Should I tear down my house and rebuild or fix it up?
Should I take down my house or fix it up? {pardon my typo} Its a WWII mid-century modern multi level with graphic block coners and squared archways.
It needs insulation plumbing electrical would shake siding shingles and storage badly.
4 Answers to "Should I tear down my house and rebuild or fix it up?"
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If you have not got the skills, equipment, time and money it will be almost impossible to do it up - never mind the authorsiations and certificates you will need to amend electrics and gas etc.
In most countries you will need more money and time and equipment, planning permissions, building inspections, environmental impact reviews and other red tape to demolish and build a new place.
I would suggest your best course of action is to sell up and move to a better property. You may want to make some real but cosmetic changes to your place to increase the selling price so you can afford a better place.
Talk to local estate agents, get quoites from local buildiers, talk to the local authroity to find out what may be possible (if it is in a listed historic area you may not be able to update it, or demolish and rebuild it). Make an informed decision.Like (1)
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Moving is not an option.
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OK then - I am no expert but start with the important things. You have to decide what to do, and that has to be an informed decision. Make a lift of the things that are wrong with the house, roof tiles mising, windows leaking, electrical supply inadequate, no heating etc. That gives you a list of what needs doing. Now get quotes (for free from a few local builders) to see what time and money it will cost to put them right. If you are thinking you need structural changes - a garage, loft conversion, extra bedrooms etc - ask about them when you get the quote and get the builders / contractors to list them as options on your quote. Now you know what time and effort and money it will cost to put the basic structure right and to make any desired changes extenstions etc. Make a decision can you afford for them to do that - make the house structurally sound and then do the cosmetics to make it pretty afterwards in due course? Do you have enough skilled freinds to be able to help to do all of that work yourself (at least the professionald have now told you what it will cost and how long it will take. (Note - they included profit in their estimate, but it will probably cost you more and take you longer to do it yourself anyway - they would work all week, you can only work evenings and weekends probably). That should give you a feel for the cost jobs duration etc, but you will need to find your way through the local paperwork with plannign permissions and licences and certifications etc and usually that isnt simple. With that as a basis - you can use similar methods to arrive at an estimate of time cost effort to demolish and rebuild (and probably live on site in a caravan / trailer while it is happening) You can also consider merged options for example getting a professional to require the house, but doing the roof yourself to get the main structural and safety issues resolved. BIG job - good luck
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thats a tough one to decide since its classical
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I lttlle hard to evaluate without seeing it, but my gut reaction is, gut it and redo it from the bones up, but don't actually tear down the structure (assuming the foundation is good, which you don't mention).
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Its on a crawl space that I detest. The foundation itself is soundish.
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hmmm. Might be possible to excavate the crawls space and make into a proper basement whilt the frame it ******** down.
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Best Answer (Chosen by Voting):
Posted by accomplice 1 Mar 15th, 2013 at 12:52PM
Where would you live if you tore it down?
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Reply by LadyGypsy Mar 15th, 2013 at 12:54PM
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Reply by accomplice Mar 15th, 2013 at 12:56PM
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