1930s house renovation

[SelO]

I’m about to embark on a house renovation journey with my one year old.

Buying a 1930s house with no central heating. It has a pretty decent garage so great potential for potential wrap round extension in the future.

That all this house has going for it, potential, potential, potential. Going to be an interesting couple of years.

Anyone have any suggestions for how best to approach this? Specifically, first priority is to install central heating system before winter comes back round. Best provider? Quotes? Where to look? How not to break the bank? Any and all feedback helpful at this point. Thanks.

Hi OP we are 8 months in to our 1930s renovation. We don't have a 1 year old but we have 4 DC and are living in the house. We installed a central heating system through British Gas 6k over 2 years but we are aware this could be cheaper but we chose the easy option, took 3 days, found the disruption minimal and couldn't fault the engineers. Also included 5 year boiler cover. Doors and windows were next that was 9k, partial rewire after that 1k and now the plastering upstairs bedrooms and bathroom including ceilings 2k. We will then carpet and paint the bedrooms and that is our limit for this year

If you want to save money then you could run all the pipework and install radiators yourself. And just pay to get someone in to install the boiler. Speedfit are plastic pipes and connectors and are pretty easy to work with. If fact a lot of plumbers use them for new installs now.

The other thing before winter is to check the roof and guttering for leaks, insulate the loft and buy thick curtains for the windows which I assume are single glazed.

Installing a wood burner has been a life saver for us but I know a lot of people don't like them.

If you get someone in to install the heating , you will need to move out for a while (plus move the furniture) as they will have to take all the floors up and it wouldn't be safe to do that with a one year old around.

Full central heating in a 4 bed in Yorkshire was £6000 about 8 years ago. I imagine it could be £10,000 now.

With trades you can have two from quick, cheap and good. Never all three. We have always waited a while for stuff to save money. I.e. book people several months in advance. Definitely book now if you need work before Christmas as people start panicking in sept and trades get booked up . Jan is a good time for getting work done as noone has any money after Christmas.

I agree with this we booked our heating in Jan to be done end of Feb and we got a deal on it. It meant me and DH wrapped up in the day (WFH) and used electric heaters in the evenings when the kids were back from school. Appreciate it will be different with a 1 year old and we did get a biggish electric bill because of it

@Zafloraqueen did BG install all copper pipe to the rads?

Make sure you tell whoever does the heating that you want to do the extention in the future otherwise they may not.put in a big enough system

We had the house fully rewired and re-plumbed before we moved in.

The kitchen and new boiler were done next so that we could actually live in the house.

As every wall in the house had been cut into by the electricians and plumbers, we went room by room, filling in the plaster and then putting up lining paper to cover the worst bits. Then a lick of paint and they looked fine.

The windows had to wait about 10 years before we could replace them. We went for double glazed crittals to match the old ones.

Mixture of copper and plastic pipework. BG did say its cheaper and easier to work with the plastic

If you're thinking about getting a heat pump (air or ground source) in the future, or solar panels, ask the installer about making the system future compatible (for heat pumps this will mean sizing up the radiators in each room and for solar panels this will impact the boiler you can get).

Are you re-plumbing as well? If so, check for lead pipes (particularly where the water pipes enter the property). It's your responsibility to replace lead pipes on your property/land, but if you are replacing them the water company has to simultaneously replace the ones running from the mains to your land. Also if you're switching hot water systems this will impact the boiler (combi or not), or whether you want to keep a gravity fed system (assuming you have one of those already), or switch to a pressurised hot water system (e.g. a big pressurised cylinder somewhere).

We've done those twice - once in a more modern house where we put in new boiler, radiators and pipe work. More recently in a 1930s house where we took out all the radiators and boiler, did under-floor heating, solar panels and an air source heat pump.

It's great as you can plan exactly where you put everything and avoid taking up too much wall space with radiators.

You need to plan now for how big the house might be in the future to make sure whatever you install offers enough power to heat the space and the water.

I wouldn’t know the first thing about this. But thanks for the suggestion

Wow, twice you’ve done it? Would be good to get a sense of cost if underfloor heating and solar.

That sounds like everything I need doing this year as well. Except the doors and windows might be ok because they are double glazed already. Except for the original back garden doors.

£18k total, had my budget sort of in the same ballpark but I also want to put in a new bathroom which will involve knocking down the separation wall between toilet and tub room.

So much to do with an infant in tow.

Got a £10k quote for London WITHOUT materials

@SelO we are 2 years into our 1930s renovation. House had no central heating so that was the first thing we did (all copper pipes radiators, boiler etc) was £6k. Then complete rewire. Next was fitting new bathroom. We then took down every ceiling and took all the old plaster off every wall. Fitted new plasterboard to every surface and then plastered painted etc. Carpets fitted, extension built (shell only) kitchen mostly installed and that's where we are up to today. Probably a good year off being totally done. We didn't live here for the first 16 months after we bought it until it was habitable

I would be looking to heat and insulate the house as best you can initially, otherwise you will lose heat through places you didn't realise there were holes.

I am just about to replace the back patio door and accompanying attached windows in my 1930's semi; the current ones consist of rotten wood, which have a clear sight line between inside and outside the house across the bottom of the door. At a guess I'd say they were installed in the 1980's. Not only is it a huge security risk, the kitchen diner is freezing in winter so my bill has been astronomical; currently paying £400 per month to clear the backlog. Can't believe I didn't notice it previously, however the quote is £2k, and it will be money well spent.

If your bathroom is liveable for the moment, I'd keep it for a bit to see how you want it to be. I was going to do same as you, then had a quote for £24k, because of knocking down walls in an old house. As it's ok, I've paused and will now do the first floor bathroom at the same time as my loft conversion, likely to be early next year, and it'll probably cost £10k instead.

You've got the right idea doing the big messy jobs first. To save on costs, I would live in the house with the work being down; get an electric heater and you can all move from room to room as work gets finished.

*with the work being done

It was about £12k for UFH, heat pump and installation.

The solar panels were about £4k. But we don't have many!

you probably don’t know the level of insulation throughout the house - imagine it is low. Before you install central heating I would check if the house has cavity walls and if so, are they filled with cavity wall insulation? If no cavities or not suitable then the next option is internal wall insulation - eg insulated plasterboard - and that would be easier before installing central heating and before any house re wiring is done

We are in the middle of our 1930s renovation. We lived in ours for 4 years before we started the renovation. We are also living/lived in it whilst it is being done. My children were 1, 8 and 10 when we started. DH is the builder. We've done/doing everything, last year we turned the house into a bungalow. We boarded the stairs up, Installed a bathroom downstairs. Then started the work and knocked the chimney out, went back to brick, new loft, new wiring, plumbing, new bathroom and decorated. We then moved back in upstairs. Took a break and now have started on the downstairs. Underfloor heating has just been completed. My advice is insulate, insulate, insulate. 1930s houses leak warm air like a seive.

@Drivingbuttercup I can become an insulation bore but I fully agree. Insulate, insulate, insulate. 1912 house owner here. Very cold house before we spent quite a bit of money insulating the house but so much more comfortable now