What Order Do You Renovate A Victorian House
- Posted by:
- Admin
- Tags:
- Renovating, Victorian House, Renovation Costs
- Posted date:
- 24-11-2022
Do you have a Victorian house in need of renovation? From windows to fireplaces, we look at what order you renovate a Victorian house. This article covers what to look out for when renovating a Victorian house and the costs involved.
Victorian House Renovation Work
Renovating a Victorian property is one of the soundest property investments most homeowners can make. The inimitable character of properly restored Victorian homes not only acts as the perfect place to build a home but also adds untold resale value to the property itself.
The Victorian era saw the middle class grow rapidly, meaning Victorian homes became increasingly opulent. This is why many Victorian houses are full of period features for renovators today to take advantage of. Of course, bringing these features back to life is incredibly rewarding, but it can be hard work for the uninitiated.
This article will take you through some of the most common renovations made to Victorian properties and provide a rough guide to what they can cost. This will act as a general guide for those looking to renovate their own Victorian property, warning you where the tricky parts are likely to be.
Typical features of Victorian homes
The exterior of most Victorian houses is dominated by brick and decorative brickwork. Motifs are also popular, including elements such as decorative mouldings and string courses.
You'll also notice that the details on your Victorian property's exterior are similar to those on others nearby. This is because groups of old buildings were generally built together by the same developers.
Most roofs on Victorian properties are steeper than modern houses today, with the majority using slate tiles for protection.
On top of these, you'll often see terracotta ridge tiles for added decoration, with some having decorative carved bargeboards or finials. Sash windows, often arranged in bays of three, are also indicative of the traditional Victorian style.
You can typically date a Victorian property by the sash windows alone since glass production methods improved as the era progressed.
Therefore, later Victorian properties will have larger and stronger window panes. On either side of your original Victorian windows, you'll likely have ornate columns in either an Italianate or Gothic revival style.
Moving to the interior, most rooms in your Victorian property will likely have high ceilings far above head height, with decorative plasterwork on the solid walls, such as plaster ceiling roses around light fixtures and cornices.
You'll also find intricate detailing on the plasterwork around entrance porches or archways. Highly-crafted softwood joinery is another staple of Victorian interior style.
Picture rails, decorative skirting boards, panelled internal doors and architraves with elegant proportions are all elements of exceptional Victorian joinery.
The floors are typically constructed from suspended timber, while your ground floor hallways often have solid flooring decorated with encaustic tiles and stained glass in your front door.
Every room will have a fireplace, including the bedrooms, with decorative fire surrounds. These beautiful fireplaces will usually be made from iron, while the surrounds will be decorated with glazed tiles and ornamental mantelpieces above.
What to look out for when Renovating Victorian houses
All renovation projects will encounter issues, regardless of the period in which the property was constructed.
While you can often find Victorian homes in fantastic urban areas, with plenty of period detail and spacious rooms to work with, they often pose their own unique problems for would-be renovators.
As a brief heads-up, here are some of the most common issues you're likely to face when renovating Victorian houses.
While the Victorians are known for their engineering prowess, this doesn't mean they understood everything about building houses. Given the poor ventilation, most of these properties have, damp is a common issue to encounter during a renovation.
They do not have damp-proof courses like modern housing, meaning the first place most people should start with their Victorian renovation project is with inspections for damp and remedial work to remedy any issues found.
Another common issue you might find during the early stages of your renovation is internal cracks or uneven plasterwork. Throughout the decades since the Victorian period, cement was often the material of choice to patch cracks in rendering or replace damaged plasterwork.
As a renovator, this is something you'll want to look out for, as cement reduces the breathability of your internal walls and can increase the chances of damp, alongside a host of other ventilation problems.
Breathable paints, lime mortar and lime plaster finishes are often the best solutions to internal damp. Still, it's always best to seek professional advice when rendering or re-plastering a Victorian property.
While they are fantastic to look at and use, the sash windows in your Victorian property are not as energy efficient as you'd like. Additionally, the Victorians weren't too familiar with roofing insulation, meaning most Victorian roof systems are merely a jumble of joists and rafters in the loft space. Besides remedying any damp you find, your next crucial job will be to draught-proof your doors and windows.
You may also want to upgrade your roofing insulation to increase the property's energy efficiency and improve ventilation. By waterproofing your Victorian property, you'll be saving money in the long run, not to mention making things much easier come the winter.
As you can probably imagine, the electrical system in most Victorian properties won't be up to modern living standards, with most safety organisations recommending a thorough electrical survey once every 5 to 10 years. Of course, if you've just bought your Victorian property, it will be prudent to secure an electrical safety certificate from the very start.
If you are planning any Victorian renovations that require planning permission or conservation area building approval, why not throw your electrical safety upgrades in simultaneously? You should also install all appropriate fire prevention systems and smoke alarms.
Victorian Plasterwork
Your plasterwork, from cornicing to decorative ceiling roses, will likely differ throughout your property depending on what each room was used for.
For example, you'll find more elaborate ceiling roses in rooms meant for guests and living spaces, such as reception rooms, dining spaces or parlours, with more simple Victorian designs saved for bedrooms or master suites.
In the later Victorian era, when mass production of fibrous-plaster mouldings became widely available, ornate plasterwork became even more popular.
Since prefabricated mouldings could be made easily and installed by less skilled contractors, plasterwork popularity boomed.
Sash Windows
If you are lucky enough to have your home's Victorian sash windows still intact, there are a few ways to restore them. The first is to rely on professional window fitters. Some will have experience working on a period property, meaning they can fit bespoke glazing that solves the ventilation issue without compromising on the period touches you want to keep.
Other sash window specialists can create period-accurate windows that reduce heat loss dramatically. You can even find double-glazing for sash windows these days, ensuring your original features and windows are completely draft-proof and long-lasting.
Victorian fireplaces
Again, every room in a Victorian property will have its own fireplace. However, it's common to find that previous owners since the First World War have either removed or covered over these during previous renovations. But not to worry, there are ways to restore your fireplaces to their former glory.
Relying on specialist contractors, structural engineers, or interior designers is the best way. Most fireplace refurbishment specialists can perform the structural work necessary to recover your fireplaces. Alternatively, they can create a brand new one with period-accurate bespoke designs and specifications.
You can also purchase plenty of iron fireplaces on the second-hand market, or you can find reclaimed ones when you visit salvage yards.
Flooring
The most common timber used in Victorian homes is pine flooring. You'll likely see it topped with decorative tiles in ground-floor hallways.
While the Victorians had access to both carpets and linoleum flooring since the 1850s, bare timer floors will help give your renovated property an authentic feeling.
Simply stripping your original flooring back to the original house timber is the easiest and cheapest way of renovating your Victorian home.
However, most original floorboards will have been stained to resemble mahogany and other darker woods rather than the more modern trend towards lighter woods in the home.
Essentially, the choice is up to you, whether you want to renovate your home in keeping with the Victorian style or bring things into the modern era.
How Much Does It Cost To Renovate Victorian Houses?
Some of the most expensive period details for Victorian house renovations are ironwork, flooring, joinery, light fixtures and plumbing fixtures. Additionally, more splendid and expensive Victorian homes will have more complex and intricate finishes, meaning they will naturally be more expensive to renovate than an average worker's cottage.
Here is our rundown of typical costs for Victorian home renovations:
- Standard stock bricks will cost roughly £420 per 1,000, while ornate character bricks or air bricks run to £1,020 - £1,140 per 1,000.
- Modern concrete roof tiles cost £24 per square metre, while traditional Welsh roof slate will cost roughly £92 for the same coverage, not to mention decorative roof tiles adding to costs and labour.
- If your sash windows need replacing entirely, you'll need to arrange for a specialist to create bespoke joinery designs. Typically, it will cost around £500 per each timber casement, while each sash window will cost anywhere up to and above £1,000 each.
- A basic ceiling finish will cost around £20 - £24 per square metre but ensure you budget for more if you want ornate coving, plaster ceiling roses or other pieces of plasterwork.
- Regarding heating, a system of radiators and a gas boiler with basic controls will set you back around £22 per square metre, while underfloor heating can cost £36 - £48 per square metre.
- Adding a Victorian house extension for more space is another costly renovation, with a single-storey extension or two-storey extension costing between £1,200 - £2,500 per square metre.
- Spacious lofts and loft conversions cost around £1,000 per square metre for rooflight or room-in-roof loft conversions.
Do you have a Victorian fireplace which needs repair or restoration? If you live in the Hastings and East Sussex area, our expert antique fireplace restoration services can help.