Old house = demolition or renovation?

Hello hello to you all.

We would like to build, but we have now looked at an existing house one street away. It dates from 1870, was "renovated" in 1990.

The house is terribly old, but the location and the plot (1,850 square meters) are perfect.

Now the question of all questions:

Is it worth leaving the foundation walls standing in such an old property and completely "refurbishing" it?

Or would it be better to just build new directly?

Financially, it would certainly be the same burden....?!

But if building new, what does it cost to have a house demolished? Just the removal of rubble, etc.?

Can the costs be generalized?

No asbestos (however it is spelled) or the like was found or seen there......

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Best regards

Hello aileendreyer90

First of all, welcome to this forum.

Regarding the costs, I can't say anything as I don't know such prices, and even if, it is not known how big the house is. Therefore, inquire with one or better several companies.

Whether it can be renovated or if it should rather be demolished cannot really be answered with a simple yes or no. It depends on what exactly needs to be done. However, I can well imagine that a renovation does not cost exactly little money.

Additionally, the question arises whether the house is allowed to be demolished at all because of [Denkmalschutz] or something like that and whether a new one may be built there. I would clarify this first.

Hello,

Your problem, your question came up for me about half a year ago.

So, if the house was basically renovated in 1990, it can't be that bad. Check -

are the water pipes, electricity, heating renewed?
what kind of heating is installed?
What kind of windows?
Roof. Was it re-roofed in 1990? Is there insulation under the roof tiles?
etc.

The demolition would have cost me €20,000. About €15-18,000 if I had cleared out windows, doors, etc. beforehand.

etc.

In the end, this is what I did: I hired a building surveyor for a fixed fee of €800. Conclusion – I will renovate again, house year of construction 1954!

Regards, Leo

Thank you for the answers.

The house has no insulation. The electrical system is also old; there are old stable rooms in the house. Walls and floors are crooked, and very much so. The attic is not developed, and there are a total of 10 rooms downstairs. I checked again, but they only have a size of up to 13 square meters. So, a really nice old DDR *laugh*

The roof was not redone in 1990. Only the rooms were renovated and refurbished.

It is not under monument protection, but whether you would be allowed to build new there is, of course, questionable.

Once again my advice, get a professional involved. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an architect or civil engineer; a mason or master craftsman from the construction field can already give you an overview.

Your last post is aimed at demolition!!!

Hello,

as already mentioned, if you are still undecided, I would also advise you to consult an expert who can inspect and evaluate the building with you.

However, your statements in post #4 rather make me lean towards demolition.

Last year, we completely demolished a house from 1953 and built a new building on the property.

The old house had a footprint of 8 x 8 m, was fully basemented and one and a half stories high - a garage was attached.

The demolition including removal of all materials (including 4 or 5 night storage heaters, as well as potentially asbestos-containing Eternit roof sheets of the garage) cost us EUR 13,500.00 (including VAT).

It is definitely worth obtaining different offers here. The serious demolition contractors (building cleaners from Bremen or an interior decorator from Garmisch, who contacted us via "my Ham..r", I will leave aside) gave us offers between EUR 13,500.00 and EUR 34,000.

Regards,

Dirk