Renovating a 1950s house: post-war build, pipework and finishing

What will you find in a 1950s house?

Houses from the 1950s were built in the post-war period, when a lot had to be built quickly. They are usually made of brick and solidly built, but basic: there were no energy-efficiency requirements yet. This is what you will come across most often:

Based on common findings in houses built between 1925 and 1965.

Houses built before 1960 may still have lead water pipes. The owner is responsible for replacing the section from the water meter into the house. During a renovation this is the moment to do it, because afterwards the walls are closed up.

Narrow cavity walls, in which insulation is not always possible, are typical of this period. In that case insulating an interior wall with a lining wall is the way forward, and it takes 10 to 15 centimetres of space per wall.

Asbestos also belongs to this building period: it was widely used from 1945 into the 1980s. You cannot recognise it by eye, so demolition work sometimes requires an asbestos inventory first.

What do you do with the walls, ceilings and floors of a 1950s house?

The walls almost always have wallpaper, often two or three layers on top of each other. It has to come off, layer by layer. Removing two layers of paper wallpaper costs €7.99 per m² with us, three layers €8.99. Our craftsmen strip an average of 100 m² of wallpaper from the wall per day.

Underneath there is usually plasterwork. If it is firmly attached and the wall is flat enough, renovation fleece can go on. If there are many cracks, old plug holes or hollow spots, the wall gets plaster that is ready for painting, at €22.99 per m². We assess that when measuring up, once the wallpaper is off.

In these houses the ceilings are usually plastered, sometimes made of soft board: sheets of pressed wood fibre. You cannot simply apply a plaster coat to that, because the material is soft and moves with moisture. Usually plasterboard is then fixed to the ceiling, or you choose a suspended ceiling if pipes or spotlights have to go in too.

If there is a timber floor under the carpet upstairs, you can often have it sanded and lacquered instead of laying a new floor.

The old chimney flue is a question in its own right. If you leave it, it gets the same finish as the walls. If you want the space back, you can have the chimney flue removed, but only after checking whether it carries any load.

What does it cost to finish the walls and ceilings of a 1950s house?

A worked example: a 1950s house with 180 m² of wall with two layers of paper wallpaper and 55 m² of plastered ceiling that is made ready for painting again. The walls get renovation fleece. The dimensions are an assumption, not an average.

Prices from our 2026/2027 price list, valid from 1 September 2026. Prices exclude VAT; for a private home over 10 years old you usually pay 6% VAT.

That is €29.17 per m² of wall and ceiling, from the old wallpaper to the final coat of paint. If the walls have to be plastered instead of papered, you pay €22.99 per m² plus €18.99 for priming and painting. The total then comes to €11,713.48.

In this example renovation fleece is therefore €4,858.20 cheaper, and faster: a complete house is papered, filled and painted in 3 days. According to Knauf, a coat of gypsum plaster needs about four weeks to dry under good conditions before paint can go on.

The structural part differs from house to house. At typical market prices, a new electrical installation in a 1950s house costs €3,000 to €8,000. Our own electricians rewire an old house before the walls are finished.

Is a 1950s house worth renovating?

Usually yes, because the shell is solid: brick walls, a cavity and a simple layout. What is outdated are the installations, the insulation and the finishing, and all of those can be replaced. It is precisely with insulation that there is a lot to gain in these houses.

The question is mainly what is under the floor and behind the walls. A timber ground floor with rotten joists, lead pipes or asbestos make the work more expensive. Have a technical survey done when you buy, and mention the results in the consultation. Also request the EPC (energy performance certificate): it gives a first idea of how much energy you can save. In Flanders there is also a renovation obligation: after buying, you must renovate the home for energy efficiency within 5 years.

Typical market prices for making a 1950s house more sustainable on its own average €25,000 to €60,000. Do it in the right order: first what goes into the walls and floors, then the insulation on the inside, and finishing last. Anyone who finishes first has to open up the walls again later.

Got a house in mind? Know the renovation cost before you make an offer

Anyone who buys a house from the 1950s usually also buys a renovation job. If you know what it costs before you make your offer, you can take it into account in your offer and your financing. This is how it works:

1. Send us the house. The address, the living area and what you want done. Photos from the sales listing help.
2. A price indication within 24 hours. Based on our fixed prices per m², with every item listed separately.
3. The job survey after the purchase. If you agree, we measure up and check the walls. The final price and the schedule are then fixed.
4. Between getting the keys and moving in. We start on the day we agree together, so the work is finished when you move in.

Many buyers include the costs in their home loan. Our quote lists every item separately, so you can pass it to your credit broker. We do not give advice on your financing ourselves; your broker does that. That is why we work with credit brokers.

What do you gain from us doing everything from A to Z?

Renovating a 1950s house quickly means five tradespeople: someone for the electrics, a wallpaper stripper, a plasterer, a wallpaperer and a painter. If you arrange them yourself, you are the contractor. With us that is not necessary, because we are the contractor and take over the whole process.

Prefer to talk it over first? Put your question directly to our contractor via the contact form.

Our customers give us 4.9 from more than 215 Google reviews, and we complete more than 600 homes every year. The texts on this site are checked by our director Geert Jan Hendrik, who has worked in construction for 20 years.

How do you renovate a 1950s house with us?

Request a quote or call us on working days between 9:00 and 17:00. Tell us the year of construction, what you want done and when you want to move in. In a free consultation we go through the house, from the pipework to the ceilings, and afterwards you receive a plan and a quote.

If you agree, we measure up and check the walls and ceilings. The final price and the schedule are then fixed, and we start on the day we agree together. You pay 50% on the first working day, once all the materials are on site and we have started, and 50% on handover.

The structural work is done by our four in-house building teams of four people each. In addition, our 97 in-house craftsmen do the finishing: 40 wallpaperers, 32 plasterers and 25 painters. We work across Belgium: Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia.

A house from another period sometimes needs something different, such as a 1930s house with reed ceilings or renovating a 1960s house. For every period we take on the complete renovation as your contractor.