Renovation
Buying a house that needs work: what to check and what to cost
The expensive problems in a neglected house are rarely the ones that look bad in the photographs.
Renovation
Budgets, trades, sequencing and the work behind a finished photograph.
21 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 2 of 2
Renovation
Taking out a wall is a structural question with a decorating disguise
Removing a wall is presented as a lifestyle choice and is actually a load path problem. What the wall was carrying does not…
Renovation
The floor under the floor decides how the finished floor behaves
Almost every flooring failure is a subfloor failure. The material that was blamed was usually installed correctly onto something…
Renovation
A tighter house needs deliberate ventilation
Old buildings ventilated themselves through gaps nobody designed. Sealing those gaps saves energy and removes the accidental air…
Renovation
Old houses hold materials that must not be disturbed
A building is a record of what was normal when it was made. Some of those materials are harmless in place and hazardous the moment…
Renovation
Original features survive because somebody decided not to remove them
Cornices, shutters, boards and fireplaces are not preserved by accident. They exist in a house because at every renovation someone…
Renovation
A drawing is a communication device, and arguments start where it is vague
Most disputes on a building job are not about workmanship. They are about two people holding different pictures of the same…
Renovation
Which jobs are worth doing yourself and which are not
The dividing line is not difficulty. It is whether a mistake is visible, expensive to undo, or capable of hurting somebody.
Renovation
Underfloor heating is a floor decision before it is a heating one
The heat comes out of the floor, so the floor becomes part of the heating system. What you lay on top of it decides how well it…