Owning a victorian property – whst do i need to know?

Considering putting an offer in on a detached house with a basement built in 1894.

I’ve never owned anything more than 30 years old before. I understand there are differences in the way they work and without the right care or understanding, you can do more harm than good.

The internet suggests that if you try and keep them warm and sealed, you suffer condensation and mould and even using a vinyl paint rather than something permeable can cause problems. (also learned not to say the walls “breath”!)

So, what do I need to know about living in it, keeping warm and dry and looking after the house?

You’ll turn into Victorian Dad

and there is nothing you can do to stop the process

Buy it. My house is from 1895, and still stands. About 50 years ago one of the bays had to be rebuily because of movement, and 30 years ago there was underpinning as the foundations were minimal (We are on clay) but if you have a cellar that implies deeper foundations.

The original timbers are mostly fine.
We’ve had damp where previous owners had banked soil up the walls to above floor level, but that was easily fixed. Others have suffered water ingress from uncapped chimneys.
Get a survey, & if there’s now major, go ahead

This would be a good start …

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Old-House-Handbook-Practical-Repair/dp/0711227721/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1437381141&sr=1-2&keywords=house+restoration

… borrow it from a library, there’d be a chapter or two relevant IIRC.

my house was built in 1885. it’s ace. the only issues i’ve had with damp of any kind were down to the boiler being tired and rubbish, but that’s in the kitchen which is in an extension on the rear built about 20 years ago…
go for it.

Small jobs can very easily become bigger jobs.

Think all the houses/flats I’ve been in since I first bought one have been Victorian – incl. this one.

Get used to draughts, wobbly looking glass, floors and walls that are never at 90o to each other, ash and cinders for sound proofing under the floor boards, ceilings and walls with cracks that are just ‘there’..

And when you replace or repair window frames, and start to delve into the timber struts, you can see original measurements and joiners initials, sometimes – quite interesting to re-picture the house as it might have been when first built – ours is about 1880 I think. Still got the original deeds as well.

yes, when i had surveys done one of the things the surveyor pointed out was that some of the walls were not very flat. err, it’s an old house, i expected that! it’s hardly an issue really. i’d have looked at buying a new build instead if it was.

They’ve got ‘character’. Our house is from the late 1890s and you get all the nice characteristics like ornate cornicing, fireplaces, lovely floorboards if you sand them, those silly shelf things up near the ceiling and generally, a really, really well built house. Then you have the other characteristics – damp, creaky floorboards, walls made of those horizontal weaved wood with plaster over the top, drafts etc etc.

All well worth it IMHO. In fact ours is for sale if you want it?

but if you have a cellar that implies deeper foundations.

or you’ve a big hole underneath… 😉

Our house is 1890. Lots of things to like about them. The rooms have height to them and even our small terraced house has good proportions.

Nice big windows too. Well built, didn’t skimp on materials.

Things to consider. Nothing is square. Doors, shelving into alcoves etc will all need trimming to shape. Buy an sds drill – some walls are easy to drill, others appear to have some flint, diamond, imploded star substance underneath the plaster rendering even the best normal hammer drill useless.

Even changing a lightbulb will require steps.

1886 here. No problems with movement or damp. Keep the guttering in good order, don’t stack stuff up against the outside of walls. That’s about the only ‘special’ things that’s been done.

Walls are rarely square which means a little extra care when wall papering or fitting skirting but on the plus side it’s had over a hundred years to show any faults and if they aren’t apparent now they are unlikely to suddenly materialise.

I assume the tall ceilings were to do with gas lights. Does anyone know?

@sog. I always just thought it’s because the victorians liked properly proportioned rooms. And the top hats off course…

I have lived in a few my current one has bits that date back to 170(something)

Pros: Big rooms, big garden, lots of space, house is always cool.

Cons: Drafty (if you seal them up you will get damp), ash insulation means drilling holes in ceiling is interesting, walls can be > 2ft thick in places so drilling a hole for new waste pipes is a 5 hour job, also house never gets particularity warm, nothing is square (same as new builds really) everything you do and need will be bespoke (re: expensive), good chance that floor joists will be sat in dirt, good chance that previous owner has taken a shortcut and used sand and cement causing odd cracks.

Main thing I would look for is sandtex on the outside of the building if its rendered, if you spot it walk away as you will be looking at 20 to 30K to fix the problem and replace rotten timber and blown render.

Also if it needs any work, take what you expect it should cost, double it and add 20% and that should cover it 🙂

You get used to lower internal temperatures come winter, which is a plus as you join logburnerworld! Basement = man cave = more bikes. Nothing is square, which means slightly botched diy does not show. Once you start to work on it, you realise that the Victorians could be pretty sloppy. On the plus side they are very comfortable places to live – nicely proportioned. Good luck!

I assume the tall ceilings were to do with gas lights. Does anyone know?

All about natural light apparently

http://www.metropolitanwalks.com/blog/why-old-buildings-have-such-high-ceilings/

Before undertaking any DIY, pop down to Screwfix and get yourself a Wrong Angle. You’ll need one because there isn’t a right angle anywhere in the building.

Well built, didn’t skimp on materials.

I’d disagree with this.

They used whatever they could get their hand on. Having recently taken my kitchen back to brick, the internal walls are a slung together with half bricks and whatever was available to be honest. There are no perfect horizontal rows of full bricks…they used all those on the outside walls.

Sounds like a new build tbh

189x Vic 2up 2down workers semiD here

Concur with dooosuk. Brickwork is pretty sloppy in places and would have been made from local materials where ever possible. That said it’s been up 120ish years and the only visible cracks are in the 1970’s extension.

Ceilings / some internal walls are lathe and plaster which can require some careful drilling.

Previous owners put cavity insulation in though the gap only looks to be a inch or so between skins.

I think our neighbours are nosier than usual but I was disappointed at the lack of sound proofing.

Damp no worse than the 19030’s flat we had previously.

I think our neighbours are nosier than usual but I was disappointed at the lack of sound proofing.

Yep, I can hear the neighbours just talking normally through the 9″ solid walls!

footflaps – Member
I think our neighbours are nosier than usual but I was disappointed at the lack of sound proofing.
Yep, I can hear the neighbours just talking normally through the 9″ solid walls

Bloody he’ll! Glad it’s detached.

Mine’s detached, so I can’t hear anything… mind you I had to replace all the ceilings so I double boarded them with soundproof plasterboard (outside render was patched was sand and cement render + sandtex, so most of the wood touching outside walls was rotten to the point of collapsing which brought the ceilings down)

I’ve just moved from a basement flat in an old Victorian house to an 8-year old ground floor flat and I know whether I’ll buy new or old if I ever do buy…

Old flat was colder inside than outside on a sunny day. Nice to have natural air conditioning when it’s 25 degrees+, all other times, cold.
Sat around last winter with jumper on and heating on and still cold
Winter heating bills c£200/month
Slugs and a mouse keeping me company
Feeling the breeze coming down the chimney (even though it was blocked) and up through the floor boards.
Itchy eyes – which have gone within days of moving out, assume it was something in the pipework
Despite massive windows, the rooms were so big the natural light didnt fill them and it was lights on all the time except on the very sunniest days.
As rooms were so big, anything like putting carpet in would have cost a fortune
Needed loads of furniture to stop the place feeling cavernous

From an aesthetic point of view I’ve always preferred Victorian but from a financial and overall quality of accommodation point of view I’m sticking with newbuild – not offplan, but newbuild that a previous owner has already dealt with. Will save thousands in upkeep and bills I suspect… + I can spend my weekends riding bikes instead of in B&Q and doing DIY…

Our 3 bed 1890s terrace costs £400/year in gas to heat. It has double glazed sash windows, loft insulation and a modern extension on the back which is cavity wall. The only place which gets a bit of mould is the bathroom in winter, but it’s a tiny amount and just needs wiping off every few weeks.

We were quite surprised at how much we could heard from next door (semi-detached), it mostly the kids larking around, etc. Thankfully the hall/stairs are on the party wall and none of the of the actual living/sleeping spaces (I wouldn’t have bought it otherwise).

Apart form that though, love it! Nice big garden/plot. When visiting more modern builds, quickly reminded how shoebox-like the rooms are.

We’ve not been in long enough to encounter any painful maintenance work though and it appears to have been fairly well maintained by the previous owners.

I don’t think I could live in a modern house now, unless we built our own.

Mine is 1810. Previous owners have blocked up chimneys and sealed up windows so we do suffer from damp in certain areas. We are currently trying to improve the ventilation to put this right.

We normally leave all the windows slightly open during the day all year round, so the house is never stuffy.

Drafty (if you seal them up you will get damp)

Most of our double-glazed windows need to be left locked “open” to create a through-flow of air to eliminate damp. We sometimes utilise a dehumidifier when drying washing in the winter. If you seal the house up with draught-excluders & plastic windows & doors to meet current efficiency guidelines, you will end up with damp.

Our old house was built in 1867 & our new one in 1895. There is a noticeable improvement in build quality. Not sure if it’s a result of 28 years’ technological advance, or because tobacco was more profitable than the railways.

I assume the tall ceilings were to do with gas lights. Does anyone know?

It’s so you can service your Penny Farthing in the kitchen.

My mother in law has just moved into an expensive new build which is apparently high quality and IMHo the finish is shocking, rooms a very small and the garden tiny (6M wide, 11M long) and from what they looked at this was big!

A huge pro of old houses is you get more space to live in.

As an aside, older houses give plenty of scope for historical research (if that’s your thing).

Back when GW2 was kicking off in 2003, I did some research on our place at the turn of the century. There was a family of 5 living in what would have effectively been a 3 room house and one of the boys died in WWI.

In one of those curiously affecting things, I discovered he’d died in the siege of Kut al Amara, more or less as we were storming back up through Iraq.

Draughts from inexplicable places.

Mine is around 1880-90. Get a bit of damp in the winter(single skin of bricks facing straight onto a field) and the landing floor isn’t level. Need to keep bedroom double glazed window locked very slightly open to avoid condensation and mold. I wanted colours that looked apt so went for F and B Wimbourne white and French grey throughout. My heating bills are pretty modest and maintenance doesn’t seem much greater than with a new house, you still need to decorate.

1860 here. Freezing during the winter (I work from home, sat in my office with a wooly hat and two jumpers on, rather than putting on the heating) but nice during the summer months. Huge windows which let in lots of light but can be draughty. Like everyone else has said, condensation is pretty much inevitable. Dehumidifiers help.

1890s,

Nice high ceilings, which if/when you need to take down will be filthy business.

Nice big windows in general, decent size rooms.

Need to think about moisture more, not trapping it in the walls (lime plaster rather than modern stuff etc).

Tall skirting boards.

Odd sizes/angles.

Solid, it’s lasted this long….etc.

100 years + of DIY bodges….

Mine was replastered using limelight which seems to have worked well as it insulates a bit outside is lime render though which means the water has somewhere to go.

1890s. Suspended wooden floor is cold, they can be insulated but that can cause problems with damp. Much newer houses can have the same problem

Victorian wood is far better quality than its modern equivalent

Tiny mortar lines between brick courses mean that replacing damaged bricks is a pain

Some Victorian builders were no different to some modern ones and would take shortcuts and bodge. Our external brickwork is immaculately done, the internal is just a pile of bits of brick and mortar. Right-angle? What’s that?
Staircases can be much steeper than modern ones

Great room proportions and light from the windows

Limelight plaster works

Some dodgey stuff used like lead in pipes and paint, but you can find that in more modern housing too

You’ll find interesting bits of history under the floorboards and in the garden, and the house will have a history around its occupants too

It’s been there for 120+ years, that’s quite a warranty

Victorian? Pah. Georgian.

Mostly all covered above.

1 No straight lines.
2 Don’t try and seal everything up, damp + condensation + mould will result.
3 Chimneys everywhere. Use them, they help with #2. Welcome to fire* club.
4 “interesting” brickwork, using a mixture of spongecake and steel blocks if ours is any example.
5 Draughts.
6 If fixing #5, try and ensure there is some kind of controlled way of getting air into a room, or under the floorspace – see #2.
7 Keep guttering clean.
8 Keep on top of repointing.
9 Keep on top of any dying roof tiles.
10 High ceilings? Myth. IME.
11 Check as much of the timber as you can, in case some chump has done #2 and ruined all the woodwork.
12 Lime plaster not always used – ours is regular concrete despite the 1812 build date.

After all that is said, they’re generally quite good houses – all the crap ones have long since fallen down. They just have that “character” thing.

* includes wood burners, coal burners, open fires, and all other assorted dangerous looking heating devices.