How to Assess a Property for Renovation

ABOVE: Alvin Augstein was forced to leave his Georgian family home due to subsidence, but returned 40 years later to restore it to its former glory. Read more about this project.

When it comes to renovating old buildings, knowledge is king. Knowing that the cracks in the walls that have put most other buyers off can be fixed easily may mean you get hold of a money-spinning bargain. Knowing when it is best to walk away because the cracks mean that the wall has to be entirely rebuilt can save you sinking your last penny into a money pit.

Good Buy or Bad?

Assessing the structural condition of a house in need of renovation is critical in discovering what that building is worth in the current market. Knowing what is wrong with a building is important but you also need to know how much fixing any problems is going to cost. Deciding whether the property is a good buy or bad involves weighing up those costs, together with the purchase price, against the likely end value. A house that is a total wreck can still be a good buy at the right price, whilst a gem of a place, in need of only minor repairs, can be a bad buy if it is already overvalued.

Assessing Structural Condition

You can learn to spot many structural defects yourself through research and it is well worthwhile. However, anyone thinking of buying an old house, other than an experienced renovator, should always commission a building report by a chartered building surveyor. Unless you have real knowledge it is a false economy to save on the few hundred pounds that it costs for an experts opinion.

Whilst being able to spot major problems yourself is no substitute for a survey, it can help you decide whether or not it is worth forking out for one (£500-£1,500). Sometimes the cost of renovating a building, relative to its likely end value, is clearly so high that it is not even worth commissioning a survey.

If you do commission a building report, be aware of its limitations. A surveyor can only make a visual inspection of a building and so cannot discover or reveal hidden problems. The report is unlikely to include a valuation unless you specifically request one and whilst the report should include a schedule of any remedial work required, sometimes listing repairs in order of priority, it is unlikely to give a written indication of the cost of those works. Although some surveyors may be willing to indicate likely repair costs, this part is usually down to you to find out.

Interpreting Your Findings

Whether you have discovered a buildings problems by inspecting it yourself, with the help of a builder or architect, or following the findings of a building report, the next stage is to interpret the implications of those findings. You need to know how serious the problems are; whether they can be fixed; how long it will take and, most importantly, how much it will cost to put right. Here is a list of some of the most common problems found in old buildings and their likely implications.

Wiring Requires Updating: Rewiring a typical three bedroom terraced house (90-100m²) will cost from £2,500-£3,000, including removing the old wiring, lifting and replacing the floorboards, and installing a new consumer unit, but excluding making good the plaster and decoration. The job should take a pair of electricians five to seven days.

The tell tale signs that a house is in need of rewiring are easy to spot. Look for an old fashioned fuse box instead of a modern consumer unit, old fashioned round light switches, round pin plugs or old wires.

No Central Heating: Adding a wet radiator, gas central heating system to a typical three bedroom terraced house will cost £2,500-£5,000 and will take a plumber eight to ten days. Adding central heating is easily one of the most cost effective improvements you can make to a house and will always add more to the value of a property than it costs to install.

Rainwater System in need of Repair: A replacement PVCu rainwater system will cost around £400-£800 for a typical three bedroom terraced house however, the gutters and downpipes on an old property rarely need replacing entirely and wherever possible, original cast iron rainwater systems should be retained.

Cracks: Are They Structural or Cosmetic? Cracks in plaster walls and masonry can look extremely worrying, but are frequently only cosmetic. Being able to tell them apart from the symptoms of more serious structural problems can be very useful in making your initial verdict on a renovation project and in the decision over whether to commission a survey or walk away.

Cracks to materials that are isolated, for instance a crack in a single brick, or a stress crack in a plaster wall adjacent to a window or doorway, are unlikely to be structural. Where the cracking is more extensive and follows a pattern, i.e. a crack running through a series of bricks, there is likely to be a more serious cause. Look for signs of movement in the building. Typical causes are subsidence or heave in the ground which may necessitate underpinning beneath the walls, or the failure of the floor or roof structure. In a very old building, however, the structure may be perfectly stable despite twists, bows and warps, and attempts at repairs may do far more harm than good.

No Upstairs Bathroom: Many old houses were built either without bathroom facilities or have since had them added on the ground floor. Installing a new bathroom at first floor level is likely to cost around £800-£1,000, with a basic white bathroom set from one of the DIY stores costing around £250-£350. Creating the stud walling for a new bathroom out of an upstairs bedroom is likely to cost £1,500-£2,500 including finishing and tiling, but consider the implications of possibly losing a bedroom to make space for a new bathroom.

Dry Rot: A fungus that will destroy timber very quickly. It even penetrates brick walls to get to more timber. Dry rot loves moist, poorly ventilated conditions and is usually found in the roofspace or under wooden floorboards.

Dry rot is easy to identify the spores send out fungal strands along the timber and through/along any wall. These strands can become quite dense to form a mass like cotton wool, penetrating and destroying the timber. The first sign of dry rot is often its distinctive musty smell when you lift a floorboard or even just the carpet.

Getting rid of dry rot will cost around £1,000 for treatment by a specialist firm. Repair costs for replacing any damage are in addition to this, and can be extensive. Some recommend the removal of all infected materials. The best way to prevent a recurrence is to improve ventilation and eradicate any damp.

Wet Rot: Hardly a problem compared to dry rot. It is basically the timber decaying naturally in the presence of high levels of moisture. Timber suffering from wet rot will feel spongy (even through a coat of paint) and look darker than the surrounding timber. When dry, the timber will easily crack and crumble into fine particles.

The cost of solving wet rot will depend on the damage it has caused to timber in the house. Repairs should be treated. The problem will not return if you solve damp problems in the house and improve ventilation.

Cracked or Blown Render: Minor cracks in cement render are rarely more than cosmetic and are inexpensive to fill and repair. If cracks are more severe, however, check that they are not a sign of structural movement by inspecting the blocks or bricks beneath. If the render has started to come away from the wall typically due to prolonged frost damage it will need to be removed and replaced. Render is a two coat process and will cost around 14-18/m² supply and fix.

New Kitchen Required: Assuming modest tastes, a basic contract quality kitchen from a builders merchant or popular DIY store can be fully installed for £3,500-£4,500, including all white goods, oven and laminate worktops (assuming an area of around 10m²). DIY installation would reduce these costs.

Remedial Roof Repairs: Roof damage will usually manifest itself in leaks inside the house. Typical problems will be broken or slipped roof tiles, missing or damaged flashings, damaged or missing underfelt, and worn pointing on verges. Providing the problem has been spotted early enough, the roof structure should not have been exposed to sufficient damp for it to require total replacement. Where timbers have been damaged due to exposure to the elements, they will need replacing.

Replacing or refixing a few roof tiles or slates, and repointing the verges, is not a major task and will cost £100-£200. If the damage is extensive, then it may be cheaper to remove the old roof covering and lay a new roof. The advantage of this is that the roof can be felted and battened to make it weathertight. Replacing the entire roof over a typical three bedroom terraced house will cost from £2,000-£3,000 including scaffold hire.

Collapsing Ceilings: A collapsed ceiling is usually a sign that damp has got into the structure or that there has been a flood of some sort. Old lathe and plaster ceilings can be incredibly messy to remove as they produce a vast amount of rubbish. In most instances the ceiling will need to be replaced using plasterboard, fixed onto new, level ceiling joists, and finished with a skim coat. Costs are likely to be £400-£500 per room, including removal of waste. If the ceiling has not collapsed too far, you may be able to plasterboard over the original lathe and plaster ceiling instead, at a cost of £100-£200.

Woodworm: A common pest in damp timber and can cause major problems if the damage is extensive. However, in most situations the damage is superficial (providing the holes are 2mm or less) and the problem can be eradicated using pesticides. The problem can be more serious if the woodworm has managed to get into less accessible areas of the structure that cannot easily be treated. Before paying for any treatment, make sure the woodworm is still active and has not already been eradicated look for signs of sawdust around the holes. Pesticide treatment will cost from £600-£1,000 for an average house.

Signs of Damp in Walls or Floors: Old buildings without damp are the exception, so do not be too concerned about signs of damp as they can always be solved. First you need to identify the source of the damp and, once discovered, solving it involves simple and inexpensive repair or replacement. In an old brick building a damp proof course can be created by injecting silicone into the bricks both inside and outside the building. For the average three bedroom terraced house this is likely to cost around £3-400 plus the cost of redecorating, (total cost £1,200-£1,800) as it usually involves replacing the damaged plaster from all ground floor walls up to a height above the level of the rising damp.

Windows Require Replacing: PVCu double glazed windows will cost from £100-£200 each and the same again for fitting. A new door will cost £100-£500 plus £100-£200 for installation.

Replace your original windows with caution, however, as they can be an inherent part of a buildings character and therefore its value. Original windows can often be repaired and this may cost less than replacing them with new windows in a sympathetic style. In many areas, however, replacement windows are a must for all buyers and will add considerably more to the value of a property than they cost. Even so, it is worth paying considerable attention to the style and proportions, and which lights should be opening or fixed.

Evidence of Subsidence or Heave: Where the ground has either expanded or shrunk due to a change in moisture content, it can have a dramatic effect on the foundations and walls of a building or its ground floor oversite slab if supported directly on the ground.

Subsidence is where the ground level drops, and heave where it lifts. Both problems will manifest themselves in undulating and or cracked walls or floors. Ground movement typically occurs after a period of extreme rainfall or drought, where trees have recently been planted or removed close to the building, or where there has been localised flooding. Houses built in clay soils with shallow or no foundations are the most prone to this kind of problem.

The consequences of movement on the structure of a house can be dramatic and so this is an area where extreme caution and independent expert advice are required. A building can almost always be stabilised and repaired, but the issue is one of cost. Sometimes it can be cheaper and easier to demolish a property and treat the site as a plot, than it is to repair the problem by underpinning the walls with concrete.

In addition, the end value of a building once it has been underpinned can be severely compromised because buyers are likely to be wary of any continued risk, and because insurers may be reluctant to provide cover.

Before proceeding with any underpinning work, check for the proximity of drains, as a collapsed drain can cause ground movement resulting in cracks in walls that can be mistaken for subsidence.

Poor Decorative Order: A term that is likely to be applied to most buildings in need of renovation. It sounds benign and therefore inexpensive to put right, but can be a catch-all term for problems ranging from the need for a bit of clearing and redecorating, to a total replaster throughout. Replastering the walls and ceilings of a three bedroom terraced house will cost from £2,000-£3,000 and will take a gang of two plasterers 8-10 days.

Further Reading:

• Solving Damp
• Subsidence Solutions
• How to Find the Right Renovation Architect
• How to Finance Your Renovation