Read MoreQ What should my daughter and son-in-law do with their 100-year-old farmhouse? There are bats in the attic, bathroom plumbing is dodgy, there is a house fly infestation, insulation is insufficient, a section of the stone cellar that needs attention, and on and on. Can you recommend a plan of action and someone to oversee
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
Q What should my daughter and son-in-law do with their 100-year-old farmhouse? There are bats in the attic, bathroom plumbing is dodgy, there is a house fly infestation, insulation is insufficient, a section of the stone cellar that needs attention, and on and on. Can you recommend a plan of action and someone to oversee the work? Or should the kids demolish and build new?
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
A I live in the country, I see many older houses like your kids have, and the issues you describe are quite common in vintage homes. The situation might seem hopeless, but it’s not. I’ve seen a number of older place brought up to near perfection and at lower cost than building new. There are three main ways to get the job done.
Article content
Article content
1. Total and all-at-once contractor restoration
Article content
Total restoration and upgrade will be expensive, but not as expensive as building new. Popular advice given by contractors is that old places like this “aren’t worth saving”, implying that it will cost more to fix than to build new. I rarely find this implication to be true. The real reason builders tend to discourage major renovations is because it’s not worth it to them. Proper restoration work takes time and care. It’s a slow, painstaking process that requires patient workers. It’s rarely possible to move quickly and make big profits on restorations like this.
Article content
Story continues below
Article content
2. Slow and steady restoration
Article content
I’ve led my own kids and several clients through this approach and it’s my favourite. You find a person or two well versed in all manner of building and renovations – a fully experience handyman – then identify areas that need work, tackling them one at a time as the budget allow. This will take longer than option #1, but it’s often a lot cheaper and the pace of progress is slow enough that there’s lots of time for making optimal design decisions as you go. This approach also allows for more or less DIY labour to reduce costs.
Article content
You mentioned house flies and this is a common issue with older places, especially in the fall as flies look for winter shelter. Spray foam insulation is particularly effective as an insulation, but it’s also unmatched for sealing older structures and keeping most insects out.
Article content
Article content
3. The do-little approach
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
