Guide to Best Ways to Approach an Old Home Renovation, House Refurb Advice, Online Help
Best Ways to Approach an Old Home Renovation
7 Jan 2021
Old homes aren’t like generic suburban homes or lifeless apartments, they have history, weight, and value. If you want to renovate an old home while ensuring it keeps its character and value, you need to be really careful. Traditional renovation methods might not work. You need a different, bespoke approach that takes into account the specific needs and the fragile nature of old homes. In this article, we’ll look at the main ways you can approach an old home renovation. Methods that are a recipe for success, so keep reading on!
#1 Research
The first step in a successful renovation process of an old home is research, thorough detailed research into the history of the home, its building material, and its design and design philosophy. Without this knowledge, you’ll have no way of knowing how to approach the renovation process correctly.
What does it take to approach the renovation process correctly? You need to learn what type of material is used in your home, the design style, the way each room is constructed, the era it was constructed in, etc. This info is necessary if you actually want to retain what makes the home unique. If you don’t know this information, how could you possibly hope to remain faithful to the original sentiment and design of the house?
#2 Plumbing and Electrical Wiring
One of the main problems you’ll face both when renovating standard homes and old, classic homes are plumbing connections and electrical wiring. Both require structural adjustments to the home and are quite costly.
This is particularly important in old homes as the connections might be outdated and inefficient, and replacing them, extending them, or repairing them will be more difficult and more fraught with risk. This is why you need to carefully analyze the blueprints of the home and make sure the contractors you work with learn exactly what you need to accomplish. If you are contacting professional, reliable contractors like these building contractors in London, they’ll make sure they go through the right processes and get things done correctly.
#3 The Structure of the Home
The structure of the rooms in an old home can be a powerful statement and a striking feature of your home. As you renovate and extend your old home, you need to make sure you preserve the structure of your home, if not physically, at least in spirit.
It might be harder than you first imagined though. If you’re going to change the structure of your home, you will need to get a permit in most circumstances, and due to new and modern laws and regulations, you might not get a permit for an old-fashioned renovation job. This might cause you a lot of headaches, so you need to contact an architect.
#4 Test for Poisonous Elements
Old homes, even if they carry a lot of history and look excellent, are still made with the technologies, information, and material available in a previous era, and this could spell trouble for you. A lot of poisonous, unhealthy, and detrimental material was used in the building of the home.
When you’re renovating your home, it is an excellent idea to use that chance to thoroughly check the building materials used in the initial building of the home and try to replace any ones that have a detrimental effect on your health.
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London Architecture Designs – architectural selection below:
Camden Cloud House
Design: Peter Morris Architects
image courtesy of architects practice
The Cloud House in Gospel Oak
Oak Hill House, Hampstead, North London
Design: Claridge Architects
photograph : Simon Kennedy
New Hampstead House
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