Renovating a 1930s house

[Ellsiedodah]

has anyone recently taken on a slightly dated but on the face of it ok 1930s house, only to discover the classic issues around these builds? And what you had to do and at what cost roughly speaking? I'm aware there can be asbestos throughout and the roof can be problematic... are these major things to deal with or typically manageable with £10k or so? We are going to view somewhere that hasn't yet sold in a busy property market and we know from inside info that a survey revealed some issues (unknown to us)... the buyer pulled out as they'd offered over asking and the vendor refused to budge. Any thoughts? Obviously would get a structural survey but want to know upfront what scale of job we could be looking at. Thanks v much

As well as a survey, if you know a trusted builder I'd suggest taking them with you to a viewing if you can. They will be able to give you a much better idea of what is actually dangerous/problematic/not that big a deal to start with, and how much those things are likely to cost to fix.

If you plan to live there a long time and love the house, you may feel it's worth investing the time and money even where others wouldn't. If you are looking for a bargain and might not live there that long, unless you are very competent at DIY (more than just a bit of painting or putting up shelves) be very objective about whether it's worth it, not just in terms of actual money, but how long you might be living on a building site or a house you don't feel comfortable in because you can't afford to fix it.

Asbestos will vary hugely depending on where it is and how much there is. If it's in artex ceilings etc, plastering over it is usually accepted and safe and the cheapest option. If it needs to be removed this could end up being extremely costly as you'll need to use a licenced company to dispose of it.

From the info on this link, it seems if the issues flagged up in the survey are material to whether another buyer would proceed the seller or estate agent is obligated to reveal that information, so I would ask them for details of any structural issues etc that were revealed before proceeding any further.

www.reallymoving.com/surveyors/faq/do-i-have-to-tell-buyers-about-a-failed-home-buyer

If its not been re-plumbed internally or had the water service pipe from the street to the internal stop tap replaced since the 1960s then theres likely to be lead pipes.

We bought a house built in late 1920s so similar issues.
Problems we've had:

• lead water supply pipe
• original wooden front door has needed a bit of TLC
• The odd damp patch (ours was sorted with a few air bricks)

It's a good solid house though. We've not really had to do much really. In some ways my 1990s house was worse as everything had suddenly become dated and needed replacing at the same time.