Lets play a game... what do you think is the biggest issue?

FreeBear

foxandflowers said: The rendering on the front of the house has seen better days, and there are some rather concerning cracks appearing above the upper right window. I'm not sure if it's cracked because it was just really shoddily installed double glazing and there was a problem with the lintel or what the issue is. There's also a lovely vertical crack down the side of the house where the extension attaches to the main house, and I have no idea if that is just in the render, or if it's a bigger problem. Headache upon headache.

What did the surveyor say about the cracks when you had the survey done ?

1930 was on the cusp of cavity wall construction, and during the inter-war period, they were mixing construction methods. Cavity wall on the lower half, solid (9" thick) walls on the upper half. If you know what the wall construction is, that can provide a clue as to whether steel or concrete lintels were used.. On my house (1928 construction, cavity lower, solid brick upper), ground floor openings have a concrete lintel supporting the inner leaf, and the timber frames would have originally supported the outer leaf. Upstairs, one window in the stairwell has a 9" wide concrete beam, all the others use thick chunks of timber. In some areas, solid lumps of stone would be used in place of concrete or timber beams - Very much depends on locally available materials.

Concrete (and stone) doesn't normally cause any problems. Timber can rot if moisture is getting in (leaking roof perhaps). The only way to know for sure what is happening is to expose the ends of the beams - Probably easiest from the inside where you can hack off the plaster and not worry about weather.

The render will need attention at some point - If you take it all off back to bare brick, Building Control should be notified, and they may well want you to fit wall insulation. This can be either internal or external, each have their own advantages & disadvantages.. If you go for external insulation, the window sills need to be wider to account for the extra thickness. If you are having new windows fitted, that is the best time to specify wider sills. Fit new windows first, and the new render can go flush with the frames & sills. Do the render first, and it will get damaged when the new windows are fitted. I've gone the former route and made sure all gaps around the frames are well sealed.

twopenny

Wow! I think I'd start with the walls and rendering as thats a must do nd the biggest.  Windows go with that too.
While you're waiting for them or its being done you can get on with stripping and painting.
All the dust in one go.

I was advised to make the lounge nice first so had somewhere to sit but I started with the bedroom where I needed to sleep and wake up to something positive. I put chair, bookcase etc in and it made a nice chill out space away from the mess.
Bathroom, kitchen cleaned and made the best of.

foxandflowers

*whispers* I didn’t have a survey done…

silvercar

foxandflowers said:

*whispers* I didn’t have a survey done…

We once viewed a house where a previous sale had fallen through because a vertical crack on the inside showed that the extension was pulling away from the house! The seller's solution was to put fitted wardrobes in the bedroom to hide the vertical crack!  

twopenny

Surveys can make people panic. While a good idea I didn't get one either. I was pretty sure it was structurally sound and cracks werent to worry about. 
Heck, lots of ways to deal with most of them.
I think what you are doing is exciting - perhaps though I'll adapt 'what to do first'  as bedroom & bathroom   
You're going to need that long soak!