Reclaimed victorian features - Fireplace, Hallway tiles... Post Reply

[MMmmm]

We are about to do a ground floor and side return extension. This means that we are sadly going to be taking out some of the much coveted original victorian features in the house including fireplaces with tiles, tiled entrance hall, parquet flooring, backdoors etc etc.

We'd feel less guilty about taking these things out if we knew that these things didn't end up on a scrap heap somewhere. And to be honest it would be nice to make a bit of money on them too

Has anyone had experience of taking these items out of the house and selling them on? Is it worth the expense of having the builders extract these items and if so what sort of price might we get? Does anyone have recommendations of someone that we could sell these items to?

[Coffeegirl]

Hello
3 yrs ago, we had to replace the floors at our place which meant ripping up the original Victorian, grey boards.

It had never occurred to me that you could sell stuff like this but A friend recommended eBay.
Within 1 day I had over 50 watchers and they eventually sold for over £400.
It took the builders about 3 hours to pull out the nails etc... So well worth it.

Asides from the financial aspect, i loved knowing that they didn't go to landfill and the couple who drove down from Cambridge were so grateful and excited and finally being able to source the boards that it was a lovely experience all round.

I should add that I have since tried original door handles etc... And although everything, sometimes for very little but generally to people who genuinely seem to appreciate them.

Definitely do it if you can.

[cassie]

Ebay is a good idea, but if you want to just unload everything without much effort, you could try http://www.lassco.co.uk/ the architectural salvage place in Vauxhall.

[clare74]

We sold a Victorian fire surround on ebay with no trouble, so that's definitely an option. It's probably even worth giving Nappyvalley a try as given that I can see three houses under renovation from where I'm sitting right now (at least one of which is restoring features that were previously ripped out), there's a good chance that there may be someone local who's interested! But Lassco is a good suggestion, particularly for things like valuing the floor, if you'd rather use a third party to help.