Major work needed or not?

essjae

Hello helpful forum members, and thank you in advance for your advice and opinions!

I am considering buying a very old house (grade II listed), dating back to around 1840 or so – as such it has various issues, but the particular one that concerns me is some very uneven floors in two of the rooms on the first floor. Not all rooms are visibly affected, just two out of five rooms on the first floor.
Possibly my memory is playing tricks on me, but the floors actually seemed to be higher in the centre of the rooms than at the edges. In one case, the ceiling of the room below has a long (but not particularly wide) crack across it.

Now a bit of digging into online planning records has told me that the side walls of the house are stone, while the front and back are timber framed. Both rooms in question have one external stone wall and one external timber wall. There are no cracks visible on the exterior.
It also seems that there has historically been an issue with damp getting into the front wall, which may or may not have been rectified (I asked the vendors about what works they had done, and they haven’t mentioned a few things that I can see they applied for listed building consent for)

So with this in mind, is it likely that these floors (and the wider structure of the building) are not stable and need work to rectify that? What work would need to be done, and how much would it cost?
Or is there a fair chance that the floor movement is historic and can safely be left as it is, just patching up the cracks?

I realize there are no hard and fast answers here, particularly without seeing it, and I would of course be getting a structural engineer to have a look at it if I decided to put an offer on the house, but I am trying to decide if it’s worth the cost and hassle or if I should leave what could be a beautiful and characterful house for someone else to take on!

Thank you all!

dominoman

In a house that old having a floor that is uneven is to be expected. And a long crack in a ceiling wouldn't cause me any concern at all unless it was visibly changing over time.

If you like the house I would definitely get a structural engineer to take a look at it. Even if he does think it's a problem, everything can be fixed - for a price

tonyh66

it sounds like a money pit, and you are probably aware that being grade II listed means planning restrictions are really tight.

essjae

And there we have the exact quandary that I find myself in!
Is it a quirk of the property that I can leave be, or will it take thousands to stop it from falling down?

I do expect to spend a reasonable amount in restoring and maintaining any older property, but spotting which ones are worth it is the trick...

Incidentally, the building being listed is not an issue - in the location I am looking at, the majority of suitable houses in/near the town centre (which is where I'd want to be, practical modern suburbs are not my thing) are listed, and it's a conservation area anyway!

Any more suggestions?

Doozergirl

There are too many options to go through. It can be caused by movement in the walls, or you could have some rotten or loose joists.

As a first test, I would 'bounce' on the floor in different areas to see if it moves. You're looking to find the line of the joists. If one is loose, you'll find it bouncing across the line.

We've worked on floors that have had to be replaced, on floors that we were able to jack up from underneath (ceiling comes down) and also a 400 year old floor where we laid a fake, level floor over the top - it was solid but you couldn't lay any furniture straight without cutting the legs!

Or, if they've been solid, just left as part of the character.

If the joists don't bounce, the floor *should* should be fine. Ultimately, you can't tell until either the boards have come up or the ceiling below comes down.

Listed buildings are always money pits. Even a full structural survey won't highlight all the surprises in store if you intend any renovations.

essjae

Thanks Doozergirl, I think I'm edging towards going back for a second viewing, so its good to have some advice on what to look out for.

If it is apparent that some/all joists need repair or replacing, what sort of cost would this entail? Ballpark figure, obviously, but are we talking 10k? 20k? More?

Doozergirl

Not £10k.

The ceilings have to come down, so it depends on what you were intending to do to the house in the first place as to whether any of the additional work is budgeted for.

You'll need a builder, carpenter, skip, electrician and plasterer.

Floorboards and ceilings replaced, probably skirting as well.

It's the jobs from the knock-on effects that push the price up, more then the job itself.

Hoploz

Doozergirl wrote: »

Not £10k.

The ceilings have to come down, so it depends on what you were intending to do to the house in the first place as to whether any of the additional work is budgeted for.

You'll need a builder, carpenter, skip, electrician and plasterer.

Floorboards and ceilings replaced, probably skirting as well.

It's the jobs from the knock-on effects that push the price up, more then the job itself.

And all this will need to be run past the local conservation officer as well ... and of course they will want as much of the original fabric of the building to be retained which means patch repairs instead of proper jobs .... Nightmare! But if you've got the funds and you're well aware of the implications you'll end up with a beautiful period home to die for!

Luckily the one I own from 1837 had just been renovated 5 years ago when we bought it )