Buying a house built in 1920s - thoughts please?

[Ftbhere]

We are first time buyers. We have just had a building survey done for a house built in the 1920s. There are some problems which have been identified - some are minor which doesn't need immediate attention, but some are major like immediate work needed on the roof. We are in the process of getting builder quotes and plan to go back to the sellers to negotiate on the price.
But what are your thoughts on buying a house which is 100 years old! Would you avoid it? Lots of potential problems? Or would you be open to buying it and why?
Thanks a lot.

We're in a 30s house and I think 20s houses are similar - think they're beautiful. You need the advice of the builder, but I think anything that is 100 years old will come with age-related issues, as you'd expect. The key is whether things have been properly maintained. Did the survey say "immediate" or within the next few years for the roof?

We bought an older house five years ago and lots of people do. What exactly does the survey say about the roof? Lots of roof issues are pretty minor to fix - like a tile out of place. What are the other things the survey has flagged?

Older houses are usually priced accordingly - when you buy an older property you don't expect everything to be up to current regulations or brand new. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it or it's dangerous. What's more important is that the owners have kept on top of maintenance issues.

Our house is 150 years old and it's one of the most solid houses we've owned and certainly a million times better than my mums crappy 20yo Charles Church house which I think is made of plaster and plastic.
We knew it needed work when we moved it (previous owners had been here 25yrs) but budgeted accordingly.
All houses need maintenance which is something people tend to forget but ours has good bones, is really solid and is now a real gem. We have space, light and character we couldn't get in a newer house plus a generous plot.
Yes we did have to do some initial work but some of that was choice and some necessity but we went in eyes open and don't regret it at all.

My current house is 160 years old! And I'm about to buy a house not that much younger - 120. But I did own a terraced house from the 30s and it was pretty solid.
I think with older houses the survey will point out things to be aware of. But they do tend to make things sound a lot more alarming than they are. Houses need maintenance and my own roof is still the original- I've had to repair some flashing but any surveyor would probably say it will need replacing sooner rather than later which will cost thousands, simply because of its age rather than its actual condition (the guys did take a good look when doing the flashing and said it's fine).
Part of the trade off for buying period properties is the higher cost of maintenance. But the benefits outweigh that cost in my mind. Also look at the neighbouring houses - generally when one starts failing and gets replaced the others do too. If there are a few newer ones then maybe your will need some work, but don't assume it does unless the surveyor picked up specific signs.

My house is an old minor cottage build in 1900, walls are 18inches thick.

Love it

My house was built in 1853 and it had some minor problems (and now some major ones) but I don't regret it at all. I'd always pic an older house with character over a boring new build.

Our old house was 1920's. Lovely high ceilings solid all the way through. Kept the heat in. It did have a new roof before we bought it and the electrics were updated in the early 80"s I think. We never had a problem and sold it on easily after 10 years. We never had to do any major work to it.

A quarter of the UK housing stock is pre 1920 and so clearly plenty of people live in a house older than the one you're looking at. the issue will be the property itself i.e how well that particular property has been maintained

Our house is closer to 200 years old. Our survey sounded dire. Nothing it suggested actually ended up being urgent. We even had a man out to do a damp survey who quoted £5000 to ‘fix the damp problem’... I’m still yet to actually find any damp! We’ve spent a few thousand on repairs/modernising but we’ve done the vast majority ourselves. I’d be very surprised if it was as awful as they’ve said!

Yes we got quoted 5K to fix the damp problem in our 120 year old house. It had been empty for a year, a couple of week with the heating on sorted the 'damp' out.

Part of the ceiling collapsed last week - it's the original lath and plaster. It's got an ornate pattern so I'm hoping that we can stablise it.

Old houses have issues - and quite often you can be fixing decades of botch jobs. We are fixing plumbing issues at the moment -not picked up in survey.

But..that's houses really. My brother would never buy an old house - he bought one brand new and built his second house. He likes a square room, heating that works, electrics that are all new, showers that work. His house is a solid house.

I like an older house - with a bit of quirkiness.

This is my second house of a similar age.

Rather than thinking about the cost to fix the roof, do consider if the asking price was for a "needs improvement" house or a fully renovated house. If the latter and you've discussed the roof needs work, then look for a discount. If the former and it was always obvious that it wasn't renovated, then this is to be expected.

I love older houses - I love the character and wouldn't live in a new build again unless I was retiring and wanted less maintenance.

Old houses have issues - and quite often you can be fixing decades of botch jobs.

Yes this!! Every time we go to do something it becomes much harder than expected! We still love our house though.

We had to tear down a path and plaster ceiling and re-do. It was an absolute pig of a job.

My house is old we moved here recently. Definitely a good idea to have a full and detailed survey before buying. We expected issues as the house was old but there were not as many as we thought. We then negotiated on price and split the cost with the sellers. It needs new windows and water tank and some work on the roof and other bits. Nothing is immediate but will need doing in the next few years. The boiler is ancient and has broken down already but we knew this was a possibility due to the survey and were prepared.
I love that the house has character and original features. It is a faded beauty and we will make her lovely again

With the roof, we got the full structural survey (we bought an Edwardian house in a terrible state) but then had a long chat with the surveyor.

He said that what it meant when he said the roof was.at the end of its life and needed replacing was that it might last a good 20 years more, but if there was one bad storm we might need to get it done in a hurry. So if we were considering a loft conversion in a few years and doing the roof at the same time, he recommended getting plans ASAP and doing it sooner rather than later. And in the meantime, any minor roof problems should be fixed immediately so they didn't rapidly get much worse.

Most houses round here are 20s/30s and they’re much more popular than the odd modern one.

They’re more spacious, characterful and well built.

Some maintenance is needed & surveys always look bad! Well worth the effort IMO.

I've always had period houses and our last one was 1925. The roof and some bits were highlighted on the survey but the failing bay, floorboards and external walls were not. The roof was missing some tiles so it didn't need a new roof.

The key is to get a house that has been well looked after. Our last one was not.

The only other thing about our last house was thin walls. I am going for mid century with lots of insulation next!

Ours is 1924 and full of character and space and hasn't presented us with any nasty surprises. As pp say, if it's been maintained reasonably well then I don't see the problem. You're having a survey which would throw up major difficulties - roof work could be needed on much newer houses too. Ditto boilers,windows etc.

Some new builds have terrible problems which take ages to get put right,if at all. And they are smaller with tiny gardens for a comparable price.

Go for it.

I've moved recently from a 20 year old house to a 1930s terrace. It had a good feeling when I viewed it, and lots of potential. A nice full width extension across the back sold me.
Having moved in I'd say I underestimated what needed to be done. I'd got a reduction because the survey showed a few roof issues, but the electrics aren't great so the house needs a rewire which will cost. The loft hatch needed making bigger and the loft boarding, and all bedrooms need replastering but I'm gritting my teeth and getting through it because it will be so good when it's finished.
Lovely high ceilings too.
Just watch out for where the boiler is - not ideal if it's a bedroom so I've just paid to have mine moved to the kitchen!

My house is 130 years old and its main problems aren’t from age, it’s a gem; the issues all stem from crap and manic DIY from previous owners – as PP have pointed out. Things that were due to age and lack of maintenance, eg our roof needed a little help, are a lot easier than undoing stuff like the years and layers of bright gloopy gloss paint on the staircase.

In any case, full surveys always say something like “my god this death trap, every inch is illegal and rat-filled, what on EARTH is this, code red, and don’t get me started on the kitchen, bathroom, roof, floors, walls and windows. Nothing in this survey can be held against the surveyor if we miss something, thanks” then you move in and it’s mostly fine and just costs money and time.

We bought our first house a few years ago and it's an old workers cottage built in 1800 - so it's 220 years old in the oldest part. And that part is solid as a rock with walls almost half a metre thick. There's lots of work to be done, we've already had to have the chimney sorted, but otherwise most of the remedial work is botched diy that we need to make good. I would choose an old house again any day over newer houses that they seem to throw up in a few months and fall apart just as quickly (have rented a few and hated how flimsy everything was). I love the character and history of it

My current house is 300 years old. I've always lived in fairly old houses. The one I grew up in was late Victorian. They've all been lovely solid homes. If they've been standing for that long, they'll probably last for another few hundred years too.

@LolaNova

Our house is closer to 200 years old. Our survey sounded dire. Nothing it suggested actually ended up being urgent. We even had a man out to do a damp survey who quoted £5000 to ‘fix the damp problem’... I’m still yet to actually find any damp! We’ve spent a few thousand on repairs/modernising but we’ve done the vast majority ourselves. I’d be very surprised if it was as awful as they’ve said!

We sold our Victorian terrace and the buyers had a damp survey done (the initial surveyer recommended it and I'm not sure why because we didn't have damp) and they asked for xyz works to be done in the living room. We said we'd knock it off the asking price, they had it done when they moved in and low and behold they now have a massive damp problem because the house can't breathe (I know because our buyer harrassed me on fb about 'letting them go ahead with it')

Your house is just a "teenager" .

Mine was built in the 1720's!!

I tend to find that period homes have better plot sizes than modern equivalents and 20/30's houses often have layouts that can be easily adapted/extended to meet the needs of modern living.

Best advice for any older home is don't scrimp on the survey.

Get 3 quotes for any works that are recommended.

All homes need to be properly maintained regardless of age.

The biggest risks (costs) are addressing major roofing works (not all roof work is necessarily a huge issue), damp, new windows if you still have original single glazing and re/wiring if the electrics haven't been upgraded and a new boiler.

It's not really an issue for a 20's house but for very old houses like mine you need to get used to the word "bespoke" (and the cost). Room sizes, door frames, windows mean that any built in furniture (like kitchens) and soft furnishings like curtains you're unlikely to find ready made in the right sizes.

Kitchens can be "botched" a bit with filler panels for example and you can alter ready made curtains but essentially if you want a top notch finish you have to put you hand in your pocket and get things custom made.

We have 35 windows and all were different sizes and being in a conservation area had to be wood. I'm not going to tell you how much it cost to replace them because I'm still getting over the shock nearly 5 years later!

If your building is listed the costs ramp up further as you need to retain what you can or replace like with like often using high skilled (expensive) trades people and materials.

All that said my experience of period houses (7 in total) has been overwhelmingly positive.

Ours is early Victorian, and as a pp said, our issues stem from botch jobs done by previous owners, rather than the age of the house. I certainly wouldn’t discount a house on age alone. We’ve only recently bought this one, and its bones are beautiful.

We moved into a house that was 190 years old, with a survey report that identified quite a few issues. Ten years later we realised only a few of the problems really needed fixing and we could have lived with them. The house is solid unlike new builds we've been in.