Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Whart have you bodged up today

Jens

It seems that in NRW you are not under the thumb of the Heritage Police, known officially in the UK as English Heritage.
Almost all old houses are what is known as "Listed" This means that you cannot do what you want, but must "work with the local conservation expert in the building control department" to ensure that the essential character of a house like yours would be preserved.
At your expense.


That would most probably mean that the old infil, here known as wattle and daub, a woven willow pannel in the middle, covered by a clay/lime/horsehair mix must be used. This is specialist work and an approved craftsperson must be used. They would demand that the modern bricks be removed and replaced by period recycled bricks, using lime mortar, not cement. Any original timber that could not be reused would have to be replaced with recycled old oak, not modern new timber. You may not be allowed any double glazing, depending on what was there.
In their strange mind originality trumps eco efficiency.

The roof tiles would also need to be period, unless you can prove that the ones on the roof were a replica of the original tiles.
Probably a 3 year project and costing far more than a new house.

My sister in law has a listed cottage, from the mid 1700s. When the oak beam across the dining room ceiling started to fail she was told it could not be replaced, but she may put a steel support in the middle of the dining room, with a metal saddle on the top of the pole to take the beam. It was not allowed to bolt the support to the beam. She now has a steel 3cm pole in the middle of the dining table, which had to be modified. Me? I'd have let the beam fail and then claimed on the house insurance.
The final insanity is that whilst they can stop you doing anything they don't like they cannot force you to do anything, so if you let the building fail they can't force you to repair it.

In my opinion it is bureaucratic insanity driven by PC Woke Civil Servants who live in an uncontrolled parallel universe!