgage co may hold back part of a loan until work is done. It depends on how much existing equity you have.

For us they held back £8k from the mortgage until we'd done new damp course, electrics and something else. This could be a deal breaker if yo don't have money available for such work.

If its grade 2 listed, then budget for repairs accordingly (ie double what you would normally expect to pay).

I live in an 1800s house and that's bad enough with a constant stream of minor but costly repairs (current one being roof leaking due to original tile leading disintegrating).

I've owned Grade 2 listed before. It was financially crippling. Never again.

If you don't have much budget for repairs, do NOT touch listed buildings with a bargepole!

I learned from experience that you have to make sure anyone working on an old house is familiar with the possible 'quirks' like no straight walls and so on. Someone who might be perfectly capable of say fitting a kitchen in a straight room might really struggle when the walls bow in and out all over the place as they can in an old house. It means contracting someone with more skill and experience which obviously costs more. (or in my case it get's completely stuffed up!)

I live in a 2* listed house and it's a hotel nightmare. I've never wanted to do anything much to it in terms of alteration but even general msintainance is an utter pain. It all has yo be don with original materials and techniques which isn't always possible, having things like windows remade was interesting as ours were so wonky to begin With. Everything needs continual maintenance but it's at a more complicated level that something you'd do on a regular house. Ie special plaster, special mortar, specific paints and things like that and is considerably more costly. Things even like garden sheds are part of the listing in my house and fall under the same rules.

I understand there is an immense difference between different bouroughs/councils who carry out the daily rules regarding to the listing. Ours it transpires are considered to be one of the worst. Some allow much more sensible measures and don't make your life a misery.
The main thing is our house is always draughty and very cold and constantly needs repsirsehich always cost much more than you wpuldxever imagine because they don't tend to be straightforward. You need to LOVE the house and be very aware it's not like living in an ordinary house, you can't just make a simple change if you want up for example without going through listed building applications etc. It can be challenging. If I had realised how difficult it is I wouldn't have bought my current house. Just make sure you're fully aware. Good luck

Once, many years ago.

We had it all redone and a huge extension. I can’t remember the exact stuff but we had to vacate for two weeks whilst all the timber inside was sprayed with some chemical possibly to stop woodworm.

The chap told me it would kill all bugs and spiders for two years.

Exactly two years later monster sized spiders started appearing and that coincided with our splitting up, thank goodness! He bought me out.

I shudder at the memory.

My house is only 180. Ive renovated bits when I’ve had the money. It was very uncared for when I moved in and actually had stood empty for a few years before the previous owners.

Nothing unexpected has ever gone wrong!

Used to (15th cent.) It was enjoyable but I am often quite thankful for the 1970s one I am now in.
Had the most problems with the chimney (it was the leakiest part and also washed down soot when it did that) and with a hopper made of lead (possibly) that should have collected water externally to direct down to a drain. The hopper was not very large and could regularly get blocked and overflow.
The windows were sash and were glazed with a lot of small panes. This was agricultural glass and turned out to be ridiculously easy to break as it is much thinner than later types. If you replaced too many with newer glass, it also threw the window weight out too much so it wouldn't balance on the sash properly. Unfortunately I had windows on the ground floor broken several times from outside as the house faced a pavement so it did not feel all that safe (I really think people did it because they found out they could).
However, it behaved itself quite well otherwise for an eccentric old dame of a building!

Oh yes, and the spiders...
Actually heard one make contact with the cobbles outside when I propelled it out of the door one time. They probably have title in the place.

14 th century listed here - it costs a fucking fortune to run, even when no major repairs are needed. And as PP say, everything has to be approved, from materials to actual process, by the heritage people - and all options cost more than the "regular" options.

You may potentially have issues with the survey/mortgage too-just be aware.

It's a beautiful house, but a total money pit.

250 year old house here and it's a money pit. Costs an absolute fortune to heat. Luckily we are not listed. There is always something - I'm currently trying to ignore a small patch of damp that has appeared in one corner and the efflorescence on one of the stone chimney breasts.

We did look at a couple of others - one was Grade 2 listed and one was actually a scheduled ancient monument! It was lovely but the potential financial liabilities with that one were terrifying and the Grade 2 would have needed a lot of work.

Ours is early 1500 2* listed and we don't have spiders, thank God.

We don't have big bills either.

My only advice is to go for listed building insurance, through the organization. They are no more expensive and will definitely cover you. I changed when my insurer said they did cover such buildings but needed a precise build date!!!! Not having it could negate my insurance.

We have no idea when the house was built, best guess from the historic building society is 1460 - 1530, based on some pretty esoteric information!

We've loved living in our stone cottage, dating back to the 1700's but as others have said you do need to be aware of all the specialist materials. My husband has become an enthusiast and has used distemper, limewash etc. on the fabric. You do need to keep on top of the maintenance too. We have damp that comes and goes but is not a real problem. I know this for sure because we have just sold it - we're getting older and are going for a modern four bed detached. We've spent a lot of money on our cottage, new bathroom, roof, velux windows, electrics, central heating and conservatory. But we have loved living in it and will be sad to leave. But we need to be practical now we're retired and have something that could be managed by one of us if needs be. For us the worst thing has been the mice in the roof, but finally sorted by about four of the electronic plug ins!

I grew up in a 1700s grade 2 listed house. It was affordable to them as it was a complete project, my parents worked their arses off doing it up completely, replacing electrics, plumbing, flooring, bathrooms, kitchen etc. Then it was in as good nick as a new build and was fairly low maintenance place to live but obviously with character charm! I’d say you may be ok not doing it up if you don’t mind it not having mod cons, especially if you can’t afford to, but you may find it hard to sell when you move on or have to accept you’ll be selling it as a project, so may have to take a lower price than you’d like.

Check there’s listed building consent in place for any works that have been done as if there isn’t it would be your responsibility to sort that out. Educate yourself on how historic buildings work, Historic England and the listed property owners club should be able to point you in the right direction. Make friends with your conservation officer and hope you get a reasonable one. Above all, don’t buy the house if you don’t love it :)

Is it thatched? Mine is and it's old too and our house insurance is over £1400 a year. You might want to look into that as it isn't easy to sort out, you cannot get it via price comparison sites and many hoops need to be jumped through. We had to have an inspection etc. Our price increase last year was 80% which is something to bare in mind. However it is worth it if you really love it

Anyone else with listed's?
We can't insure through a normal buildings insurance company can you?
Only certain ones will insure us.
We're with Lark.