The traditional materials, period designs and aged character of older houses are all part of their appeal. This section will help you understand how to maintain, repair and improve your home with this in mind.
Get a free copy of our Guide for Owners of Listed Buildings, which includes lots of practical information on living in and looking after a listed building.
Maintenance and Repair Tips
Use our guide to help manage the upkeep of your home in a cost-effective way.
Maintenance Checklist
The starting point for regular maintenance is to draw up a checklist to inspect your home in a logical sequence.
How to Find the Right Professional Help
When choosing professionals to help you plan and carry out work to an old building, you need people with the appropriate experience.
What Permission Might I Need?
This page provides a brief summary of the different kinds of permission you may need if you live in a listed building or a conservation area.
Who Do I Contact About Making Changes?
Find the key points of contact and sources of advice for anyone planning and making changes to an older home.
Keeping Safe
Keeping safe when carrying out a maintenance check or repair work on your home is mostly common sense.
Understanding Decay
Knowing where to look and what to look for will help you spot potential problems of decay in your home.
Using the Right Materials
When considering what materials to use for repair work it is important to understand how your house was built.
Structural Movement
Most old buildings move to some degree during their life, but this movement may not be a problem.
Repairing Walls
This page introduces the traditional materials and techniques used to build older walls and offers tips for the repairs they may need.
Repair or Change Windows
Historic windows of interest should be retained wherever possible using careful repair.
Repair or Renew the Roof
The roof not only shelters your home from the weather, but is often an important part of its historic significance too.
When to Consider Restoration in an Older Home
Restoration involves returning a building or part of a building to the way it looked at a previous point in its life.
Whether you own or rent, if you live in an older house and want to cut your energy bills, this page summarises what to do.
An introduction to the renewable energy options available to owners of older buildings.
To improve energy performance at home, consider the factors that affect your energy use, your home's energy efficiency, and how they interact.
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