Survey issue

[Eebs]

Had a survey done on the house i am hoping to buy. House is dated around 1915 and whilst it is modernised it also holds a certain amount of period charm. Ie it needs a bit doing to it! Most of the issues coming back are around the house being oldish and needing upkeep but the first floor bedrooms still have lath and plaster ceilings and the surveyor thinks they look like they will need repairing especially if the wallpaper is removed. It may be possible to patch but he doesn't think so. We knew when we offered that work would need doing and offered accordingly but does this sound awful or just par for the course of buying a older house? Only my second house so feel a bit out of my comfort zone. My current house is older but was more modernised. Does anyone have experience of this? Thanks

Par for the course!

Thank you! This is the kind of answer I like as I really have a good feeling about this house and don't mind the work just don't want to be stupid about it!!

We've got an old Edwardian house and have bought and sold a lot of houses. You get to know what is 'run away' territory and what you shouldn't be concerned about. I have red lines I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, but I'd proceed happily on what you've described.

I still have a lath and plaster ceiling in my kitchen. Not planning to do anything about it until I really need to. House was built in 1837, or so I thought, until NDN told me it was extended then, but actually built in 1828. I am going round to look at his records when the restrictions are lifted!

I live in an 1850s terraced cottage and have been updating it slowly over the last few years. One thing I have learnt is that when it comes to redecorating a room I automatically add into the cost a full room replaster then I always seem to get a nice surprise when the bills cheaper because it just needed patching

Thank you so much everyone. Really helpful

Definitely par for the course! We have had lath and plaster walls and ceilings in both houses we've owned. As pp said as long as you factor in replastering it's not really an issue. We didn't realise the first time and had a bit of a shock when we had to replaster the entire house before we moved in! We're older and wiser now thankfully, although having said that decorating our bedroom cost double what we'd anticipated because we had to replace a third of the roof as well!

DinosaurAddict- You seem to have a bit of house-buying experience and I'm interested what issues you would consider beyond the red line?

Live in a 1905 house and buying similar. That would not be a deal breaker for me. I'd worry more about subsidence, drains, long cracks, rising damp, re-wiring and new central heating/boiler.

They will always find something in a period property. .

Fairly standard. We have a similar aged house and had the same concerns, as it happens the ceilings are fine. Our decorator used living paper and we just got on with things. Same for our old house too.

If the ceilings have gone then there is the option of over boarding them with plaster board and carrying on that way. Bringing down a lath and plaster ceiling is very very messy!

@AvaloniaFunk I pulled out of one house last year because the survey was IMO way too much - rising and penetrative damp throughout the whole house, to the point that joists were sodden and stairwell was unsafe, in addition to things like woodworm (which didn't even make it into the exec summary) - even I ran a mile! I also walk away for things like subsidence. Not something I'm willing to take on. Low levels of damp are to be expected in old properties, and they'll always require maintenance or updating. E.g. when we bought our current one we knew it needed repointing, windows replacing etc.