KITCHEN  What to look for when buying an old house in Portugal             Part 2 of 4

Starting in the heart of the home the kitchen.  let’s look at a typical kitchen found in a stone built house.

This particular house has been used up until recently the previous owner may have moved into a Lar (old peoples home) or passed away.

You can see the faint outline of the mouth of a wood fired oven in the wall to the left of the fireplace. It was blocked off some time ago this will be a source of damp if the old oven is still attached to the outside wall.

Speaking of damp if you look at the floor where it meets the wall you will see many areas where the render has fallen off the walls and the holes painted over. This is a classic sign of rising damp and the reason that the plaster has fallen off over time is that the rising water brings with it salts which are deposited behind the render/plaster when the humidity dries a little resulting in the plaster being pushed off the walls.

These salts must be neutralized when any renovation work is done or the same thing will happen again to your new render.

Can we see damp patches?     Yes, damp patches are highlighted by the brown stains on the walls. This time caused by condensation dampening a hundred years of wood fire smoke so that it permeates through the paint.

There is no paint that will overcome this staining. Its best to take off the render and re render (after first neutralizing the salts in the wall)

The kitchen has a modern kitchen sink and a tap. Check that there is a hot water supply to the tap and also check that there is a cold water supply to the tap. In the last ten years we have seen many sinks and bathrooms without a water supply.

You will have noticed the fireplace in the corner of the room. This is more for cooking on that heating. If you’re not going to keep it I would suggest its best to be taken out as it will allow damp and soot into your renovated kitchen.

So what’s the professional’s opinion?

This kitchen is damp and this is the first priority to sort out.

The water pipes if there are any will be old and possibly have lead sections in them. Best to renew the water supply pipes and the drain pipes.

This will also be the case for the electrical circuits. You made need a power upgrade because a Portuguese kitchen of this age will have a very low powered electrical supply and far less sockets that you are used too or want.

Remove the old wood fired oven from the outside of the wall. It was closed up for a reason so I would probably install a new one on a more suitable location and at a more convenient height.

Fore renovation, reconstruction and refurbishment work contact Castelo Construction Lda

00351 927168247  to see some of our renovations go to www.casteloconstruction.com

To see the other 4 articles on What to look for when buying an old house in Portugal  go back through the blog pages. What to look for when buying an old house in Portugal