So we are considering buying a house that needs complete modernisation. Its only a 60s/70s thing but the previous owners seemed to be fans of textured wall paper and shit layouts.

So it needs some walls knocking through, every room probably needs replastering, new kitchen, bathroom, etc, but its all doable if we get the house for the right price. We’ve done it before on our current house so we aren’t afraid of the work/cost.

But then the niggles start..

such as the wall that needs removing change a separate toilet and bathroom into a modern family bathroom was an original external wall, and that wall had the soil pipe on it, but when the extension was built, instead of moving the pipe they left it where it was, put in an awkward connection to the new toilet and boxed in the soil pipe in the extension downstairs…

or that to make the change to fit the bigger bathroom the hot water tank needs to be moved/removed…

or that the fuse box and electricity meter is located on an internal wall nowhere near an external wall (following the extension going up) and that internal wall would need to come down to make a modern large(ish) kitchen.

So am I just being paranoid and everyhting is fixable at a price or are these issues symptomatic of a house that has been bodged together and its just going to be a money pit? Worth the hassle for a house that is never going to be “perfect”?

is it in the right location?

Don’t bugger about with all that. Pretend you’re a premiership footballer or JK out of Jamiroqui. Buy it, demolish it, then build a mock Tudor mansion with a guitar shaped swimming pool

Or go the Grand Designs route

What issue has the fuse board not being on an external wall got ?

Mines isnt and never has been since house was built in 1950. Even the hydro and the sparky that upgraded my input and consumer unit had nothing o say about location…..

Also lets be honest only the soil stack is a real issue ….. All the rest are real easy to deal with given the list of other work the place needs !

If the soil pipe goes through the extension i would presume the sewer runs under this new extension? if so might be worth thinking about how well it was done, any issues with sewer under the extension could be expensive (tho this is unlikely if its ok now).

What issue has the fuse board not being on an external wall got ?

It could be an issue when the wall it’s currently on isn’t going to be there anymore.

Not a massive issue, but not ideal.

Uk power charge about £1000 to move the meter and the feed .

Ours was on a wall which needed to go . Our builder carefully cut the wall with he meter on and stuck it in the garage .

So you’ve found a few bodges. What about the bodges you’ll find after you’ve bought/start uncovering further old work/modernising etc?

All houses have some sort of bodges that you find post-purchase in the course of changing/modernising.

Sounds to me that you’d be doing a fair amount just to get it to a normal house-level without even the expense of cosmetics ontop.

Walk away/avoid and get another.

All sounds entirely doable to me, so long as the price is right (which in itself is high subjective!).

Do you know a builder? Why not walk round with a builder to get an idea of the scale and difficulty of the work?

Just moved a boxed in soil stack from our extension to the outside – took 2 men best part of 5 days

Do you know a builder? Why not walk round with a builder to get an idea of the scale and difficulty of the work?

Did this re. the walls etc. Its all doable. Only discovered the soil pipe and electrics issue after he had been and I don’t want to impose getting him round again since he is a tradesman doing us a favour, rather than a mate who happens to be a builder.

To be honest I’m going off the idea. The price is going to have to be very right to take this one on I think. At the asking price the vendor is living in cloud cookoo land since they seem to have priced it only just below the level of a house up to a modern standard,but by my reconing it needs £60-80k spending on it and that is without any other issues appearing. I suspect they will not want to accept a low offer since they have already moved and seemingly don’t need the money all that urgently.

Uk power charge about £1000 to move the meter and the feed .

Ours was on a wall which needed to go . Our builder carefully cut the wall with he meter on and stuck it in the garage.

That’ll make the house nice and easy to sell!

What issue has the fuse board not being on an external wall got ?

The wall needs to go, but that not a huge deal as moving it isn’t a massive issue, but it makes me worry about where the feed is as you would expect it to be near the edge of the house and the current location is near where the edge of the house used to be, but nowhere near it now. Should it have been moved before the extension was put up?

Uk power charge about £1000 to move the meter and the feed .

You can just move the whole thing without touching the wiring / seals – just dig up the incoming cable, drag the meter board to the new location and re-bury the cable. You’ll have to move all the house side electrics to terminate at the new location, which will be the biggest pain.

Yes , we moved the whole thing without disconecting it .

Dont see why it would make it difficult to sell the house , the meter and all cables are on a piece of wood .

The house was rewired entirely .

We bought a house with bomb damage from WW2 in Sheffield, as a first house. 😯 8)
We got a good couple of trades people in to look / quote / advice. One (understandably) charged us for a proper look at structural issues and report, with quote.
We had gable end wall pinned and tied. New roof, new plumbing, new electrics, new window, new floors downstairs, new bathroom and kitchen. Literally bare stone walls, middle floor and roof joists were the only bits standing one day….
I would do it again.

If it’s a house you like, think is good value and is in the right location then all the other stuff is just details. All of it can be sorted relatively easily.

We moved our electricity meter from halfway up the living room wall to under the stairs and the gas meter from a different corner of the living room to outside. In the big scheme of things none of it sticks in the memory as feeling particularly expensive. We also re-wired, re-plumbed, re-plastered every room, moved the central heating around, adding new radiators, removed walls and swapped door and window positions. The end result is the house we wanted in the location that suits us for the time being.

I just bought a house that was built in 65 and not touched since… Got the keys Wednesday wiring has been done wal paper is stripped, garden destroyed, kitchen out, bathroom out back to beyond plasterboard, nasty polystyrene coving removed new plaster stuff up bedrooms painted. Still plenty to do but it’s amazing what you can get done in 6 days. We move in this weekend.

Why not make a feature of the soil pipe…put a clear section in, would make a great talikng point at dinner parties… 🙂