ᐅ 1930s Building – Converting Electric Heating, Gas Connection Available

Hello everyone,

my wife, our 2-year-old son, and I are planning to purchase a house. Currently, one property is shortlisted.

Here are the key facts:
a small 90m² (970 sq ft) mid-terrace house from the 1930s, with 2 floors plus an attic and a basement.
Ground floor – kitchen, hallway, and living room
First floor – 3 rooms

There is a gas connection in the house (basement), but all piping still needs to be installed. Wall and floor coverings will be renewed.
The heating pipes on the ground and first floors are planned to be installed flush with the wall. In the basement and optionally in the attic, the pipes will be surface-mounted.

Can anyone give a rough estimate of the costs involved?
If the house is empty, what kind of time effort should we expect for the work (including chasing walls and plastering)?
Floor coverings and wallpapering are, of course, excluded.

Best regards,
Stephan

Bentovic schrieb:
Is it possible to give a rough estimate of the costs involved?

Not really, clearly not.

A house from the 1930s will probably still have a wooden beam ceiling, but not necessarily.

A mid-terrace house has two walls shared with neighbors, but also two external walls – which are aligned with the neighboring facades (or are the houses staggered?). Coordination with the neighbors would be necessary – one person adding insulation alone is not so simple.

The effort involved in completely renewing all installations largely depends on the level of prior investigation: what is known, where exactly it runs, and what it is made of?

---

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Hi, thanks already for the feedback.
Do you mean when you chase into the walls and thereby weaken them?
I found some figures through my research for a 150m2 (1615 sq ft) house. 7000-10000€ plus the gas heating unit itself, plus chasing and so on.
A rough estimate of 15000-20000€??

Bentovic schrieb:
You mean when cutting channels into the walls weakens them?

No, I mean: when you really take a close look at the building fabric, you find gaps and pitfalls that conventional wisdom wouldn’t even dream of. Materials that were already outdated at the time of construction; questionable interpretations of proper procedures, and so on. Approaching it with the hope that everything was done correctly back then and just needs to be replaced is a mistake. And I mean that it is often not documented where cables or pipes run, and which other ones they pass by.

Bentovic schrieb:
When I searched online, I found some estimates for a 150m2 (1,615 sq ft) house: 7,000–10,000€ plus the gas heating system itself, plus channelling, etc.

There are so many uncertainties that Google can only provide rough guesses when it tries to generate an accurate range based on square meters.

Reality shows of nightmare used properties are often less exaggerated than you might think. These are always at least “experience purchases.”

---

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Bentovic schrieb:

small 90m² (970 sq ft) mid-terrace house from the 1930s

Is 90m² (970 sq ft) enough space for the next few years for 3 people?

We are also going to renovate a well-maintained house from the 1930s; the original electric heating was replaced with an oil-fired central heating system in 2000. The original invoice from the contractor was 20,000 DM, including the oil tanks in the basement. I estimate that today you would need at least the same amount in euros, probably a bit more. Our house has about 200m² (2,150 sq ft) of total living space and 2 floors.

For houses built in that era, plan for the following work:

- Possible repair of wooden ceilings
- New electrical wiring (costing us around €12,000)
- New water pipes (often lead pipes are still present)
- The nearly 80-year-old roof will certainly need some work
- etc.

By now, I believe that renovation costs for houses older than 50 years usually exceed the purchase price, unless the previous owner has already completed a lot of work in recent years. Or you are a professional and can accurately estimate and carry out much of the renovation yourself.

A master roofer will inspect our roof structure on Monday, and we are looking forward to his opinion and cost estimate. This is the cost factor we find the hardest to assess.

Hello,

the inspection went very well, and considering the age, the building’s condition was good (roof, electrical system, windows all okay). In the end, the just under 90m² (970 ft²) was really the dealbreaker. The bathroom was very small and not ideal for my height of 1.95m (6 ft 5 in). We would have had to change the floor plan too much to make it practical for us.

Now, another mid-terrace house from 1995 is a serious option. Let’s see.