1930s building - Conversion to electric heating, gas connection available

Hello everyone,

we, my wife, our 2-year-old son and I are planning to buy a house. Currently, one property is in the final selection.

Brief facts: small 90m² mid-terrace house from the 1930s, 2 floors + attic & basement. Ground floor - kitchen, hallway and living room Upper floor - 3 rooms

Gas connection in the house (basement) available, pipes still need to be completely installed. Wall and floor coverings will be redone. The radiators on the ground floor and upper floor should be installed flush-mounted. Basement and optionally pre-installation in the attic is surface-mounted.

Can you roughly give a ballpark figure for the costs to expect? If the house is empty, what time effort should be anticipated? (Chasing and plastering incl.) Floor coverings, wallpapering of course excluded

Regards Stephan

Can you roughly give a ballpark figure of the costs to be expected.

So - definitely not.

1920s, will probably still mean wooden beam ceiling, but not necessarily.

Mid-terrace house: has two walls next to neighbors, but also two facing "outside" - which, however, lie "in line" with the neighboring facades (or are the houses staggered?). Coordination with the neighbors would be necessary here - one person simply putting insulation on their own is not that simple.

The effort involved in overhauling all installations largely depends on clarification: what do you know, where exactly does it run, and what is it made of?

Hi, thanks already for the feedback. You mean when you cut into the walls and thereby weaken them? I found a few values by googling for a 150m2 house. 7000-10000€ plus the gas heating itself, plus cutting etc. As a rough estimate 15000-20000€??

You mean when you go through the walls by chasing and thereby weaken them?

No, I mean: when you really take a close look under the surface of a building’s substance, abysses open up that common knowledge cannot even dream of. Materials that were already outdated at the time of construction; adventurous interpretations of professional procedures, etc. If you approach it with the dream that everything was done correctly back then and only needs to be renewed, it will fail. And I mean: that you often don’t find documented where which conduit runs and past which other ones.

I found a few values through googling, for a 150m2 house. 7000-10000€ plus the gas heating itself, plus chasing etc.

The uncertainties are so numerous that Google can only blunder when it supposedly spits out an accurate range based on square meters.

Entertainment films about nightmare used properties exaggerate less than you think. These are always at least “experience purchases.”

small 90m² mid-terrace house from the 30s

Is 90sqm enough for you for the next few years with 3 people?

We will also renovate a well-maintained house from the 30s, where the original electric heating was replaced by an oil central heating system in 2000. The invoice from the company at that time: 20,000DM including the oil tanks in the basement. I estimate that today you can calculate at least the same amount in euros, probably a bit more. Our house has about 200sqm of total living space and 2 floors.

When planning for houses of this age, include the following work:

- if necessary, repair of wooden ceilings
- new electrical wiring (costs us around 12,000€)
- new water pipes (often there are still lead pipes)
- something definitely needs to be done on the 80-year-old roof as well.
- etc. pp.

By now, I am of the opinion that renovation costs for houses older than 50 years usually exceed the purchase price, unless the previous owner has already done a lot in recent years. Or you are a professional and can estimate renovation costs well and do a lot yourself.

A master roofer will inspect our roof truss on Monday and we are looking forward to his opinion and cost estimate. Because this cost item is the hardest for us to estimate.

Hello,

the viewing was great, the condition for the age was also good (roof, electrical, windows OK). In the end, the just under 90m² was really the KO criterion. The bathroom was very small and not optimal for my 1.95m height. We would have had to change too much in the floor plan to make it practical for us. Now another terraced house from 1995 is in the closer selection. Let's see.