Heating and Insulating a Victorian Terrace.

iguana

I'm looking into buying a Victorian terrace in London which is pretty run down. Before I make an offer on it I want to get a rough estimate of the cost of improving it. And would appreciate any suggestions and advice.

The house has no heating at present apart from a fireplace in each room (except the bathroom). It is 2 story, mid-terrace, double box-bay, with 7 rooms in total +hall & landing. I want to make sure the house is sufficiently insulated and would ideally install underfloor heating, though I'm not sure which type.

Electric seems the easiest and cheapest but how does that compare for efficiency? I want wooden floors in all the rooms, but I've heard that underfloor heating can require specialist wood to be used. The house has some original floor boards but in some areas they may need replacing.

What is the best type of insulation for a terrace? What different ways should outer walls, party walls and internal walls be treated? And how should a chimney breast and bay window be treated?

I would be buying the house to live in, but I will probably sell it in the next 5-10 years so I want to keep re-sale in mind.

Also if anyone has any experience of claiming Warm Deal grants can they give me any information they have on that.

rooferPete

Hi,

A lot can depend on the post code as to the price a property is worth in London, they also have some very strict building controls compared to here.

I would first check if there are any preservation orders on the property, another difference between buying in London and Dublin is you can speed up the process and get all the information you need from the local borough council.

One of the most popular heating systems there is natural gas, take care they have very strict rules regarding installers, they must be "Corgi" registered and it's almost against the law to wire a plug on a toaster since the new electical regulations came in.

Take care when getting the property surveyed, your surveyor must look for signs of subsidence, London is mostly sand based and properties are known to sink, also watch out for the damp course and dry rot seems to love those old houses.

Each council borough have different acceptable standards regarding what is acceptable levels and insulation products.

Check the brickwork in great detail some have poor quality bricks used especially on houses rebuilt after the war, also there was a practice of renewing roofs with concrete tiles instead of slates, the weight difference is only showing up now with sagged rafters.

There are parts of London where the workmanship appears cheap, what you don't spend today you will spend or lose tomorrow.

Best of luck with it, your description makes it sound like a property with great potential, however unless you are buying at a very good price you may have difficulty recovering all your outlay in such a short space of time.

.

rooferPete

Hi iquana,

While I have no doubt under floor heating mats have their place in modern construction I would take care when placing heat directly on top of very old timber.

The floors in the property you described are usually T & G or straight forward boards, they have been in an ambient temperature for many years and most have ventilated timber floors downstairs as well as upstairs.

To place a heat mat on that floor could shrink the boards causing them be draughty which in turn could push up your heating costs, also direct heat could bring a lot of foreign bodies that have been dormant for years back to life.

Old properties need respect when being restored

.

Victor

rooferPete wrote:

London is mostly sand based

Sand southside, clay northside.

iguana

Thanks for the comments so far. The house is in north London, and everything in the immediate area around the house is either Victorian or Georgian. But I will pay attention to the roof as it looks to be in decent condition so has possibly been replaced.

Has anyone any suggestions on types of insulation to use? The house pre-dates cavity walls so getting those filled isn't an option.

Idleater

iguana wrote:

Thanks for the comments so far. The house is in north London, and everything in the immediate area around the house is either Victorian or Georgian. But I will pay attention to the roof as it looks to be in decent condition so has possibly been replaced.

Has anyone any suggestions on types of insulation to use? The house pre-dates cavity walls so getting those filled isn't an option.

I bought a Victorian Terrace here in Dublin last year and while it sounds like it is in somewhat better nick than what you are looking at, it certainly needed (and needs) quite a bit of work.

Insulation wise, I have put up batons on all the internal walls and put up polystyrene insulation in there. This seems to have done the trick nicely so far. I have a lot of insulation (fibreglass) in the roof as it was replaced about 10 years ago and thankfully the previous owner (or the one before that) put in the insulation while the roof was off. I would recommnd that if you have your roof off.

While I think of it, if you have the roof off, you could do something interesting like replace the A frame with something different to see if you can put a third floor in there.

All this would be subject to PP etc and if your house is listed etc. Mine is which means getting PP is a requirement and has to be "in keeping" etc etc.

L.

Victor

nereid wrote:

Insulation wise, I have put up batons on all the internal walls and put up polystyrene insulation in there. This seems to have done the trick nicely so far. I have a lot of insulation (fibreglass) in the roof as it was replaced about 10 years ago and thankfully the previous owner (or the one before that) put in the insulation while the roof was off. I would recommnd that if you have your roof off.

You have to be careful with this, ventilation is an essential part of insulation work. Doing it wrong could mean rotting your floor / roof bearings and screwing hte entire building.

Idleater

Victor wrote:

You have to be careful with this, ventilation is an essential part of insulation work. Doing it wrong could mean rotting your floor / roof bearings and screwing hte entire building.

Can you explain a little further?

Do you mean ventilation into the building/each room or do you mean ventilation behind the insulation (like between the new insulation and the old plaster on the inside of the wall)?

Back to the OP question of underfloor heating, I was also thinking about this for my house but discounted it (in the old part anyway) because of the reasons already stated of the old wooden floorboards. I was actually under the floor of the house and there is about 1m between the ground and the floor so I guessed that I would end up heating under the floor more than over the floor if you get me.

The underfloor heating will be left for the new extension *whenever* I get around to that.

L.