Assessment of the building structure - House from the 70s

Hello dear construction experts

this week we would like to visit a house that we might buy. It was built in the early 70s and is clad with facing bricks. It has an oil heating system installed and a basement. For the location and size, the price is relatively good, but I would like to know your assessment of the building fabric. Is everything sustainable and safe in terms of health (“modern building materials”?) I am not a great handyman and would have to have most of it done professionally. Here are the essential data from the construction description:

Foundations: Concrete foundations made of gravel concrete and cement, thickness according to statics.
Basement masonry: Masonry made of sand-lime bricks in lime-cement mortar, 36.5 and 24 cm thick.
Basement ceiling: Reinforced concrete ceiling made of gravel concrete and cement with steel inserts from construction steel mesh.
Rising masonry: Masonry made of lattice bricks 32 cm thick, without air cavity.
Floor ceilings: Reinforced concrete ceilings made of gravel concrete and cement with steel inserts from construction steel mesh, thickness according to statics.
Roof: Gable roof made of spruce structural timber with covering of brown hollow interlocking tiles.
Stairs: Reinforced concrete stairs, basement with cement screed, on the floors, supports made of marble.
Windows: Simple wooden windows made of pine wood with tilt-and-turn fittings.
Front door: Frame door made of light metal with glass filling.
Room doors: Plywood doors with frame and covering made of plywood.
Interior surfaces: Smooth wall and ceiling plaster made of lime mortar, in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet, wall tiles.
Floor: Floating cement screed with plastic covering, in the bathroom, floor tiles.
Exterior surfaces: Facing with facing bricks in brown color.
Garage: Foundations made of rammed concrete.
Masonry: Masonry made of lattice bricks in lime-cement mortar.
Ceiling: Reinforced concrete ceiling with steel inserts from construction steel mesh, thickness according to statics.

What is your assessment? Are the materials used acceptable? Is there anything that definitely needs to be done? Regarding the windows, we are, of course, already sure that they need to be replaced.

Many thanks in advance!

Kind regards
Frank Schuster

Masonry made of 32 cm thick lattice bricks

This wall thickness is unknown to me.

What is your assessment of this? Are the installed materials okay? Is there anything that definitely needs to be done?

Yes, photos – otherwise we can say significantly less about it.

Guesswork. The building materials mentioned SO FAR are rather unproblematic and can be good in terms of substance. The question between the exterior walls and the brick facade is whether there is a few centimeters of space there. Or does "without an air layer" refer to that? Otherwise, blown-in insulation is interesting. Surely you will have to do the windows/front door. Roof new after inspection. At least insulate! Basement dry? Electrical system already renovated? Otherwise probably new. Check water/sewage pipes. In a comprehensive renovation, do them new if in doubt. Bathroom condition? Already renovated? Doors still the old ones? How old is the oil heating? Condition of the oil tank? Walls papered over eight times = lousy, long work! Floor coverings = WARNING! The adhesive used may contain asbestos. Ask yourselves why the house is so cheap. Has it been offered through friends/relatives, or is it listed much cheaper than everything else? My tips after two renovations: You need time, nerves, money for unforeseen expenses, and more time. Finding companies that "just do something quickly" is virtually impossible. Sometimes they really hold out their hand, especially for tiny jobs. With somewhat older buildings, a surprise can always be lurking. You have to be able to deal with that. And my experience also shows: what you don't do/have done immediately, you'll probably never do. So no "I'll have the electricity done in two years." Calculate that in, think about it. But: renovating is fun! It's exciting, you know the house in detail afterwards, and I personally enjoy living there very much. Despite all the effort beforehand

We have calculated such houses to total loss several times before the new construction. Then we built anew with a production company. The advantage: the floor plan is tailored to us and nothing is old and wants to consume significant capital again within a manageable time. The disadvantage: we did not have control and could neither eliminate discovered botched work nor questionable subcontractors whose clients we were not. The botched work was reworked after lengthy evidence preservation procedures, a process I cannot recommend. Today, I would therefore not act that way again but rather renovate a used house. Such a house is always a surprise egg; something will certainly come up somewhere, and that something will cause costs, time, and effort, perhaps also compromises. For that, you often get plots and locations in existing buildings that are out of stock for new constructions. My recommendation would be to send an expert to assess the durability of the value and then give room to your gut feeling. With the facts alone, you do not get far enough either. Wishing you a lucky hand Ģabriele

after renovating twice: [...] Renovating is fun! It’s exciting, you get to know the house in detail afterwards and personally I really enjoy living there. Despite all the effort beforehand

How fresh was the memory of the first renovation still in your bones when you started the second one?; and: are you already itching for the next one?

How fresh was the memory of the first renovation still in your bones when you approached the second one? And: are you already itching for the next one?

There were 7 years in between. And the first one was fresh enough in my memory that I didn't make many mistakes a second time. But there are a few things I would do differently again. The next one is already itching a bit. However, there is hardly anything attractive on the market. I think the next property would be a rental property.