Victorian house owners - talk me out of it!

[sarahb083]

We're looking for a house and I find myself exclusively drawn to Victorian houses. They're smaller, more expensive to heat and you pay a premium for the charm. But they're so lovely that I can't help it.

If you own a Victorian house property, please talk me out of it! I know logically a 30s semi-detached is a better buy for all of the reasons listed above, but I can't seem to convince myself.

We had an 'enough is enough' phase after last winter. The drafts, the damp, the heating bills, having three fires on at all times so we didn't freeze etc.

Put the house on the market, looked at everything in our budget within 15 miles and nothing compared.

Writing this in thermals with my hair blowing in the breeze (draft) and am honestly thrilled!

Saving up to get the 35 single glazed windows replaced 😂

My mother has an ENOURMOUS Victorian country house. It costs a hilrious amount to run a year. It’s listed so changing windows was a no.
We’ve not had too many damp issues but it gets very very cold.
A huge amount of money goes into maintaining it rather than just hoping for the best.
It’s gorgeous and I love it

My last house was Victorian and it was a tall mid terrace, and not cold at all. Also, the floors were stripped wood, and not cold, although we didn't leave huge gaps between the boards.

jill you have a house with 30 plus Windows? Mild envy and trying to picture this

Why does no one have secondary glazing - retains all warmth, improves noise and means you keep the period appearance from the outside?

If the rooms are big enough you put up 2x2s on external walls, put in insulation, then plasterboard, the get a plasterer to put a finishing coat on, job done. It will make the rooms smaller but it will increase the insulation and hence reduce the heating bills.

I grew up in a tall Victorian town house and now I live in a 1960s charmless box. I long for a Victorian!

Shallow foundations so prone to subsidence. Rising damp and can be cold and with drafts. But nice high ceilings and features.

I can't talk you out of it either. Love my high ceilings and deep skirting boards. It's never cold either.

We have slugs and woodlice and a fair bit of damp..... but I love my house!

I live in a large Victorian terrace. It's freezing, expensive to maintain... and we love it.

At the time that we bought it, our surveyor told us it was a money-pit. He was right. He also told us to buy a new build. We pointed out that for the price of the new build, we'd get 2.5 bedrooms, a single garage and a tiny garden. Our house had 5 large double bedrooms, 2 huge receptions, and a 28 foot long kitchen. So for us it was a bit of a no-brainer.

One thing I would say is, be aware of problems if your house is in a conservation area. We wanted to put velux windows at the front (they bedrooms in the eaves are quite dark. The council refused us planning permission because it would set a precedent. That would have been fair enough had several other houses not done precisely this - only without getting the permission. We also had to get planning permission when we wanted to replace our tatty front 1950s windows with proper wooden Victorian style sashes.

Mine has wonky floors and the ventilation needs improving, but I love it. Not cold at all but the original windows have been replaced with double glazing

Love our Victorian semi and have been here 19 years now! We have replaced the sash windows with upvc sash windows and extended at the back to make a lovely big kitchen/diner/snug and are about to embark on a bathroom and ensuite project. I love the cornices, fireplaces, high ceilings and big rooms!

They are freezing, cost a fortune to heat and youll have to buy a scaffolding ladder should you ever need to decorate bitter experience

cancersupport we have double glazing but the external walls get cold. You only have to sit near them and you can literally feel cold seeping in.

Depends on the type I suppose. We're in our first house, a late Victorian terrace. I love it. Yes we've had slug problems and draughts and there's only one tiny upstairs bathroom but the rooms are so tall and the charm is immeasurable. Haven't found heating an issue at all either, maybe because we're mid terrace so tucked in. Can hear next door neighbours if they so much as even cough though!

Oh and if you ever want to / have to move, everything else will feel like a dolls house in comparison and youll have to sell off half your furniture more bitter experience bye bye chesterfield sofa my old friend

Love our Victorian house! It was so lovely and cool this summer.
It's cosy in winter with the fire burning.
Space, character, charm, large garden.
It is a glorious backdrop to traditional Christmas decorations, tree etc.
It is a fabulous excuse to the most luxuriously heavy curtains and decadent furniture.

But if you really need a negative, well it seems to be a spider magnet. Bloody great big ones. Fortunately they don't bother me. And conkers hidden in corners of the rooms seems to keep them at bay.

It's a bit like any period - a good, well-built Victorian house, probably originally built for someone with a bit of money, fabulous. A jerry-built Victorian built by some fly-by-night speculative builder to house the exploding numbers of urban working class, or local farm labourers - possibly less fabulous.

The newest house i have ever lived in is our current 1920s one, built for a gentleman with a hankering after the Victorian period. As a result, I am quite used to the concept of heating a single room at a time, wearing multiple layers in a heatwave, running upstairs from the one warm room to an electric-blanket or water-bottle-heated bed. I suspect that I might find these an inconvenience had i ever lived in a modern house!

I love ours - high ceilings, lovely coving, original fireplaces, coloured glass, big rooms etc. Lovely feeling of space and proportion and character.

BUT. We've paid a fortune to have our windows and doors replaced with timber double glazing, retaining the original coloured glass within the double glazing, all brickwork re-pointed, new electrics, the heating bill is still pretty high due to a cavernous hall, having so many fireplaces in bedrooms means that the room layout is restricted and no easy places for chests of drawers, and nothing is straight.

I am not sure I would buy Victorian again.

Another Victorian house owner here. Wouldn’t change it for anything. Yes it’s draughty and can be cold but we have slowly been upgrading things - new boiler, got double glazed glass put in the sash windows, have a wood burner etc. We adore our house and don’t plan to move but if we ever did it would definitely be to a period property.

Both my in laws live in well insulated, new builds and when we stay at their houses we feel like we are in Tupperware! We get so hot and can’t sleep properly.

My last house was a new build but I hankered after a house with character, spacious rooms, high ceilings, high skirting boards, original fire places in every room, huge sash windows, stripped wooden floors, a beautiful roll top bath with claw feet and a large walled garden.

So, I sold my little new build and bought a spacious Victorian house.

Ten years on:

• the spacious rooms and high ceilings mean bloody huge heating bills and never being warm even when the heat has been on for hours. Changing a light bulb is a major exercise and decorating takes bloody ages. In the winter we're confined to one room most of the time. I may as well live in a bedsit.

• the sash windows are draughty and cold and cost a fortune to maintain. They're showing signs of rot in places.

• there are all sorts of scary cracks around the house and I'm constantly worried about subsidence

• the fireplaces take up a lot of space, especially in the bedrooms where we never use them anyway. The wind howls down them in the winter and in the summer we get all sorts dropped down the chimneys by birds. They're a pain to clean.

• the bath is too cold to use in the winter

• the wooden floors are freezing even though we sealed the gaps

• we've got woodworm

• the garden is now overgrown because we're so busy trying to stay on top of things inside that there's no time for outside. The spacious rooms take forever to clean and I've never known dust like it.

• it is a total time and money pit.

NEVER again. In the spring, I'm planning to move to a lovely, cosy, cheap to run and easy to clean new build! Life is too short to spend all this time and money on a house.

See I love the sound of the wind howling down the bedroom fireplace, it’s so very soothing.

Also don’t have a problem with slugs although there are mice in the floorboards.

Our house is very beautiful but we have spent a fair bit on it, but a massive kitchen diner and two huge lounges is great for family life.

I love my Victorian 1876 house. Yes, it’s drafty but this toughens you up! I’ve been to my friends’ newer, better insulated houses and felt a bit sick with heat and stagnant air. I love wandering around it and thinking about the lives that were lived here and definitely feel like I have a wee bit of history. I don’t think I could live in a house with lower than four metre ceilings anymore. Heating is outrageous. No slugs though.

We moved from a massive Victorian maisonette to a 1950s house. The maisonette was gorgeous but leaked heat. I really noticed the difference in winter in our 1950s house - I barely needed the heating on! But in the Victorian place we had to draught proof and keep doors closed etc.

I hate the cold so was happy to leave it behind. Every time we had work done we’d discover horrors (eg lathe and plaster falling apart, an old fireplace behind the kitchen cupboards etc) but we also have asbestos in our 1950s house which is a fucking ball ache.

Location is important. Decide that first. Then find a house which best fits.