anyone else living in a house they can't afford to maintain?

[curlingandtwirling]

I live in a 1900 Victorian mid terrace, my perfect house. Well it was when we moved in. We currently have a long list of repairs and jobs to maintain the property, but we just can't afford it.

It looks lovely on the surface (interior) but the windows need replacing, there is render that needs knocking off and repairing, the floorboards are rotting, the ground floor joists need replacing, which will result in new carpets. The kitchen is looking a bit dated, but otherwise ok. I dread to think what the roof is like, then there is damp in one corner of the house as the dpc need replacing.

I'm struggling to even get quotes for the jobs, so we can budget for the smaller jobs first.

It's getting me down. I love my house but falling through the floorboards is not an option!

Yep 1900s terrace with bomb damage to one corner (WW2 bomb not a recent bomb) they pulled down the badly affected houses, got to ours and must have thought oh its only a little bit wonky leave it be. The roof is the original slate roof you can see daylight through it in many places and the bedroom ceilings are staring to have damp patches. The wall which should have been joined to the next door terrace but is now adjacent to a 2inch gap before the next house is so damp it drips! The man who went under our downstairs floorboards to sort the heating said we had better get the foundations looked at as there were bricks missing from the walls down there and rotten wooden joists that crumbled when he touched them. The flat roof on the downstairs bathroom has been replaced as it collapsed under the snow but I can't afford to fix the ceiling that came in as well. None of these things are going to get fixed I can just about pay the mortgage! I really wish we had rented instead!

We moved to this house in 1999, fixed the hole in the roof and removed a very dangerous dilapidated shed, and the rest had to wait.
The boiler was eventually replaced, but after many years and the we only had the upstairs double glazed last year.
The carpets are threadbare, (they were bad when we moved in) but not essential.
The walls are all wonky - "built to eye" by a previous owner, so kitchen units etc have to be offset or they show the roof slope! I say it has "character".
We do a tiny bit as we can afford it and now the kids have left home we are starting, but I'm glad we got it when we did as no way could we afford it now, and the kids got to enjoy a huge garden whilst growing up.

I think most people have a list of jobs that they would like to do but will cost ££. You should see the state of our hall and kitchen! We need an entirely new staircase and the whole thing needs to be taken back to brick and replastered. It is currently a horrible shade of primrose yellow, with various patches where damp has penetrated, and other areas of bare plaster. (House is a basket case). We will probably have a cheap holiday this year so that we can pay to get it sorted.

Deep breath. You don't have to do it all at once, but it is going to save a lot of money if you do it in the right order. And that order isn't necessarily 'smallest first'. Plus if you try to get quotes for everything you will collapse with exhaustion!

The main thing is not to waste a load of money doing jobs that will get ruined because there are other, more major things wrong. It's pointless decorating a bedroom to look lovely if it is going to be ruined by damp or a leak- you will just have to do it again! I know it's reaaaally boring, but getting the 'invisible' things fixed first is best. You may then find that you can do more of the other jobs yourself, saving you some cash.

So don't worry about the dated kitchen right now. Sort the floor and the dpc first. Make sure you get three quotes for each (the same company might do both) and that companies specify fully what they are going to do - when we had a similar dpc problem, the assessment of what needed doing and the cost varied wildly (I'm talking thousands difference). Again, cheapest isn't always best (you definitely want this sorted properly) - but you can also be over-quoted. It's important to get an in-depth sense of what's needed by chatting to the people doing the work.

You will get there - one step at a time!

Please don't put a DPC in a Victorian house. You'll just give yourself much more expense in the long run. It is highly unlikely that your DPC needs replacing, and most Victorian houses are not massively reliant on slate DPCs anyway. It'll be something like a leaking pipe, or outside ground level has been raised above the DPC level, or penetrating damp from leaking gutters, or a previous DPC trapping moisture in an area where it can't evaporate.

FWIW, we had loads of damp in the front hall. Given a choice between a £7.5k DPC and a £400 repair to the roof where I thought the water was getting in, I went for the former, and did not regret it. Even though the roofer though I was bonkers (it's now totally dry).

We have all the same problems as you do, but it's a long game. We'll get there in 10 or 15 years.

Our boundary wall is dangerous.

Replacing all 50m of it will cost 35K

Removing it and putting in a fence and retaining wall will cost 20K but will need planning permission.

We have no choice. It's either replace it or have a back garden that's entirely open to the general public.

I mentioned this to a colleague. He said 'Wow, that's like a whole year's salary'. I felt much better.......

Yep us. Totally broke. House has major roof and damp problems. We have remortgaged once to retile the roof and up to our eyes in debt after one thing after another kept breaking (we had water dripping from lights at one point then toilet cracked - all urgent non cosmetic work). We have recently had our parish charity round to fix our toilet for us as they deemed it urgent enough after we approached them.

We are really struggling and just about managing to keep going and trying desperately to save enough before something else goes wrong so we can do it up enough to sell it (it won't sell in its current state without a huge loss).

We had a series of redundancies and health issues which have totally destroyed what was once a good income.

I feel your pain. Been in our house 12 years and watching it slowly crumble is deeply depressing. Essential repairs only possible, and I just hate it. Wish wish wish we hadn't bought it.

Oh gosh Fairylea, I really feel for you! We've just mortgaged outselves to the hilt and taken on a massive project (probably needs another £100k spent on it). Just before we exchanged I developed a serious of health problems (out of the blue) and it's pretty likely I'll develop MS. A few months ago I had all the energy in the world to take on the project and now it feels completely overwhelming. Maybe it's just the January blues and I'll perk up in spring ...

I spent a fortune on having the DPC done. It hadn't been in all that long, but a friend told me it was the concreted area outside my house.
He used a floor cutter to remove about a 30 cm channel next t the bricks and replaced the old drain, which incidentally unbeknownst to me was cracked.
It worked a treat, with a few weeks I could see the damp levels dropping.
Wish I'd asked him before shelling out for DPC.
Also worth remembering is that UPC windows are not always a good choice for older properties as they trap moisture.
I'd never buy a Victorian house again unless I was rolling in in money.

It might sound silly but I'd get the gutters and hopper cleaned first. A small inexpensive job .Some window cleaners offer this service.
Get a plumber to check if the old water pipe to your property isn't leaking or split ( they often are). They will do a simple test via your drain, sorry dont know technical term, the thingy under the inspection cover.
Might mean excavating a floor to replace pipes.
Forget the kitchen for now and patch up the windows, just wallop on some filler and paint.
Rendering is an issue. There was/is a trend to " modernise" old houses to the determent of the buildings breathability, it can hold in damp and rot bricks.
Ever thought of selling up?

another Victorian house owner here

we need a new kitchen, the yard needs lots of work, roof is leaking, repointing to do, windows need attention, in particular the exterior wood all needs repainting....and we just upgraded our water supply at huge cost following a leak. oh, and the sofas are knackered but I don't want to get new ones until we've redecorated the sitting room.

Luckily the neighbour took down our dangerous garden wall and we just chucked him a few quid for fence panels to replace.

definitely agree that half the battle is even finding someone to come and quote - no-one we know has a painter they can recommend (for exterior stuff up tall ladders - we do the easy bits ourselves) and after a terrible experience with an unknown plasterer we've vowed not to use someone with a recommendation if we can avoid it.

Yes!
My first house, a Victorian terrace which I could just about cover the very basics, sold it a few years later for a good profit and the new owners spent tons on it which it needed, so a happy ending. Couldn't wait to get rid as it was so draughty and freezing in winter. You need stacks of money for those places, which I didn't have.

Now live in a easy maintenance warm house that was done when we bought it. So just the occasional small maintenance issue to solve.

Another old house owner here. Have owned for 5 years, first house. Was very enthusiastic about DIY when bought it, but soon realized that an amateur DIY is just patching up really serious works in need, i.e. saggy floors, bad plaster etc. I never got round to restore the former beauty of fireplaces, or quality curtains for bay windows. The sad true - I am moving. To a sad and -uncharming 1960s house. One of the reasons - hoping for easy maintenance.

Thanks crumbelina

Just a note.... anyone who is thinking of buying a 1950s or 60s house thinking it will be great, be very careful when you get your survey done. Ours is late 1950s ex council and most of our problems are because the house was built so solidly that there is hardly any ventilation so condensation and damp are major problems. We have had several builders round including being in touch with the builder who originally designed these houses and they all say it is a fairly common problem in houses of this age. All the opening windows and dehumidifiers in the world isn't enough!

Give me my old 1970s detached property any day. .

i feel your pain! It's depressing, especially when you're in a situation when selling is not an option.

I've remortgaged once to have a new boiler, bathroom floors replaced, had another area of damp sorted, re-plastered etc and a a trench dug out next to the back external wall as the ground level rises. It didn't go very far and I can't get credit anymore.

I know the freezer, washer, cooker will all need replacing soon too. arrghhhh

Someone has suggested I contact a local college and ask them if they are willing to bring students round and I just pay for materials, but I'm not sure?

Its a lovely house, but realisation that I cant keep painting over the cracks has finally hit me.

Yep - but it's getting there slowly. We try to do as much work ourselves as possible. The only thing we leave for professionals is the stuff you can see - woodwork, plastering etc.

We find it tends to come in waves, so we'll make progress (albeit painfully slow) and then we'll hit a brick wall. It's often said, with regards to jobs in older houses, you can pick any two of the following - to the detriment of the one you don't pick:

1. Quickly
2. Properly
3. Cheaply

Oh God. 1950s house here, and this thread rings so true .

I do love it though, and we'll get there in the end .

don't despair of your windows - Victorian wood windows are so lovely and were so well made. Much cheaper than replacing would be repairing if you can and cut out and in fill any rotten bits. Then a good coat of paint. We have just installed some salavaged windows in our Victorian cottage and they look wonderful. We had someone round to draft proof them as well. Just have t hick curtains inside for winter, rest of the year no problem. I agree with other posts on dpc - waste of time - check ground levels and any leaking pipes etc first. Your house needs to breathe.

Fairylea my parents live in a solid ex council house and had horrific problems with condensation/damp. The windowsills were swimming with water of a morning and the bathroom had to be scrubbed weekly with bleach because of black damp.

Years ago they had a drimaster fitted. I'm not sure what it does or how it works but it stopped all the problems really quickly. They have just replaced it (after many years) and it wasn't too expensive, maybe worth googling?

Drimaster, that's what I need to ensure goes in the new house, thanks old boot!

I've got a good size dehumidifyer which is working wonders at the moment to control the condensation in most windows. I have also managed to get a decent quote to have the windows replaced. He even suggested that some of them may just need the glass units replacing. I'll feel better once the rendering has been hacked off and any damage repaired to stop the leaking. I'm not too worried about the dpc now though .

Slightly worrying, is the fact that the part of the flooring on the landing has given way. I have lifted the carpet and it looks like plywood/chipboard, not floorboards as I've always though. Now the next job on the list and hopefully it will stop some of the creaking.

I'd like to revive this thread as the situation is ongoing and serious. The information and support here is useful.

I could have written your post Curling. We had to fork out on a huge garden wall when we first moved in which has put a huge dent in our savings (original was more dangerous than the survey suggested). Now the house is covered in cracks, we need a new roof, new garage, there seems to be mess... I regret buying it tbh.

We are in similar position. We were naive when we bought our house, and 10 years on, we are still living with a flat roofed extension with single glazing and no heating that leaks regularly...But that has beautiful views over the fields...We use it as our dining room.. and a kitchen that is so small two people can't be in at the same time...We have some damp in our bedroom and the outside is awful. The sink is falling off the wall I'm the bathroom and the toilet is broken so that the children can't really flush it. Thw shower leaks so badly there is regularly 1cm of water across the floor...The drains all need sorting. We stay here because despite everything it is our home and we have done a lot to it. I love the big garden and freedom that brings. We have an awful lot of debt from when my husband's business almost collapsed about a decade ago. We are chipping away at that and just trying to keep going.

My plan once the children leave home us to rent rooms out, then slowly either do all the jobs and sell it or it’ll be lovely when it’s done and the grandchildren will have an amazing house and garden to play in.
Major sacrifice on my part for a few years though