Old house, strip it out? Or keep character?

2cracks

Have bought 100 year old house and am currently renovating it. Have taken up timber ground floor joists and floorboards, and have dug out for concrete floor buildup. Currently ready to install hardcore.

Have a decision to make....
Option a) Remove internal walls, ground and first floor, and rebuild (supporting any loadbearing elements) ground floor walls in blockwork, first floor in stud, replacing all floor joists, stairs. ie: completely strip it out

Option b) Plasterboard over internal walls, replace any joist which may not be sound, keep stairs.

Now both of these options have advantages, option A is more expensive but ultimately we have a 100year old house exterior with 2007 internally. May lose all the character of the house, along with any hidden rot.

Option b) cheaper, quicker, more character, chance of leaving the insides of the walls to rot. Who knows what'll happen in there.

So Please somebody advise me. Would a house buyer look beyond the appearance of a house, lovely new floors, lighting, skirtings and architraves, and value a house on whats beneath the surface???

Any advice would be appreciated.

silhouette

I'm renovating a house too and have just had this same dilemma. The internal partitions were brick but weren't load bearing. We initially just intended to strip back the plaster, make any necessary repairs and replaster but the walls were quite crumbly and there was a risk that they'd fall when we were replacing the door frames. So we decided to replace them with stud partitions and in order to assuage my guilt at ripping out so much of the original fabric of the house I asked the builder to put aside all the good bricks so that I can use them for something in the garden later on. I'll be reusing worn out roof slates that way too. I haven't worked out exactly what I'll do with them yet because I'll be ecstatic just to get the internal stuff sorted for now! I feel better that I'm not sending it all off in a skip.

In my case I'm happy to have an old looking exterior and clean, contemporary interior. I think it depends on how you decorate it. If you go for a sharp contemporary look the contrast could work very well and enhance the character of the house. If you end up with pseudo-oldy-worldy, ahsureit'llbegrand-type skirting, doors and architraves etc it could well be unappealing and lacking in character.

You can't appeal to every potential buyer but I'd say the appearance of house will be what appeals to most people rather than the knowledge that the floor joists (which they can't actually see) are all original. In the end it needs to look good as opposed to just looking new. Thats what I think anyway

muffler

2cracks wrote:

Have bought 100 year old house and am currently renovating it. Have taken up timber ground floor joists and floorboards, and have dug out for concrete floor buildup. Currently ready to install hardcore.

Have a decision to make....
Option a) Remove internal walls, ground and first floor, and rebuild (supporting any loadbearing elements) ground floor walls in blockwork, first floor in stud, replacing all floor joists, stairs. ie: completely strip it out

Option b) Plasterboard over internal walls, replace any joist which may not be sound, keep stairs.

Now both of these options have advantages, option A is more expensive but ultimately we have a 100year old house exterior with 2007 internally. May lose all the character of the house, along with any hidden rot.

Option b) cheaper, quicker, more character, chance of leaving the insides of the walls to rot. Who knows what'll happen in there.

So Please somebody advise me. Would a house buyer look beyond the appearance of a house, lovely new floors, lighting, skirtings and architraves, and value a house on whats beneath the surface???

Any advice would be appreciated.

Your house, your decision but if it was mine I would gut it out. With a little bit of detail, care and a wee bit more money I don't see why you couldn't have it reinstated in the new while still retaining (replacing with modern materials) the original character.

Builderwoman!

My only advice would be to keep some of the old character no matter what you do...i.e. if there is a stone wall expose it and use it as a feature. If you have an original old stairs repair it properly. Pay attention to craftsmanship that's in the house that cannot be replicated now. We have a new house and we had an old house and if we could have moved it and renovated it instead both of us would prefer it as it had a lot more character in some respects. Don't get me wrong we love our new house from a maintaince point of view but, if we could, we would have modernised the old one and kept some of it's fab quirky features and show off some of the characteristics that would be impossible (or too costly) to replicate now.