1900 style home

PlaysNicely

:wave: Totally agree with everything said so far, particularly damp, roof and lintels - the one we're hoping to buy is a similar age and has stone lintels with wooden beams, which have collapsed.

I'd just add that with regards to the roof, have you (or your surveyor) also been up into the loft to check what's going on up there?

Many shorter terraces of this age were built with open roof spaces along the top of all houses. If this is still the case in your terrace, contemporary building and fire regs may require you to have a fire wall built in the roof space to protect your home in the event of a fire in one of the other properties, as spread via the roof space can be within seconds without fire walls.

Often a tell-tale sign that this may be the case can be if your home doesn't seem to have a loft hatch but someone else in the terrace does.

Although of course it doesn't mean that a previous owner won't already have built a fire wall for you up there but it may still need a check over (Chanes's interim Cowboys spring to mind)!

:T Definitely engage a surveyor to take a look, particularly about issues such as fire walls, if you haven't already had a full survey - Chanes is right, the survey report may seem scary and an endless list of jobs (read: expense) but will reveal things which could easily be missed and may be necessary in order for you to live safely there. That said, not everything in the report will be an immediate job, but things you can get to in your own time once the house is your own.

:eek: Final word of warning re: loft space - there be spiders up there!

All the best!

ST1991

Thanks everyone! Really helpful we have 2 loft hatches, one in each bedroom. It's a double roof but oddly you wouldn't know from the front as the channel runs along the width of the house with guttering along all 3 in the terrace. Weird! Haven't been up in either of the lofts yet due to creepy crawlers scaring the heeby Jeebies out of me!!
I've been hunting for features today, and noticed something in one of the understair cupboards... I'll upload a picture shortly, looks suspiciously like it could be original spindles hiding behind s thick wall

ST1991