Is renovating old buildings worthwhile?

  • Erstellt am 2021-02-01 15:49:52

solocan

2021-02-03 20:06:37
  • #1


We don’t have carpets or linoleum. Only floorboards and tiles in the kitchen/bathroom. I’ve opened up the beams at quite a few spots. Found only two areas with fungal spots on rotten beams, see picture in previous post. (It doesn’t look like dry rot but I’m still waiting for lab results.) I only opened up the tiles in that problematic spot. Found nothing. But good hint. I’ll break up a bit more floor over the weekend that has to go anyway. Otherwise, if I knock out a little more, the demolition will be done already :D


We already have, let me quickly count, four experts in the house. I’m not very keen on “experts.” Everyone calls themselves an expert and tells their story. None were able to say anything we didn’t already know. Didn’t point out any potential problems either. Even neighbor statements, and these forum posts were more helpful than their suggestions. Well. If we have a concrete question, we might look for someone again. But plenty of people have already looked at the house.
 

haydee

2021-02-03 20:30:36
  • #2
Good experts are rare. something for your elephant memory: there were/are still two users active here who renovate half-timbered houses. A farmhouse and a villa. has renovated. Possibly the user with the 50s gem can also help to some extent.
 

Joedreck

2021-02-03 20:52:46
  • #3
I consider 250k to be a very, very generous budget. Roughly estimated, I came to about ~150k costs. There is still enough room for the timber framing. Demolition definitely costs around 30k. What happens to the cellar in that case? Renting out can work if built cheaply. But relying on that is pure gambling.
 

11ant

2021-02-04 00:34:45
  • #4
I'll try my luck with and as well as - I'm stuck with but at the moment totally lost (?).
 

Asuni

2021-02-04 11:06:34
  • #5


You are not allowed to link externally here, but I am happy to recommend a site with the name of the construction method of your house (under the plaster). There, besides a forum for specific questions, you will also find many PDFs that provide a lot of useful information about old buildings and their peculiarities. When we renovated our cellar from 1935, this information was very helpful to distinguish the essential from the non-essential. Unfortunately, it is true that many experts / craftsmen do not have much knowledge about the right materials and techniques in old buildings.
 

Winniefred

2021-02-04 13:48:08
  • #6


But you only have to look at current problems. The basement is fine now. Or are you already worried in case your new basement ever gets wet? Those are purely hypothetical concerns. Something can always happen with a house, whether old or new. That’s just the risk you bear as an owner.

For an apartment building, you’d have to take out significantly more credit. That money has to come from somewhere first. It can all work out wonderfully, or it ends in a nightmare. If you can’t at least manage to cover the apartment building loan alone for several months if necessary, it’s already too much. And with tenants who sometimes pay but never fully, this can drag on for years. You have to have that financial stamina and be mentally able to handle it. If you tear down the old building, build new, and then the general contractor goes bankrupt or really botches it, it’s too late and the money is gone. Now at least you know what you have and what you can work with. There are several threads where home builders really have had trouble with their new builds.

You seem like someone who likes to be secure and know everything in advance. I totally understand that. But that doesn’t work with renovating or building. You’re just too dependent on many factors you can’t influence. We’ve had our house for 3.5 years and we’ve gotten used to it. Many things aren’t as dramatic as you first imagine. It’s a huge leap from being a tenant to an owner. Suddenly you’re responsible yourself, have to make decisions, have to pay everything yourself. Full personal risk. With a rental apartment, you can just move out if things get too crazy. But you have to get used to that. For us it was a process. At the beginning we worried about every little thing, now we have a completely different attitude. We’ve acquired a lot of craftsmanship skills. We can assess situations now and often problems aren’t as dramatic as you first think, plus we can fix almost everything ourselves, which gives a lot of confidence and also more financial independence from very expensive (and unfortunately often not really capable) craftsmen.
 

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