Anyone able to help wanting to buy a old 1920 house

Jess01428

Looking to buy an old 1920s house, apart from the usual new heating system bathroom kitchen etc. it has a few large cracks running through it only on the inside walls tho an under the stairs. Anyone able to suggest whether this is serious work or just internal wall work thanks

Smodlet

OK, no-one can tell with any degree of certainty without looking. If your heart is set on this house, I strongly recommend you get a full building survey done, rather than just a home buyer's report.

If you don't want to shell out hundreds of pounds on a survey yet, you could ask around your friends/family for someone to recommend a builder, then take him (her?) to see this house with you. The advantage of this is that they can tell you roughly what any required work is likely to cost, which a surveyor usually cannot. You should not need to pay more than their travel costs, if that, providing you talk to them nicely. If work needs doing, which it sounds as if it does, that builder can reasonably expect to be asked to quote for the job as they have already done you a favour. This does not mean you have to use them, of course, that is between you and your conscience. I would definitely get at least three quotes altogether, then maybe ask the first builder if they would like to match the lowest one, assuming theirs is not the cheapest.

Depending on what the builder says, you can then decide whether to walk away or to proceed but, at this point, you might want seriously to consider getting a survey done, just in case the builder missed anything. Bear in mind there are so many get-out clauses in these reports that, if the surveyor misses something, it is highly unlikely you will be able to sue them. Again, getting a personal recommendation is a good place to start. I would never choose to use an in-house surveyor recommended by my lender as they have a vested interest in the sale going ahead... but that's just my opinion. I would also ask to see previous reports this surveyor has produced as what you get varies enormously from one surveyor to another. Some charge the same for a report of five or six pages as another does for twenty to thirty or more pages and there should be plenty of photographs unless the house is faultless.

Best of luck and HTH. Please let us know how you get on.

eddddy

Jess01428 wrote: »

Looking to buy an old 1920s house, apart from the usual new heating system bathroom kitchen etc. it has a few large cracks running through it only on the inside walls tho an under the stairs. Anyone able to suggest whether this is serious work or just internal wall work thanks

It it were me...

I would ask a surveyor to visit the property with me to give an initial verbal opinion. This should be much cheaper than getting a full structural report.

The verbal opinion being something like:

- It's structural problems - so you're unlikely to get a mortgage on this property
- It's not structural - it looks like you'l need to do the following...


If it's not structural and you decide to proceed, you might then decide to ask the surveyor to do a full structural survey (and/or your mortgage lender might insist on it anyway).

agrinnall

You can't really consider a 1920s house to be old, that's around 90 years, this country is full of houses 3, 4, 5 and more times as old as that. It's barely run in at that age. The good thing is that if it hasn't fallen down in the first 90 years it's probably good for another 200.

lisa110rry

All of the above is brilliant advice, smodlet's is stunning if you have a good, experienced builder in your family/friend group.

Our home was built in 1932, but being in the country it is in 20s style. It was built by eye. We bought in 1987, only second owners, and there were cracks under the upper storey bay. We didn't stress about it, they were only cracks in the plaster we thought. In 2006 I think we had the single glazed Windows replaced. Our excellent window company discovered that the lower bay's metal lintel had been pierced when built by six inch nails which had caused the lintel to rust. The only thing holding up the upper part of our house was the wooden window! But not to panic...the workmen put in a new lintel and charged us an extra £25 for it on a £10k job. Houses in those days were for the most part extremely well built!

Smodlet

Wow, Lisa, I would have thought the sky was falling if that had happened to me. Thank you for the lesson! Forgive my ignorance but what does built by eye mean, exactly? No spirit levels, or something?

All I know is, back in the day I typed a few Homebuyer's reports so I do know !!!! from shine as far as they are concerned. The surveyor I did some occasional work for was a really great teacher and I learned a lot; then he did a couple of surveys for us. His reports were comprehensive, and then some.

lisa110rry

Oh smodlet, we had a comprehensive (for the time) structural survey on our home back in 1986 (late, we moved in in Feb 1987).mit did not find the problem. We still live there and love the house.

Edited to add: smodlet, built by eye means we have no interior 45 degree angles, they are all rounded, and all interior corners are either rounded as explained or on the Windows there are interior architraves, so no papering up to windows.

Smodlet

There are some really great people on this forum, Lisa, and I am proud to make your acquaintance. If we ever move again, I know where to come for advice on older properties. Thanks again.

Rounded, huh? Sounds great, almost hobbit-friendly ;0)

Cakeguts

Did you happen to notice if the floors were level? There is a late 20s / early 30s in our road where the floors slope and the internal walls have dropped. It isn't something you expect in a more modern house but I have seen another 1930s house where this had happened.