survey on house built in 1820s

[goodwood]

Haven't had a survey done yet but wondered what type of problems normally come up with a house of this age and what your experience has been and whether you end up needing to constantly spend out on a house this age.

Damp and timber infestation requiring further specialist surveys are almost always on surveys. Damp- given the age of the house, try and get a specialist and not just a chemical dpc company, to try and diagnose any areas (v unlikely to be rising damp). In my opinion both chemical dpc and timber spraying often waste of money and could do more damage in long run.

I'd get a surveyor who used to looking at historic/listed properties.

Other general issues- roof, chimneys, pointing (nb you will need to do in lime mortar if it's brick/stone)

The SPAB do great homeowners courses for people in old houses which may be useful for you- they also have lots of info online which might help answer some of your questions.

If the building is listed, talk to the local conservation officer as well. Good luck!

SPAB or English Heritage might be able to help with lists of suitably qualified surveyors.

Do NOT get in any old damp company they are borderline caravans! imo! If you have timber problems in a listed building go to ridout associates or hutton & rostron.

1820s isn't terribly old though. What sort of house is it?

Damp, damp and more damp.

Oh, and damp.

In my humble experience.

Damp, woodworm, new roof needed, problems with the chimney ie blocking it off with no air blocks so damp forms. Oh, and damp. Woodworm can mean new floorboards, roof joists etc.

Thankfully the previous owners had done most of this or we would have had to walk away.

Oh, and the stairs had needed to be reinforced, although I think that is quite minor compared to the rest of it!

In my experience - damp and woodworm. Also, when was the house last rewired, and is the plumbing up to scratch?

Without knowing the construction and location it's difficult to say.

Some good answers so far but more detail please.

Ours isn't quite that old but we had possible damp mentioned (it isn't damp except in the cellar) and someone has repointed part of the walls with cement based mortar instead of lime mortar. This means the weather is eroding the stone and in places the mortar is falling out. It's not a massive deal but it's useful to know about it.

A house that old will cost more to maintain than a newer house. Materials will cost more, sometimes you'll need specialist builders and it will have quirks that means jobs take longer and cost more.

IMO older houses were much better built than houses constructed after the 1950's and tbh a surveyors job is to detect possible future problems that may never occur so don't get too alarmed by their report!
one of the most important tips with possible damp problems is to get the windows open every single day,even just for half an hour.
I love older houses,far more character usually

very useful stuff here so and damp seems to be a common theme! know what to expect from these comments and will see what survey throws up.

Mine is 1820. It had joists that were mere spindles of wood (the originals and they'd been cut with an axe - you could see the marks!) so they needed to be upgraded to proper chunky ones.

Also the brickwork was in a bad state and needed metal ties at the corners to hold the walls together!

I basically rebuilt the house (well the builder did and I watched and paid). It was worth it though. It's pretty robust now.