Renovation of old buildings, what awaits us

Think about what you want to achieve in the end. Should the house (apart from the thermal insulation) be brought up to the standard of a new building, or do you want to get your own property "relatively cheaply" and are willing to make compromises for that?

I think even with compromises, €70,000 is very tight. A new roof with insulation will probably cost between €25,000 and €30,000. If you spend that much money on insulation, the roof should be included. Windows and insulation for a total of €20,000 seems impossible to me. For me, I would already spend that money just on the windows (without the front door). In addition, you should think carefully about the insulation. I have looked at many old houses that were newly insulated, and in almost all of them, there was a terrible indoor climate. We also had that in our last rented apartment. Super insulated, low additional costs, but stuffy air. After a week’s vacation, you couldn’t enter the apartment without airing it first. Mold was also our constant companion. Without a ventilation system, I would not undertake such insulation.

Next point: bathrooms:
It depends on what you can and want to do yourself. We have now budgeted €12,000 for our bathroom (single washbasin, mirrored cabinet, shower, bathtub, toilet). We install everything ourselves, or the tiler takes care of the shower. Otherwise, we do everything ourselves except for the tiles: gutting, drywall, sanitary installation, electrical work. But all connections remain roughly where they currently are (max. 1 m offset) and the bathroom is 7 m² in size. If you write that you want to enlarge the bathroom and therefore of course have to install waste and supply lines, it can get expensive very quickly. Acquaintances of mine have recently done this as well (completely and with not exactly cheap sanitary objects) and spent almost €40,000 on it. Definitely get an offer here. Even a guest bathroom costs quickly €7,000-10,000 if you have it done.

You want to redo the electrical work, which I would definitely do as well. Today there are very different requirements in most cases, since many more sockets are needed. Also, today I would equip as many rooms as possible with network sockets. You can then think about home automation, as it cannot be retrofitted.

Floors and wallpapers quickly add up if you want to do an entire house. 130 m² x €25/m² is roughly €3,500 for the floors; for the wall and ceiling wallpapers, even with inexpensive wallpapers, another €3,500-4,500 comes on top.

In addition, you should calculate the working time exactly. Do you have friends and family who will support you vigorously (and by that I don’t mean just 1-2 living units)? If you want to do it yourselves as a couple, that is a lot, a lot of work. A plank floor in the living room is not quickly prepared in 2-3 days. I also (like probably everyone here) do this and that quickly on the side. After the move, we had a whole week off and wanted to get a lot done. In the end, we wallpapered 2 rooms, laid some cables, painted 2 rooms, and that with 3 people. There are so many endless things that come up and always delay you. In the evening after work, you can hardly get anything done. You hang 2 lamps and at the wardrobe it’s already so dark that you can’t see the marks for the drill hole anymore. Quickly paint a few shelf boards in the basement --> half the Saturday is gone.

You can get quite a bit done in 3 months if you can use full time. If it’s only evenings and weekends, then you have a challenging schedule ahead.

Why does ETICS look awful?

Because I wouldn’t want to live on the right. You can see immediately from the roof, the windows, and the base that it doesn’t belong there, it’s been badly patched on and kills all the character of the house. The window arches are gone, the ledges of the floor ceilings are smoothed out, but the base, stairs, and roof are old and don’t match the new parts.

Best regards Dirk Grafe

I understood it like this: with triple glazing, the window is no longer the coldest spot, but the facade is, and water can then settle there.

Well. It depends on the rest of the house. We had a mixed assortment of windows here, double-glazed but also single-glazed, especially the old front door. We never had condensation water inside! At least not inside the house. In the old rental barracks, we definitely had water inside on the windows, the humidity was always between 40-55% (the living room was lower, sometimes even below 40, I already got burning eyes from the dryness, but the windows still had condensation water inside daily). In the previous rental barracks (sorry, I don’t have a better word for these shoddy buildings) the facade was insulated first, the windows remained the same. As soon as the ETICS was installed, the exterior walls got moldy! That really shouldn’t have happened either! In the house, on the solid ground floor, we have 3 cm of polystyrene interior insulation. There is not a speck of mold to be seen anywhere, even though the ground floor was lived in but not heated, and that for 5 winters now! (Winter temperature constantly at 14°C - we’re working on it). Also here, triple-glazed windows and ETICS for 3 years and absolutely no mold, neither with nor without insulation. We do have water on the windows, oh yes - from the outside! Every single one of them is fogged up from the outside in the mornings, even in summer - except for the two old windows we still have inside. So it’s not that simple.

Moreover, the roof overhang becomes so small.

Because I don't want to live on the right. e

Typical example of poor renovation. It could have been done better. Ultimately, the ETICS (external thermal insulation composite system) is not to blame for that. Just as awful are these new buildings in the Ponderosa style. They fit in Spain or Mexico but not in our residential areas.

Besides, the roof overhang becomes so small.

But that can be changed. If you are already working on the roof insulation and covering, it is possibly not a big deal. It was done for us and it is not noticeable that there is a [WVDS] on the old house. Of course, it is all a matter of cost. Especially if you want to do things slowly while you are already living inside.