1900 house with no heating?!

[lollybabe12001]

After some advice please! Went to view a house built in 1900s it has no heating apart from two wood burning fires in the living room and dining room it also has a tank for the hot water supply! Can you put central heating in or what options could I use to heat the bedrooms? I'm not able to use heaters as I have a austitic child who would play with the switches! Thanks x

yes, remember all that land needs looking after. You need to trim hedges, cut grass and manage trees. You have an autistic son - do you work as well? Can you afford people to help?

budget for that access road too; that will eat money.

our neighbours have near enough that much space and the hedges are badly overgrown because they've clearly bitten off more than they can chew. This is affecting us.

don't want to be negative but you are taking on a LOT.

The land would be used to keep two shetlands! There's no trees and the fencing is fine! The electrics are all fine (been checked this morning) the windows have been well looked after but have a plastic cling film type over to double glaze it! Bathroom has a roll top bath etc and is in good condition the floors are proper wood apart from kitchen which has stone tiles the survey should hopefully be getting done Tuesday at the latest so should have more answers then! I'm trying not to get my hopes up! x

I have a heating set up exactly like this house. Two open fires, one with back boiler. Great, if like me you can get hold of free firewood. That said I'm thinking of changing the kitchen one for some kind of rayburn-type thing that can cook food, and heat water and radiators. For the sitting room I'm looking at a normal multi-fuel stove.

V. interested in the idea of bio-mass boilers though.

OP, if you are going to centrally heat this house, you need to be aware they were not built with this is mind.
When we did similar projects on houses we were advised to make sure that every room had a steady air supply running through which is obviously cold and draughty in the winter. You will either need air vents/bricks in the outside walls or if they exist already making sure they are free of debris.
These houses need to breathe and can produce lots of condensation if heated and double glazed, hence the need to rotate the air.
They should also not have cavity wall insulation.
I think its a great opportunity and wish you well, but if I could advise anything it would be:

Don't assume you will be able to do what you like, you may have to compromise

Take your budget and double it for a reasonable figure of costs.

Every job you have done/ do yourself will create at least one more job from this.

Double your time frame for realistic time frame, considering what could be held up/ not go to plan.

Finally, you need to know what you are doing, take advice, and seriously do your homework.

It costs twice as much to get somebody else to do the work, so anything you can do yourselves will save you money.

On a positive, we knew nothing when we started our first house and now we can do everything except fit boilers and electrical.

If it has plenty of outdoor space invest in a groundsource heat pump. Contact an eco energy company and check it out. They include the installation of the heating elements in your home and all the reflooring that needs to take place. You can get some carpet coverings that work with it too. Not sure of the cost but it will eventually pay for itself via no heating bills.

It's also a good opportunity to landscape your garden and lay things out as you want to. You would need to double glaze and insulate as well for it to work and it would heat the hot water too. So you can keep the woodburners which are a nice thing to have anyway.

There will only be one switch for your autistic son to play with and you can lock it in cupboard if needs be. It might be helpful for him also to have rooms with less visual noise, which radiators and pipes tend to be.

Thanks for the good advice more things to consider that I had never thought of! xx

remember woodburners need a daily clean (5 minute job), an annual chimney sweep and a lot of shifting, chopping and storing of wood. Also you'll probably need secure fireguards.

none of this is a 'don't', just a 'be aware'.

You can bulk buy logs and store them easily if you make a frame for them. A burner with a back boiler to heat water isn't a bad idea but my experience of back boilers for central heating has not been good. Underfloor and groundsource is the way to go and saves a lot of interior space. There's something really nice about homes without radiators.

Woodburners are good but only if they are really efficient new ones. I would just keep them for aesthetics and as an added extra to the underfloor heating. Solar hot water is supposed to be the most efficient way to heat water.