Cyprus-Forum.com

[purdey]

What is your preference.Old traditional Cypriot stone built or modern new build.

[Sega]

Out with the old and in with the new.

Newer houses are better insulated, don't need repairs (if your builder did his job right), come with a one-year builders guarantee (if their honorable) and it would probably stand up the longest. I know their more expensive but I gave you my opinion.

[Bill]

Out with the old and in with the new.

Newer houses are better insulated, don't need repairs (if your builder did his job right), come with a one-year builders guarantee (if their honorable)

New houses are still not insulated properly but they will be once the new EU regulations come into force ~ at the moment they are concrete boxes thermally inefficient in both summer and winter .

Now if you compare new with old ( stone built ) you would probably better of with the older stone built house depending on the thickness of the stone.

Bill

[Oracle]

What is your preference.Old traditional Cypriot stone built or modern new build.

I would opt for traditional Cypriot ..... but only if you don't accuse me of being racist

[GorillaGal]

Out with the old and in with the new.

Newer houses are better insulated, don't need repairs (if your builder did his job right), come with a one-year builders guarantee (if their honorable) and it would probably stand up the longest. I know their more expensive but I gave you my opinion.

i find it sad there are so many crappy cypriot contractors and no apparent means of recourse that you have to add the "IFs" in your response.

[webbo]

Out with the old and in with the new.

Newer houses are better insulated, don't need repairs (if your builder did his job right), come with a one-year builders guarantee (if their honorable)

New houses are still not insulated properly but they will be once the new EU regulations come into force ~ at the moment they are concrete boxes thermally inefficient in both summer and winter .

Now if you compare new with old ( stone built ) you would probably better of with the older stone built house depending on the thickness of the stone.

Bill

I agree with you here Bill. Some of the old stone built houses - wonder if they had any Turkish influence - Tortoise, maybe you can answer - are very well built and will stand the test of time. Some of these modern houses are just thrown up in 5 minutes. Obviously the reverse is always true - the luck of the draw I suppose.

Phoenix, did you think your remark could have been construed as racist? Paranoia?

Bubbles

[RichardB]

The old stone built houses have stood the test of time it must be said.

But the maintainance costs can be horrific.

eg; We had a new roof 2 years ago ...cost....cy£7500

The actual cost of the roof was cy5000 but then you find that the ceiling has to be replaced and the beams etc its just never ending and it goes on like this with every repair.

Finding traditional craftsmen is hard and they're not cheap.

The end result looks great but sometimes I wonder if it would be more economical to start a new build

[purdey]

Traditional builders are out there and not all are expensive.Your roof job sounds very expensive.I employed a team of Syrian stone masons,their work is outstanding,and their work ethic is second to none.
I love old,beams,stone floors old doors,mine have lasted nearly 400 years and are still in good condition.

[RichardB]

Well the roof tiles had to be imported from Italy

And it wasnt just a matter of replacing those. The actual stucture of the roof (sorry dont know the technical terms) was the original saplings which i assume had been cut down locally and this too had to be replaced.

This origional structure was probably around 150 years old. I see yours have lasted for 400 years but we are in one of the highest villages on the island so it had had 150 years of pretty inclement weather.

As for the origional stone floors well on the ground floor these had been covered over in concrete as had the ouside patio area so this all had to be refurbished also. Cant remember exactly how much that cost as it was back in the mid nineties. But I know it wasnt cheap but the rusult is worthwhile.

[pantheman]

Out with the old and in with the new.

Newer houses are better insulated, don't need repairs (if your builder did his job right), come with a one-year builders guarantee (if their honorable)

New houses are still not insulated properly but they will be once the new EU regulations come into force ~ at the moment they are concrete boxes thermally inefficient in both summer and winter .

Now if you compare new with old ( stone built ) you would probably better of with the older stone built house depending on the thickness of the stone.

Bill

Bill, If I am not mistaken the new insulation law was introduced on the 17 Dec 2007.

Don't know how this will be enforced or when it will be taken up, but I am aware of at least one developer who is looking at different ways of building to meet these standards.

The problem here, it the construction methed, currently it doesn't lend itself to insulation techniques and since all brickies only know how to do it the way they have for so long, its going to be hard to teach them to change it.

Wait till they ask for the final certificates, that should be fun.