Hello,
My wife and I are planning to buy a house built around 1950. The land price in the area is about 70 euros per square meter. The house itself has 120 sqm (1290 sq ft) of living space across two levels. It stands on a 1600 sqm (0.4 acres) plot and is available for 120,000 euros.
Everything with the bank is settled, and the financing is secured. The renovation will be paid from our savings, and we have 35,000 euros available.
We already have the bathroom, kitchen, and other furniture, so they do not need to be included in the budget.
The biggest issue with the house is the lack of central heating. After much consideration, we have decided we do not want an oil or gas heating system. My wife is afraid of gas, and oil heating is out of the question for us for environmental reasons.
Since we have a relative who is a farmer with a large forested property and would provide firewood almost for free (I would only need to help him with forestry work), we would like to install a wood-burning masonry stove with a water heat exchanger and retrofit underfloor heating in two bedrooms and the bathroom.
The windows will probably need to be replaced as the first renovation step. There are a total of 10 windows and 2 patio doors.
For the initial period, we are planning to live only on the lower floor and gradually renovate the second floor. We have been advised against external wall insulation due to the risk of mold if we cover the walls with insulation panels. (However, we are complete beginners in this field.)
The question is, how realistic is it to accomplish the following with 35,000 euros:
- One wood-burning masonry stove with water heat exchanger plus buffer tank
- Approximately 40 sqm (430 sq ft) of underfloor heating
- Replacement of windows
- Renovation of floors
Thank you very much,
Stephan
My wife and I are planning to buy a house built around 1950. The land price in the area is about 70 euros per square meter. The house itself has 120 sqm (1290 sq ft) of living space across two levels. It stands on a 1600 sqm (0.4 acres) plot and is available for 120,000 euros.
Everything with the bank is settled, and the financing is secured. The renovation will be paid from our savings, and we have 35,000 euros available.
We already have the bathroom, kitchen, and other furniture, so they do not need to be included in the budget.
The biggest issue with the house is the lack of central heating. After much consideration, we have decided we do not want an oil or gas heating system. My wife is afraid of gas, and oil heating is out of the question for us for environmental reasons.
Since we have a relative who is a farmer with a large forested property and would provide firewood almost for free (I would only need to help him with forestry work), we would like to install a wood-burning masonry stove with a water heat exchanger and retrofit underfloor heating in two bedrooms and the bathroom.
The windows will probably need to be replaced as the first renovation step. There are a total of 10 windows and 2 patio doors.
For the initial period, we are planning to live only on the lower floor and gradually renovate the second floor. We have been advised against external wall insulation due to the risk of mold if we cover the walls with insulation panels. (However, we are complete beginners in this field.)
The question is, how realistic is it to accomplish the following with 35,000 euros:
- One wood-burning masonry stove with water heat exchanger plus buffer tank
- Approximately 40 sqm (430 sq ft) of underfloor heating
- Replacement of windows
- Renovation of floors
Thank you very much,
Stephan
Phew. That has style. A coffee pot, a candle snuffer, a slight diesel smell in the room, indoor temperature of 30°C (86°F), the wallpaper is peeling... Seriously though, you need a heating system. Ask the heating installer where you stand. And regarding the windows, check if Drutex.pl has a local dealer and installation team in your area. They are from Gdańsk, probably the largest in Europe, and offer good quality products. Widely used in commercial and multi-story residential buildings, as is Grandpol from Szczecin. Only Drutex has more representatives. Forget about the tiled stove with that budget. The underfloor heating too.
The house on the 120-meter plot is already valuable because of the 1600 m² (17,222 sq ft) land. Idea: keep 800 m² (8,611 sq ft) and sell the rest. Someone else can build on that. If you have the money, then you can continue with the roof and so on. You have to let things develop naturally.
The house on the 120-meter plot is already valuable because of the 1600 m² (17,222 sq ft) land. Idea: keep 800 m² (8,611 sq ft) and sell the rest. Someone else can build on that. If you have the money, then you can continue with the roof and so on. You have to let things develop naturally.
If you do everything yourselves and don’t plan a complete renovation, the money might be enough. We renovated a house built in 1976 entirely (or are still in the process) and had a budget of 60,000 Euro. However, we did and still do a lot of the work ourselves. There are still remaining costs, and that’s without installing new bathrooms.
If wood is sufficiently cheap, I wouldn’t recommend a tile stove but rather a wood log boiler, possibly a combination boiler that can also use pellets. An affordable model (meaning more manual work and less automation for cleaning, refilling, and ash removal), for example from Atmos, costs about 2,500 Euro plus installation, buffer tank, etc. In that case, it doesn’t make any sense to try heating only two rooms with it.
Even with a modulating water-bearing fireplace stove in the room, if you don’t have a dedicated heating room (which can be the case if there wasn’t one before... and such a boiler can’t be installed just anywhere, considering flue pipe routing, for instance), the output is high enough that underfloor heating for only two rooms would be a waste.
The advantage of a fireplace stove in the living area is that it releases part of the heat directly into the room through the air, and only part into the water circuit.
I would cover everything possible with wall heating (which also prevents mold! Wall heating is mainly installed on exterior walls) and underfloor heating. There are dry systems available that are comparatively thin and don’t introduce moisture into the building.
If you want a subsidy from BAFA (we received 2,900 Euro at the time), I recommend a water-bearing pellet stove. Fireplaces using wood logs are unfortunately not supported, at least that was the case back in 2013.
If wood is sufficiently cheap, I wouldn’t recommend a tile stove but rather a wood log boiler, possibly a combination boiler that can also use pellets. An affordable model (meaning more manual work and less automation for cleaning, refilling, and ash removal), for example from Atmos, costs about 2,500 Euro plus installation, buffer tank, etc. In that case, it doesn’t make any sense to try heating only two rooms with it.
Even with a modulating water-bearing fireplace stove in the room, if you don’t have a dedicated heating room (which can be the case if there wasn’t one before... and such a boiler can’t be installed just anywhere, considering flue pipe routing, for instance), the output is high enough that underfloor heating for only two rooms would be a waste.
The advantage of a fireplace stove in the living area is that it releases part of the heat directly into the room through the air, and only part into the water circuit.
I would cover everything possible with wall heating (which also prevents mold! Wall heating is mainly installed on exterior walls) and underfloor heating. There are dry systems available that are comparatively thin and don’t introduce moisture into the building.
If you want a subsidy from BAFA (we received 2,900 Euro at the time), I recommend a water-bearing pellet stove. Fireplaces using wood logs are unfortunately not supported, at least that was the case back in 2013.
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