Pros and cons of buying a cottage?

Loopy28

I hope you don't mind giving your thoughts, we currently live in a 10 year old house, which has recently been sold and are now looking for our next house.

We really like a semi detached character cottage but are worried we might cause ourselves a lifetime of hassle. However, we have no experience with an older property.

It does have double glazing and central heating and has been modernised to some extent while retaining original features. The energy efficiency relating is E with potential to become D with cavity wall insulation.

Does anyone who is perhaps a little more experienced that myself be able to highlight any drawbacks or advantages? Many thanks

Owain_Moneysaver

How old is it; is it listed or conservation area?

G_M

Older properties are not built to current standards so, for example, may be haredr to keep warm.

They need more work and money to maintain them (just as with an older car!)

Loanranger

I would check that it does actually have cavity walls. I live in a house built in 1955 and it does not have cavity walls.

padington

It depends what type of cottage you're talking about, some are made to last and made much studier then the modern crap that is currently being made. Many cottages still have the same welsh slate roof tiles that were originally built over 125 plus years ago for example.

With a new build it most certainly probably won't be welsh slate and certainly no one will guarantee the roof tiles will still be there after 25 years let alone 125 plus.

You need to look into each individual cottage on its own merits. Once the attic is insulated and double glazing put in and central heating added, many cottages can be quite toasty inside too.

Just make sure to get a survey done to be on the safe side.

SG27

I live in a grade II listed 300 year old cottage in a conservation area. I wouldn't change it for anything! It has exposed beams, inglenook fireplace original signal glazed sash windows. It has central heating and a stove so toasty in the winter and lovely and cool in the summer. The garden is bigger than any of the more modern houses we viewed. I don't think I could live in a characterless new build after living here.

Davesnave

If the EPC says it has the potential for cavity wall insulation, the original building is either very small or it's not a cottage in the true sense of the word.

It might be a house built in the cottage-style, like the one I lived in as a child, which was post war by a few years. That was essentially a modern house with 'cute' features, like sloping ceilings where you'd really prefer more headroom.

Cavity walls became common around the 1930s and I'd expect a true cottage to go back at least as far as Edwardian times.

Older cottages that have been modernised may have been done properly and sympathetically, but the odds are probably against it. Some are inherently well built anyway, but others, such as you'll find in Wales and the West, may have had the old render replaced with modern concrete and thus fail to 'breathe' as they were designed to do. This can lead to problems with damp, especially when paired with modern plastic windows etc.

All that said, no house that's been standing for a few decades is going to be problem free. There were plenty of shoddy builds in the 60s/70s, and I live in one!:rotfl:

I_have_spoken

I hope you don't mind giving your thoughts

Semi detached - poor sound insulation
"Nail-sickness" with the tiles
Lead pipes for the water supply
Rusting water tanks in loft burst
Low ceilings/door frames
Missing/poor/bridged DPC
Rotten joists and frames
Untreated wood has woodworm
Poor insulation
Always feels damp in winter
Not enough electrical sockets
Decayed rubber insulated wiring
Nothing is at 90 degrees
Lath & plaster walls makes DIY a nightmare
Lath & plaster ceilings 'blown'

Mrs_pbradley936

I have lived in very old properties and new builds. Older properties tend to have poor plumbing with exposed pipes (plumbing and indoor toilets came along long after they were built). They are more prone to burst pipes in winter (cannot insulate them adequately). Cost more to heat and are impossible to tile. The walls are never what builders call "square or true".


They must be alright though because they are still there after hundreds of years.

Doozergirl

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Semi detached - poor sound insulation
"Nail-sickness" with the tiles
Lead pipes for the water supply
Rusting water tanks in loft burst
Low ceilings/door frames
Missing/poor/bridged DPC
Rotten joists and frames
Untreated wood has woodworm
Poor insulation
Always feels damp in winter
Not enough electrical sockets
Decayed rubber insulated wiring
Nothing is at 90 degrees
Lath & plaster walls makes DIY a nightmare
Lath & plaster ceilings 'blown'

Sometimes they've even been modernised slightly!

arbrighton

We live in a house/cottage built in the 1840s. Solid walls so definitely NO chance of cavity wall insulation there. It does however have a huge garden, beautiful brickwork and stone sills etc
Some fairly unsympathetic extensions and renovations done by the previous owners and poorly fitted cheap UPVC which looks wrong and was definitely not helping with noise insulation or heating costs. The chemical damp course was probably pretty unhelpful as was repointing with modern cement. There is however loft insulation and wiring is ok.

No, the walls/ ceilings are not square and the floors aren't entirely level but it's a house that everyone for miles knows.

We're currently doing some work to update, but sympathetically. Wooden windows in keeping with the property that actually fit, repointing, new slates, replacing the lead/ iron water supply pipes (we'll not mention the leaking that had obviously been going on for YEARS)