multiple questions about my renovation - lost please help!

[RandomSuitors]

I've accidentally found myself doing up an entire little Victorian house. Don't ask, it is ruining my life. I've got a few decisions I need to make now and just can't work out.

1. Downstairs floors. I had imagined I'd get the boards sanded and varnished as I think it looks nice but I've realised there's nothing under the boards but rubble and outside. Plus the room is not level so will need to be levelled. The refurb people want me to bung down LVT or carpet, saying it will just be too crafty -- but isn't there anything I can do to make it wood and not cold? I can't afford under floor heating.
2. Kitchen. It's a dated but ok little galley kitchen, which I'm currently going to get a carpenter to chop a bit and move round to fit an oven where I want it, retaining the original wood doors. Then bung down some lino and wait till I can afford a proper kitchen. Is this ok, do you think?
3. URGH! I wasn't cut out for this. Single parent on a budget, but want it all to be usable.
4. Oh, fourth thing is that the walls are very patchy. I can't really afford to have it 'skimmed' - but will I regret this?

I wanted to sand our floorboards also, in reality they were so cold and drafty, and also in bad shape. And apparently lots of spiders and bugs come up through the gaps!
We ended up getting new solid wood floorboards from a timber merchant (UK Timber Ltd) in the same thickness as the old boards for I think £29/m2. We then asked the fitters not to sand and fill them as that makes them look flat and modern, and just put a matte Osmo oil on top, and they look quite like the original boards. Just mentioning in case that’s a option

I honestly don’t think that’s necessary in a bog standard Victorian. I’ve lived in three different ones and we’ve skimmed with ordinary plaster and the F and B. No damp issues in any of them. Floorboards and original windows are worth the odd draft - hermetically sealed houses aren’t healthy.

People often throw out the lime plaster line and breathability as if it’s a hard and fast rule and without understanding the science and when it should be applied. A key point is understanding if you have solid or cavity walls. Many Victorian properties have solid walls and in that case the breathability argument - on external walls - is valid. You don’t need it on internal walls. You don’t need it if you are patching up a small bit of damaged wall. You don’t need it “because that’s how the Victorians did it” and you aren’t allowed to do anything different. My Victorian house has a cavity. While cold it keeps damp at bay. I have plasterboard and gypsum plaster on most walls and no issues.

i think your priority should be first and foremost to fix the underfloor insulation. You won’t regret it and your energy bills will be cheaper. I would lay carpets for additional warmth. You can make it cosy!

It’s so hard working out though if it should be cosy OR authentic.

Its your home (& its not listed); do it however you'd like it to be.
For us, that meant balancing practicality with respecting the original features - I have LVT for easy cleaning, uPVC sash windows (the original windows were long gone) and modern appliances for practicality, but I also spent weeks stripping and restoring an original fireplace, have replaced plaster coving & ceiling roses in rooms they'd been removed from & have a clawfoot bath (and a separate modern shower!).

I think your plan for your kitchen sounds really practical, I did similar in a similar house and it worked super well for me.

For now, for your own sanity, I would buy the sealing kits for exactly your kind of floor that others have recommended, do as much of that as you can now, scrub them down and either a coat of tinted varnish or osmo oil as per others recommendation, then get yourself the biggest WOOL rug you can afford. Wool because it is a natural fibre that lets the house breathe. IKEA have some lovely modern pattern ones or the sort of Oka look ones are around. (Unless you’re in a big moth area?)

what’s the climate like where you are?

what’s your personal style? Auctions are brilliant ways to pick up e.g. Victorian side tables etc for almost nothing.

there are SO SO SO many diyers renovating Victorian houses on Instagram, plus tradesmen (eg paintwarrior) yiu will learn so much if you set up a dedicated account to followe people.

Then give yourself some time and space to plan out what you’d really like. My late Victorian house had wood floor laid over wood floorboards and was fine.

In my Edwardian two up two down we originally sanded the floorboards and varnished them. Then had a rug over, because they didn’t look perfect by any means although visitors always loved the look. When the baby started crawling I wasn’t keen on the floors so we carpeted. Made a huge difference to cosiness (and less spiders/dust!).

Personally I wouldn’t go to the expense of hiring a sander and buying whatever you’d treat them with, plus the faff, mess and noise of doing it. It’s a nice idea, but in my experience not practical long term and the end result was honestly disappointing. We had a small hearth in front of the open fire, plus a fire guard. Hardly used it though as it got too warm in the small room.

In our current (far more modern) house we have Karndean and Amtico in various rooms and I’d recommend both but I prefer carpet in the lounge. You can get small samples online and our local carpet shop also allows you to take large samples home.

Thanks @GertieLawrence. I think a lot of people are saying this about the wood floor. We all love the aesthetic, but it turned out not to actually be so nice to live in.

Another one here with a Victorian house where the kitchen tiles are laid straight onto a base of asphalt and sand. This was customary. Moisture would evaporate through the porous tiles and people would have mats on top.

The front rooms of the house, however, have suspended timber floors (on brick piers) and underneath is earth. We had to have the flooring completely renewed because of damp and rot, largely because of past sealing-up in the well-meaning but misguided belief that all draughts need to be eliminated. We were very firmly advised that underfloor spaces must be allowed to breathe. Air bricks had been blocked (in fact we’ve recently uncovered several more on the front of the house that were totally choked up with gunk - we exposed and cleared them). You really don’t want to block up the underfloor cavity with anything; there should be air-flow going under there. Insulation on top - sealing the boards, having good underlay and carpet - can do a lot.

The floorboards will keep the house ventilated and help you avoid damp, which is important. I would:

Clean up the boards yourself and reassess whether they need sanding
If yes, do that and use Bona heavy duty varnish on top
Get some big rugs and update your radiators in those rooms - in my experience this was cheaper than spending £50psqm fitting plastic flooring on top of the boards
If still really draughty then fill the gaps with Draughtex

With the kitchen, I think your plan is good 👍 maybe revisit the floor dilemma when you get round to redoing your kitchen in a few years and do it all at once, which will be cheaper in terms of labour probably. Always do expensive floor work last!

Good luck and also agree with pp about YouTube and DIY. You can do it. Bit of wall smoother/filler and a hand sander will transform your walls. Update your kitchen cabinet handles etc.

Were renovating a Victorian 4 bed and are up against similar issues. Our floors are just concrete on top of earth so we are raising the floors (adding subfloor, screed etc). But it’s not super cheap even without underfloor heating.

Yes you can just move around the kitchen or you can add new doors to the old frames or repaint. We plan to do new doors.

If you can’t afford to have the plaster skimmed then how on earth are you affording to renovate? Doing anything to the floor will be more expensive than skimming especially if you want to insulate

I know it doesn't feel like it but it sounds lovely!

The original floorboards will be drafty but you do need some air in the house. Is be tempted to sand them lightly, wax them and put down rugs.

As long as your kitchen is serviceable for now it will be fine.

The walls probably need skimming but that's expensive. If you use a coloured paint the bumps won't be so obvious. Or do you like wallpaper?

I'm doing up my mid century bungalow and I get so cross it's taking so long that sometimes I forget to enjoy the process.

I can ‘afford’ to but it’s funny, my renovation people (I’ve got a sort of ‘project’ company as I couldn’t manage it myself) keep
encouraging me not to— they say it’s too time consuming/expensive for what it is and I have kind of listened to them and am prioritising other things. Tbf, it is a mess and I’m ending up spending my money on stuff like damp proofing and asbestos removal, new bathroom and so on. The walls will be ok — I’m having some replastered totally and also the rest patched up and sanded down. That’s why I’m not sure.

1.A lot of Old buildings were always joists above an air gap and rubble
If you insulate and / or seal you could affect the breathability of the building. It’s what stops mould so beware
Id do as you suggest ie sand and finish

2.Yes want you want sounds fine. However this is on the assumption the kitchen floor is not a raised timber floor. If it is a solid floor then ensure a dpm is installed or the damp rising through the floor will affect the adhesion of the lino. You’ll also get damp escaping wherever it can ie up the skirting’s and walls. Trapped mousture has to go somewhere.
Ps a liquid dpm can be brushed over the slab, you do not need to lift it or do major works

3.Id regret it Buy a good mask and a sander then paint over. Id avoid wallpapering as it sounds like your property is old. Wallpaper needs glue and glue traps moisture. Just sand and paint with a breathable paint.

We sanded our floorboards and didn't bother filling the gaps. They look fab. We did put a big rug down in the living room but it's honestly not draughty either way (the single glazing however...). Nothing beats the look of original sanded and sealed floorboards in a period house.

This is all so useful thank you. It's given me the confidence to go with my kitchen mashup idea. It's actually the cupboard doors I want to keep and upcycle: they're really nice wood, made by the owners before on commission. I think I might stain or paint them. New handles is a great idea.

Floorboards I am still deciding. To complicate matters the floor in the biggest downstairs room is of two sections: some very basic-y parquet over concrete where the hall used to be (don't ask), and the rest boards. The builders say I should bin out the parquet and swap it for boards that match the rest, but I'm reluctant. The parquet/hall bit if a different height to the rest so it needs levelling work. I suppose that's why they're trying to get me to put a floor on top - so then it can just be levelled with judicuously applied underlay rather than actually.

Picture fyi

Re the floor we put fairly long ceramic tiles down that look like a wooden floor in our kitchen/diner and downstairs hall! Best thing ever!

Did they have to remove skirting boards for that @Crispynoodle ? Do you have underfloor heating?

I think that’s lovely and shows the history of the building. A real talking point when visitors drop by and certainly nothing wrong with it
Ramp it up OP.

Ignore the trend to stamp out history and celebrate your old building.

As an architect I’d keep it as it is, sand and celebrate

I agree. I love being able to see the history of a house. When we had our ground floor renovation done, last year, the builders were really surprised that we wanted to keep the boards that showed where the old kitchen range would have been. They assumed we'd want to reboard that section so everything was aligned but I love that you can see the history of the room.

Exactly
So much history is being lost to development and insensitive builders.

Ps
No offence intended to OP or posters

OP, I was just looking for something for my own reno and I found this site:

https://www.thevictorianemporium.com/publications/editorial/article/victorian-house-renovation-guide

This is a fab site to look at even for inspiration.

Re your fireplace, if you decide to go with rug/carpet, there are tons of pierced brass Victorian fireplace fenders drifting about auction rooms. Even ebay has lots ranging £130-200. Find your nearest online auction room, figure out how to wait out an auction and offer bids on unsold items, and over a year you could pick up SO many bargains.

Also, look at rightmove at some east london houses in e.g. dalston shoreditch islington. I don't even live in london any more but still occasionally do this as I think a lot of london homeowners have nailed combining authentic period features with modern style - so that you don't feel like you're living in a museum.

Previous posters are right - our current renovation was so incredibly thorough (in fairness the house was nearly knocked down before we bought it so back to brick inside and out) that we are having to go through and put in features like coving etc as we have necessarily lost so many of them!

Quite a modern big rug from Ikea:
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/stockholm-2025-rug-flatwoven-white-brown-light-blue-handwoven-40593815/

Dunelm and LaRedoute are also amazing sources.

GOOD LUCK!