To move to a Victorian house?

[TheLastStarfighter]

We are thinking about moving to a specific area of town, near the school, which are all Victorian detached houses.

We’ve only ever lived in our current house, which is a barn-conversion type thing. Basically a new build inside an old stone shell.

What do I need to know about Victorian houses? I love the big rooms with tall ceilings, but worry that they must be cold, and what about access to electrics and plumbing and the like?

Most of the ones coming on the market seem very well looked after with high-end modern kitchens and bathrooms, but what do I need to look out for? I’m worried that I’ll fall for the aesthetics and miss the pitfalls!

Yes, freezing cold, so expect your heating bills to be high. Also repairs and maintenance is a constant headache for house that age or older. They may have been built to last, but are not cheap to run like modern houses.

Not quite so easy to get ready made curtains for the tall windows. You need to pay attention to draughtproofing - round windows, where the floor meets the skirting board etc - easy to do, not expensive. Most of your internal walls may be lathe and plaster - plasterboard didn't come in till a lot later. They won't have cavity walls, so no cavity wall insulation. There's no need for them to be cold, but they won't be the cheapest house to heat.

Access to electrics and plumbing is more to do with the decoration than the age of the house - whether people have put laminated flooring over the pipes, for example.

A big plus is that, if it's a stone built house, it will be cool in the summer. And in any case the high ceiling gives a big area for the hot air to rise to. It's a lot easier to heat a cold house than to cool a hot one.

Love my victorian house. Live,y and cool in summer, especially in our lounge (north facing). But is more to heat. It’s got so much personality and character though. And very sturdy.
I’m not a fan of new builds as they see. Far more flimsy.

Structurally we’ve not had to spend much on it. But we have redecorated throughout (and continue to do so).

I have to avoid looking at Victorian houses as I know I'll fall in love with them and I've owned enough in the past to know that there are a lot of pitfalls. If I had to choose just a few things to check they would be the roof - has it been replaced, is it completely watertight? The damp proof course - is it up to date and under guarantee? The windows - are they refurbished or replaced? Victorian windows are draughty and sometimes rotten, sometimes painted shut. I love them to bits, but ask how much they spend on heating in a typical winter month.

We used to live in a 2005 7 room semi. We now live in a seven room Victorian semi. Our heating bills are damn near the same allowing for the fact that we’ve increased the size of the rooms BUT we replaced all the old windows for double glazed sash windows, insulated between the floor joists with king span, replaced the boiler, plumbing and radiators, boarded the loft and properly insulated the roof and fitted thick carpets and expensive underlay and when we bought curtains had blackout liners fitted as they also keep the heat in.

Once you’re sorted, they cost no more... but the outlay to get them to this point is huge!

I wouldn’t go back to a modern home. I love the space we have and would do it all again in a heartbeat I’m banned from rightmove

Yes - big room, high ceilings and no modern insulation features, so heating will be more expensive. However, will be cooler in heatwave summers. Repair costs will be higher. Check boiler, heating system and windows. Look for signs of damp, rot etc There may be less chance of having things like en-suites in a Victorian property if that's important to you.
Think how important 'features' are to you. I gave up 'features' from houses in just about every period in history, Edwardian, Victorian, 17th Century to go for the easier and cheaper life in a new build. Costs dropped massively - but of course it depends on the quality of the new build you can buy. Either way, get a full survey done on a house that old.

Thanks! That’s so helpful. I think most in the area we are looking at, or at least the ones I’ve already stalked at the estate agent, already have modernised windows (double-glazed but look like old) and modern boilers. It’s the “posh” end of town IYSWIM. We wouldn’t be able to afford to live their forever, but the idea is to live their for 10 years and then downsize again.

I hadn’t even thought about things like the cost of curtains!

Really good point on it being cooler in summer. That would be great!

We’d make sure to get a full survey and check things like damp course and roof 👍

@cheesecurdsandgravy I presume you can’t insulate the walls, which is why you did everything else. How do thick carpets and underlay work for insulation? Is it because you don’t heat the whole house, so you are just keeping heat in certain rooms?

@StoneofDestiny having lived for 20 years in what is a featureless box on the inside (although pretty on the outside) I feel ready for some features 😁.

Not too fussed about en-suite, but it’s a very good point.

You could insulate the walls with insulated plaster board if you knocked them back to brick - we didn’t because we like the cornicing and we have some rooms with panelling.

We heat all the rooms the same - because we use them all. The only times I get cold are when I’m sat working on the computer for several hours - but that was the same in the modern house too.

They are a spider paradise come autumn 🕷

Mine is late Georgian but has a typical Victorian layout. I absolutely love the original features, hallway/staircase, high ceilings, coolness in summer but generally you need to find one with an extension if you want a family friendly downstairs layout, utility, big bathroom, en suite etc. If it were possible to do an extension to mine I’d live here forever but it’s not to be Also maintenance costs can be high if you have wooden sashes etc.to repair.

I'd say depends on the house. Ours is just 7 years shy of Queen Victoria's reign so actually Edwardian, but if is fairly small and not particularly expensive to heat. Windows have been replaced long ago, we had the door replaced last year which made a big difference to the draughts, have had loft insulation done, done a bit of draft-proofing under the skirting boards (think we spent a total of £7 on that).

We live in one, a 2 up 2 down terrace. It's bloody freezing in winter. I'm really not looking forward to WFH this winter - I'm already in 2 cardigans and a scarf.

I'd lived in Victorian houses much of my life. I was brought up in a Victorian terraced house. It was always freezing even after new central heating was installed. I hated it really. As an adult I rented many Victorian places. Big rooms and pretty fireplaces. But cold! Finally in my 40s I moved into my current new build. Maybe I got lucky but the rooms feel really big, the outlook is wonderful (green fields) and it's so warm in winter and cool in summer. I'd never live in a Victorian house again. Having said that, I know they can look absolutely beautiful with a lot of money invested in them and tlc, in a way that a new build never can.

Now I’m second guessing my choices! Although it’s really the area we are moving for.

There are a few 1970s bungalows staggered around the area, but they tend to be in really small plots, where someone has previously carved off a bit of garden from one of the bigger houses. I want a proper garden.

Compared to the price of the houses, we could pay to properly insulate, but not sure that would be reflected in a resale value later.

We live in a 6 bed, 3 story victorian end of terraced, having moved from a 300 year old stone detached farmhouse. Plus points are large rooms, high ceilings, gorgeous period features, private road. Negatives are the houses in our street are so big that some of them are converted to flats, including next door to ours. Hate the feeling of not knowing who's going to move in next after living in a detached for the last 10 years. Renovating costs are high and take longer. There is always something that needs doing. Our heating bill is £124 per month so not massively high.

I have an extended early Edwardian, detached house. Windows were all replaced by previous owners so no concerns there. It doesn't generally feel any colder to me than our old 1960s mid-terrace did.

I feel ready for some features 😂😂
Well, there you go 😂😂. I did like our features over the years, stained glass window, cornice, deep skirting, great doors and staircase details etc - but got fed up with repair/replacement costs and the cold. With less glass you get less solar energy coming in. (Though my house now has a lot of glass, brilliantly bright, but we can get too hot in summer).

We live in a just Edwardian terrace. I grew up in a Victorian house and have lived in various period homes. I love the space, the ceiling height, the way it looks when done up and definitely the coolness in summer. I HATE being too hot though.

From experience, I'd go (if you can bare it) for a house that openly needs a bit of doing up. Our one "beautifully maintained" property was just done with so much corner cutting. We've done everything to this house but it means we've built in insulation and we know it's done to a good standard.

I've lived in modern and old.

I actually think old ones are built to last, there arent as many hidden issues as in a new build.

As others have said, maintenance is a pain either in cost or time eg painting windows. Replacing or repairing anything is a bit painful as it's all custom made.

I think one important thing to consider is sound proofing. The difference between the older and newer houses I've lived in is massive, with older houses being so nice and quiet, which might be good if you've got teenagers.

Older houses also have much bigger gardens which is nice when you've got younger kids but I guess could be a pain if you're not a gardener.

Don't always assume it's going to be freezing cold! We moved into our victorian townhouse in November last year and we were fully prepared for a freezing winter before we got a new boiler. It's actually been warmer than our previous 1950's house! I don't know if it's an anomoly or just due to the fact it is flanked by two other houses with lots of heating on, but it is honestly so warm- sometimes to the point of being too warm! It still surprises me.

It's also lovely and quiet (apart from a few very creaky floorboards ) I would never move to a new build now!

We lived in a Victorian house . It was lovely, but a complete money pit. As others have said - check for damp ( we had to replace all the joists under the house after we moved in) .we had a new boiler but pipes were old so heating often broke down and it cost a fortune to heat the house. Electrics were a nightmare and we made the mistake of redecorating before retiring- don’t do that . We re did the roof which made a huge difference but cost a lot. Likewise replacing windows to make sure they are double glazed. Often drains don’t work well either.
We had coombed ceilings in the bedroom which made fitting in wardrobes difficult. Overall storage space was rubbish.
Redecorating cost a fortune because walls often needed replastering and cornice work is intricate and time consuming to paint
We are now in a new build .It is much easier and cheaper to live in. We are older now so that’s suits us. But loved our Victorian house - it was beautiful and unique and ( maybe) worth the worry and expense .

Before rewiring

I am soooooo glad I asked!

I think we would still go for it, but maybe go for a slightly cheaper house (they are all different, rather than being a row of identical houses, so there tends to be quite a difference in price). That way we can put some money away in case it needs a lot done, and it’s a bonus if it doesn’t.

@strictlybakeoff - I wondered why retiring would make a difference to the decorating 😂