AIBU woodchip on or off for house sale?

[Crazyhouse123]

Hi, help please! My DParents are in a house that is rapidly becoming too much for them to manage. DF has finally started to consider moving to somewhere smaller and closer to either myself or my sisters (DM has wanted to move for a while).

I went round the house with them last time I was there to see what needs doing to get it sale ready. They are elderly and there is some routine maintenance work, which I will arrange for someone to do. However I can decorate and put a fresh coat on the walls and generally clean and sort.

The trouble is it is woodchip everywhere. It is a large 3 bed detached so you can imagine. Does woodchip put people off? Do I need to start removing it? My concern with this is time and also then needing to wallpaper everywhere.

I dont mind putting the work in but only if it is necessary. My sisters have little ones and as mine are older I will have more time so a lot of it will fall to me (which I dont mind at all) so want to focus on what is really worth doing.

Thank you for any advise!

Just leave it , the new people will probably want to decorate anyway so save yourself the time , trouble and expense

I'd ask your estate agent, if it was me. They'll know the demand and sale-ability of the house. Perhaps have them view and value, and ask them if they think it will be enough of an issue to bother buyers?

The house may have enough going for it in terms of size and location that you don't need to worry, or it may be a house that needs to be made as ready and lovely as possible.

Personally I'm more interested in the age of the roof, windows, guttering, plumbing and electrics than anything else, and certainly wouldn't be put off by something that's just aesthetic.

People will almost certainly want to get rid of it, but it's a big job. You don't have to do it in order to sell the house. Gives them a chance to redecorate anyway.

We moved into a 4 bedroom house with wood chip everywhere and we paid someone to remove it. It took him 2 weeks full time, and then the whole house needed replastering. We bought the house knowing that this would need doing (the whole house needed a lot of work), and the house was priced accordingly.

I wouldn't do it yourself, but would be prepared to accept a lower price.

Don’t do it yourself but do factor the work into the selling price.

Ask the estate agent - is doing away with the woodchip likely to improve the saleability significantly enough to make it worthwhile?

From the sounds of it, there will be other areas that need modernising/updating anyway.

Who is the house being marketed to? If it's aimed at families, you could consider doing the smaller bedrooms ready for children. If there's a lot of work to be done elsewhere people might feel relieved that there's somewhere for their kids?

I'd also be wary of doing anything that would delay putting the house on the market. You want to strike whilst your dad's willing!

Having once bought a house covered in woodchip paper, I'd never willingly do it again. AWFUL stuff.

I think you should expect to take a hit on the asking price, but your estate agent might advise you differently.

DH and I are still traumatised from having to remove woodchip in our last house. It's possibly the most awful job in the universe.

Our new house has woodchip everywhere, and despite the bad memories, it didn't put us off buying. We wanted the house, not just the wallpaper.

Maybe try and do the main rooms to remove and paint. The rest just leave and paint over?

Woodchip is fairly easy to get off if you do it correctly. But if it’s not been decorated in a while do you know the state of the walls underneath? If you’re planning to remove you might find the plaster has gone, best case skim worst case entire replanted.

I'd leave it, but accept it will need to be priced to reflect it. As others said it's a big job to remove.

However if it's full of wood chip does it also have dated bathroom and kitchen? If so then the wood chip is the least of the issue.

It would put me off as it’s time consuming and messy to remove. I’d not do it again having had to do it before.

You might want to consider the state of the walls underneath the wood chip. People often used wood chip instead of replastering as it covered up uneven surfaces and was a cheaper alternative. You could end up with a lot more work than just re-papering. I agree with Brimful that I'd be more concerned about whether the property is structurally sound etc. I always expect to redecorate when I move. Also the asking price would normally reflect if the property needs modernisation. Unless properties in the area are really hard to sell, I would save yourself the time and expense. If the house is clean and uncluttered and the essentials are in working order, this will count for more in my experience.

What's behind the woodchip? There's a good chance there's shit like burnt orange or khaki green gloss underneath it - along with a fuckton of black mould where people didn't believe in paying for fungicidal wallpaper paste - in my experience.

I think as a pp said it depends on the area and saleability of the house.

Personally, I would remove it if the rest of the house is in good nick and relatively modern, eg good modern windows and doors inside and out, no artex ceilings, wood or laminate or neutral carpet floors. Basically, if could a young couple move in, change a few cosmetic things, maybe put in a new kitchen and be done? Then yes, worth it to remove and paint white everywhere - also paint everything else like outdoor fencing (get a £50 sprayer from amazon for this), steps, weed garden and cut back, remove as much furniture as possible and coffee brewing, bread baking when viewings - all the usual advice.

I wouldn't bother if it was 80s carpets everywhere, artex ceilings, gas 3 bar fire, ancient boiler, avocado suite, melamine kitchen with Lino and knackered windows - as in this case the buyer already knows it needs gutting and will reflect that in the offer price.

More to the point, are there fucking aertex ceilings? They're even worse.

It's unlikely and highly unusual in my experience for a house to be full of wood chip and everything else modernish. Usually it accompanies everything g else being dated and done, and as such it's a major Renovation job and not worth touching the wood chip.

The house could be the exception though.

Personally it would put me off but as others say if it needs lots done to modernise just leave it and take lower asking price

Thankfully it is just hall/landing that has woodchip in our current house and it seems to just be peeling off fairly easily and the walls aren’t bad underneath but the woodchip itself doesn’t seem to have layers of paint on so not sure if that’s helped