Historic Homes: Beautiful or a Pain?

Jamie: 00:00:01

Welcome to Thoughts from the Crawl Space, a podcast where our goal as home inspection experts is to support and serve our community.

Whether you're a homeowner, home buyer, real estate agent or investor, we believe everyone deserves solutions to their homeownership challenges and inspiration along the way. Your path to success starts here. Welcome back to another episode of Thoughts from the Crawl Space.

Charm, challenges, Care what do you love about your house? And what do you really not like about your house? Do you have a historic home that needs special care?

Stay tuned and we'll talk about historic homes and how to maintain them and what to look for in them. Historic homes are in many cities especially carefully regulated. You have to do you're siding a certain color.

You can't change things without a board approval. And on and on and on. But why do people love historic homes?

Well, some of the things that people love about them are the architectural character you just can't replicate affordably. Today. Contractors are building primarily now for affordability, mass produce these houses.

They create subdivisions where the houses look remarkably similar and they change a few things on them and you know, call it good. And that works great for people that need homes.

But if you love the architectural character in homes and you go into an older neighborhood and you see, you know, even a subdivision that has historic homes and none of them look remotely the same, that's what people like the architectural of it. Solid old growth lumber framing. Now this has pros and cons. You'll go into many older homes and you'll see the lumber in the basement.

And it is hard, right? It's hard to put a screw into it. It's hard to hammer a nail into was old growth lumber.

So you had a lot of rings in the growth and it's not the fast growing stuff that builders typically use. Now that's much softer handcrafted trim, plaster walls and masonry fireplaces.

How many times have you gone into these historic homes and the trim is just spectacular. You have baseboards that are a foot high and ornamental.

You have crown molding that you've never seen before, the door jambs, the window trim, all that is just amazing. And those look cool.

And I think it brings, I think humans love things that look beautiful, whether it's people or how they do their landscaping or the trim and the wood inside their own home. And so I think that's an attractive feature of historic homes. The plaster walls. Well, that's not necessarily an attractive feature.

Drywall has replaced plaster in many cases, but you still may have the plaster. Again, not easy to hang things on. Not as easy as drywall, but it has its place. And then masonry fireplaces.

Think of those the way they used to heat their homes, primarily with fireplaces before we had modern heating and cooling. And so they would have them in every, on every level. And they were ornamental and they were finely crafted.

And it just shows the skill that technicians and craftsmen had in the past to create these monstrosity masonry fireplaces. And then many times they're in established neighborhoods with mature trees and walkability.

Do you want the subdivision that was just built in a cornfield and has some starter trees planted here and there, or do you want those old growth trees, those massive trees that they have? Pros and cons, they look beautiful, they provide a lot of shade. They also drop a lot of branches and they fall on houses.

So there's give and take with historic homes. So think about this question. Are buyers purchasing charm or just inheriting complexity?

If you've ever owned an old home, you know what I'm talking about. If you've never lived in something older than 10 years old, you probably have no clue what I'm talking about today.

But hopefully you'll learn something. So what makes a home, quote, historic? Well, old. Let's clarify the difference. Old versus historical.

Officially designated as historic, you can have an old home. There's lots of old homes out there that aren't historic. Okay. Homes listed on the national register of historic places is where to start.

If you want to find out if your home would be, quote, an historic home. Typically, there's going to be in downtown sections of cities that are trying to restore their restore or regain some of their lost legacy.

Local historic preservation boards and restrictions are a key component on if you get to do anything with your home, if you get to upgrade the siding or the color or the roof or whatever. And so all those things are things to keep in mind as you decide to buy one of these houses.

If you want to renovate anything, many times you have to go through an appeals process, an approval process. So historic designation can limit window replacements, siding changes, roof materials and additions because they want to keep it as it was.

It's a conservative way of looking at housing. There's certainly value to keeping some of the old. And I think you, in some cases, I think it's emotional.

As the world changes rapidly, many people don't like change, and many changes are not for the better. And so it's an attempt to hang on to the past. It's an attempt to think of the days gone by when you good memories you had.

Now I think sometimes we look at the past and we remember the good and don't remember the bad. And so you got to take that into account when you're making your decision. So let's look at the structural realities of older homes.

foundations were common in pre: 1920

We see many homes on inspections that have brick foundations or stone fieldstone. Now the field stone, no pun intended here, but it's hard as a rock. You know, that's what it is. It's rocks mortared together.

And you'll see sometimes these houses were built with fieldstone that are 2 foot thick and there is nothing moving those except the mortar. The mortar washes out and creates shifting and settling and so forth. Settlement is common.

Now what is, you know, while it's settlement, it doesn't mean it's failed, it just means it's settled. All right. And so whereas modern walls are built with poured concrete, sometimes block walls, the older style just wasn't.

That wasn't the material that they had available as much. And so a brick foundation in particular, now a true brick foundation is going to be at least a couple of thicknesses of brick, maybe three even.

And so, you know, we see some that are really good shape or some that are in very poor shape. So the framing, the framing on a historic home is going to be different or an old home even. And that is what we call balloon framing.

Balloon framing is where you might have again, we had older, bigger, straighter trees in the past. And so you could get longer two by fours out of that. And the two by four literally would go from the ground level to the top level.

You might have a two story house and it's one stud the whole way. Now we use typically eight footer, sometimes 10. And you have a break in between those.

And so a concern with balloon framing is that there was no fire stop in the middle of that. In other words, if you get in the joist bay, there's nothing stopping flames from spreading from the basement all the way to the top floor.

Whereas if you have now we build one level, then we put a floor and then we put another level on top of that. You have a natural break between, you know, flames spread like that.

So another thing that we see in the framing of older houses is notching and alterations from decades of renovations. When I was first getting into home inspecting, I went And I took a special class called old house framing.

In other words, there's things you see as a home inspector on older houses that you really have to make a judgment on it. Is this done like it should be? Yeah, not. Not how they do it.

Now, remember I talked before about, I'm glad they don't do certain things like they used to. This is one of them. And how are you to judge if this old house framing is acceptable or not?

Well, essentially it comes down to is there ongoing movement if because of old house framing or the notches in that, or alterations, or they put in an H VAC system after, you know, the home had been there a while and they cut through a main beam? That's what I'm talking about with old house framing. Some obvious things that we don't want to see when we're doing a home inspection.

Another consideration on historic homes is electrical. There's a chance your home was built without electrical and it was retrofitted later with it.

And homes built before: 1940

Knob and tube wiring is an older kind of wiring that instead of, you know, nowadays you have black and you have a black wire and a white wire inside a coating. And it runs, you know, through the wall or through the ceiling or whatever.

The neutral and the hot previously were run separately, maybe about three inches apart. And they were run on insulated knobs. And if they went through something, they were run through a protective tube.

That's how you get the term knob and tube wiring. And so many older homes still have this in it pretty much. They stopped using it in the 40s.

ans if your home was built in: 1930

Retrofitting large historic homes with modern wiring is extremely expensive. And many times electricians won't even take on the job because it's so difficult to find all of it to get to where they need to go.

And people don't want to pay the price they should pay.

So another thing that you'll find with older homes, especially ungrounded outlets, could be knob and tube, or it could be regular wiring, just didn't have a ground with it. Undersized service panels, electrical needs 40, 50, 60 years ago were not nearly as great as they are now.

And so you would have a house with a 60amp service and four circuits or maybe five, and that's outdated for today's. Use. And so you have to upgrade those panels knob and tube back to knob and tube. Just a second.

Isn't automatically unsafe, but insurance companies often restrict coverage. So if you have it, make sure your insurance company is going to protect you. In the event of a fire, it can't be modified.

And this is probably the biggest thing we see is they add newer wiring into old and they hold different, they run different voltages and now you're on a breaker that's a little too big for the original knob and tube and so it can overheat and catch fire. Insulation contact.

One reason they ran I mentioned before they ran about three inches apart is because for heat dissipation, as it heats up, as current goes through it, it can dissipate the heat. Well, now we come in, we want to be energy efficient, right? Like I just talked about in a previous episode.

So let's add a bunch of insulation over the top of it. No, let's don't. Because that's going to stop the heat dissipation and create a bigger problem than you just had.

So if you get a home inspection and the inspector mentions knob and tube wiring, he's not going to tell you it's all good. He's going to tell you, here's what you have.

You need to get an electrician to do a deeper dive into it to see has it been altered, have mice chewed on it, is it covered in insulation, etc. So make sure you take care of that. Right along with electrical, another system that's often overlooked on older houses is plumbing.

When we do a house that's built in the 40s or 50s or 60s, when we inspect a house like that, probably our top two concerns going in would be what's the electrical system like? What's the plumbing system like? Plumbing creates challenges. And one reason is the materials they use just have a lifespan to them.

Galvanized drain lines, 20 to 50 year lifespan. I would say probably closer to 50 than 20. Cast iron drain lines, they can last 75 to 100 years, but they're prone to scaling.

You get scale buildup inside and just kind of closes it off off. And so it doesn't drain as well as it did. That's the drainage part of it. So galvanized is going to tend to drain, close up and so will cast iron.

al. A lead service line in pre: 1930

And even if it's galvanized lines, 3/4 inch or even 1 inch galvanized lines will tend to get scale buildup, they'll rust and they will restrict water flow. And so you hardly have any water volume at the fixtures. And so plumbing and electrical are just huge when it comes to older houses.

And if you are fortunate enough to buy a historic home that has updated, truly updated electrical and plumbing, you have a gym and someone's taken the time to do a lot of work in that house. Also, another key consideration on older homes or and historic homes, H Vac and energy efficiency. A previous podcast talked about energy efficiency.

Well, here's where you really run into issues. These older homes were built and they were just flat out drafty, and that's just what they lived with.

But that was when they built fires in the fireplace to heat their house. And they weren't necessarily getting a bill every month from Nipsco or Remc or wherever you're at.

So some common issues on H vac in older homes, undersized ducts, new no return air pathways. So you might get heat in your room, but you don't have any circulation. And so you can build up moisture and it can cause mold problems.

Poor attic insulation. It's uncommon but not unheard of for us to do a home inspection on a house that's 150 years old and has no insulation and it's never had it.

Think about, you know, you go replace all your windows for 15, 20, 30,000 and then you find out you don't even have insulation in the walls, right? Then you've wasted a lot of money. The windows look pretty. They're not stopping much air from getting out. Right. Drafty windows are another big thing.

It might almost be better if your windows don't open in that case, even though it's required in bedrooms. So older houses, they have some charm, but you got electrical issues, you've got plumbing issues, and you've got energy efficiency issues.

Many times windows we've talked about in a previous episodes, just make sure you know what you're getting into before you go replace your windows. Make sure that you're actually going to make up the cost of that.

Now, if they're unsafe, if they don't open in bedrooms, if they just cracked and broken, well, that's a different consideration. But if you're just replacing your windows just for energy efficiency, it's going to take a long time to recoup that money that you put out.

Another thing on historic homes that we See is roofs. Roofs many times were slate and it was an awesome material.

And they could last literally for over 100 years, which is incredible to think about with a product that's exposed to the weather all the time. You could have wood shake roofing. Wood shake is just what you think it was. It was a wood material roof.

And many times Those can last 40 to 50 years if they're a high quality and they're put on, well, clay tile, same thing. Clay tile is more common in the south where it's designed more to reflect the heat. But it's a very hard product.

It resists the typical problems associated with shingles. And it, it lasts and lasts and lasts. Brick repointing what if you have an all brick home, even a structural brick home?

A structural brick is different from a brick facade. If you just have a brick facade or veneer, you have one layer of brick usually sitting on a brick ledge at the very bottom of the foundation.

And those can crack.

But it's not as big of a concern as if you have a true brick foundation, which is going to be two or more thicknesses of brick and they're tied together with bricks sideways and they can, that's your foundation.

If those start cracking significantly, if the mortar washes out, then you can end up, you know, it's your actual structure of your house that is deteriorating and will need some work.

So we talked before about the mortar they used in foundations was weaker and they, you know, they used it in the structural part of the brick as well.

And then maybe one of the things you don't think about when you think about an older home, and this comes up on inspections a lot of times, a couple, you know, in many cases, an older home is the same as an historic home in the materials. It's just location is different. But what kind of hazardous materials are in this house? And maybe you don't even think about this.

You're in love with the charm of this house. You just want an old farmhouse, whatever you want. But you forget about some of the materials that over the years have been proven to be hazardous.

Past generations had to learn the hard way. And some of those are one lead based paint. What's the paint like?

You know, it's one thing if the lead is deteriorated and flaking, that's never a good thing. But what if they've painted over the lead paint and then you go remove walls or you saw through it or cut through it.

Now you're exposing that lead paint and the dust gets in the air and you Inhale it. And lead poisoning is a real thing. We used to teach in schools where a lot of the homes in the neighborhood had lead based paint.

Kids were not supervised well, they would end up with lead bait, lead poisoning. And it affects cognitive development, speech development and all that. Another thing you may find in old homes is asbestos insulation.

Asbestos can be in a variety of materials. Vermiculite insulation is a big one that we find it in the wrap on ductwork, the wrap on old boiler lines, 9 by 9 inch floor tile, and on and on.

Those are some of the most common ones to consider. And then old flooring adhesives were created with that. Why did they use it heat? Why did they use asbestos on a lot of things?

Well, it was an insulator and it's fireproof. So two good things, right? Well, yes, but the fibers in them, if inhaled, also can lead to mesothelioma.

s starting to be regulated in: 1978

Just because you have lead paint, just because you have asbestos doesn't automatically mean it's a problem. Just know what condition it's in. Frequently the fix for asbestos type of materials is to encapsulate it or leave it alone.

Removing it is what gets it airborne. And you don't want to do that as a homeowner. You want that to be done professionally. In conclusion, some preservation tips for homeowners.

If you have one of those houses. Number one, fix water issues immediately. Moisture is the number one enemy.

And this could be a roof leak, this could be a plumbing leak, this could be a foundation leak. You don't want water, period in the house. Number two, maintain your gutters and grading. This is a huge one.

This is the number one defect we see on the outside of homes and is improper grading and water mitigation. Get water away from the home. Three, use compatible materials.

When repairing masonry, one of the worst things we see is a house flipper that goes in there in an old home and tries to marry old and new materials and it just doesn't work. So make sure materials are compatible. Upgrade systems carefully. Don't over modernize, all right?

You bought an old home, it's not going to have modern conveniences. In many cases, if you try to make it so it can really mess things up, especially the systems. Document all your repairs for resale.

If you have a historic home, you've done the research, you've got the approvals, keep the documentation. That's going to really help you when you go to resale. So there's no question about what got done and by whom.

And then work with contractors experienced in historic homes. These are harder and harder to find.

Having people that have the knowledge from 100 years ago and the skill set and the desire to keep working is tough. So it's something to look for in. In repairs that are getting done.

So, you know, our role as home inspectors is to help the buyer understand what's typical versus what's problematic.

So if we go into an old house and it's got very unique framing, to say the least, or electrical or plumbing, it's our job to determine is this just what they got or is this truly a problem? We're not going to try to scare you out of an old home. Just so you know, some of the modern conveniences aren't going to be there.

We want to identify safety concerns without condemning craftsmanship. All right? We admire these big old historic homes and what went into it, and we're not there to diminish the workmanship.

We just want to make sure it's safe for you. And so we evaluate many times decades of layered renovations, additions, homeowner helpfulness. Right. And that's tough. That can be tricky.

That's why older homes are tougher to inspect than newer homes and why it's probably going to cost you more for the inspection.

So we want to give you a guide for maintenance to plan to lay out the future and just give you confidence that what you're buying is going to be a good place for you to live, despite all the. The expenses that may come along with that.

So, you know, historic homes reward owners who understand them and punish those who treat them like new construction. So know what you're getting, know what you're not getting, and make your decisions accordingly. Thanks for listening.

Hope you enjoy your old house or your historic home. If you have any questions about this or any other episode, please don't hesitate to call us and we'll talk to you next time. Thank you for listening.

This week, you can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. For more information about Gold Key inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect.com.