Buying a new home - renovation needed!

Louisedawkins

I am in the process of buying first home. We have had the survey back but have been told to get the electrics and gas checked as we may need to rewire and get the gas made safe (previous owners clearly enjoyed some DIY solutions to problems).
My question is is the cost worth it? We love the house but are concerned that this is a lot of work which is expensive.
Has anyone had experience of a full house rewire and gas update/boiler replacement.
There are other bits of work needed but we expected that - the electrics and gas is more worrying!
Thanks

Gavin83

What does the survey actually say? What DIY solutions have been put in place? Surveyors often cover their backs and make stuff sound far worse than it actually is.

FaceHead

Gavin83 said:

Surveyors often cover their backs 

This. Surveyors always cover themselves, so will almost universally say get the gas, electricity, damp and roof checked. The question is whether this is a case where there is really a visible problem, or whether the surveyor is just covering themselves.

The answer I have found is to chat to the surveyor on the phone. Verbally they will typically give you the truth and the full benefit of their experience, even if their report is a lot more cautious.   

Bendy_House

You are in the process of buying the house? How far have you gone? (No, I'm not saying 'pull out!')

This should be a great experience, and if you can do a lot of the labour-intensive work yourself, should also save you a small fortune.

Gas - if it hasn't been serviced for a few years, that is probably a good call, and ask the GS to do a pressure test, so you'll know if there's any leaks. Does it/did it have a gas fire? If so, ask them to check how it's been capped off - that's usually the dodgiest part.

Electrics? It should usually be quite obvious what state it's in. Eg, is the CU reasonable recent? Does it look as tho' it's been tampered with? Are there signs of additional sockets having been fitted? If so, has it been done tidily? When you remove a socket (with the power off...), is there a short earth wire linking the back box to the socket itself? Is it covered in green/yellow sleeving? If it's a metal back box, is there a rubber grommet fitted to the hole where the cable comes through?

These are not definitive checks, of course, but if the wiring LOOKS neat, and if it DOES have all these features, then that's usually a sign it has been done either professionally, or else by a competent DIYer.

But, it ain't definitive.

Any bad signs, and I would certainly suggest a PIR or whatevs it's called (a periodic inspection report, I think).

grumbler

Bendy_House said:

Gas - if it hasn't been serviced for a few years, that is probably a good call, and ask the GS to do a pressure test, so you'll know if there's any leaks.

From my experience even a very small leak can be detected with the gas meter. Switch off all gas appliances and take readings several hours apart. The longer the better.

Rosa_Damascena

Louisedawkins said:

I am in the process of buying first home. We have had the survey back but have been told to get the electrics and gas checked as we may need to rewire and get the gas made safe (previous owners clearly enjoyed some DIY solutions to problems).
My question is is the cost worth it? We love the house but are concerned that this is a lot of work which is expensive.
Has anyone had experience of a full house rewire and gas update/boiler replacement.
There are other bits of work needed but we expected that - the electrics and gas is more worrying!
Thanks

Welcome to adulthood: all homes require maintenance, and that costs money. The good thing when it's your own is you can work out what you can live with, save up and plan what you would like to do with it, and when. There is no cause for alarm unless the survey indicates this is the case. In your position I was exactly the same: 25 years on I'm not phased by much (not that I'm handy, but I know if I can save enough I can afford to have the work done). If you let a survey scare you, you will never get your foot on the first rung of the housing ladder.

Spiderroo

Have you had the electrics and gas checked yet? We’re planning a rewire but it was obvious to the surveyor it was needed without any further checks, if you need further checks it may not be all this work is needed. Sometimes it’s as simple as they didn’t see a certificate - they gave our boiler a 3 because they couldn’t see the certificate during the inspection but our seller is elderly and just didn’t have it to hand, he’s had the boiler serviced every year. 

We’re in the NW and we’ve been quoted £4000 for a full rewire including the fuse box and fitting 2 extractor fans (we’re going to spend a bit more on a few feature lights for certain rooms) and £4500 for a new boiler and heating system, inc replacing old lead gas pipes, plus an additional waste pipe in the kitchen (radiators will be on top & bought by us). I think we’ll be extremely lucky to see any change out of £10k but afterwards we’ll have safe electrics and warm energy efficient heating.