Old Homes, New Problems: What Inspections Reveal

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. Today we're talking about old houses.

Specifically, what are some challenges we find on inspecting old houses? And if you're buying an older house, what are some things you should think about before even buying it?

So in other words, maybe you can kind of do your own pre inspection inspection, so to speak.

I would never recommend doing it in place of an inspection, but we want to give you some ideas on things to look for that you may not be thinking about with regarding old houses. So what makes old house is different? It doesn't just mean historic. I'm not necessarily talking about historic homes, I'm just talking about old.

nd to think of that are maybe: 1940

oldest one we've ever done is: 1830

But they all prevent a little bit more of a challenge than a new home.

So just honestly, when we find out we're inspecting newer homes, we just expect and almost are always right that they're going to go quicker than an older home. Older homes just have more problems. Well, they've been there longer. Think of a person that's 100 years old compared to someone that's 50 years old.

Typically physically they're going to have more problems getting around, the strength is less and things like that. So called systems in the body don't work quite as well as they used to. That's why lifespans top out generally a little below 80 in general.

So what makes old homes different? So if we're talking about a hundred year old home, what you're going to have a lot of times in them is just outdated systems.

When we go into certain ages of homes, we know a couple of things. Let's say a home in the 60s, it's not uncommon to see plumbing and electrical components that are original to the house.

So we wouldn't necessarily think of a home in the 60s as old. But some of these components have a shelf life. They don't last forever. Cast iron plumbing pipes typically have a 50 to 70 year shelf life.

So you're right in the middle of the end of that.

And so when we inspect a home going in, unless it's been gutted and remodeled, we know that those potentially are systems that are going to be problematic. Honestly, really, old homes most of the time have had the original plumbing and electrical changed.

And so an old, old house, let's say 100 years old, may not even have as many issues in that regard. Now the downside to that is a lot of times the people that did the work weren't professionals. So we've had a lot of homeowners in a house.

After 100 years, it's rare to have a one or two owner home. For any home that's older than 50, 60 years, you know, it happens. But certainly you're not going to have a one owner home that's 100 years old.

Now it might be in the same family, but regardless, you're going to have a lot of folks that over the years had some skill sets in fixing things, but maybe not the right way. So maybe upgraded materials is not installed right. And so those present some challenges.

So one thing that's really common in older homes is settling foundation cracks. Just like I was describing. Compared to a person, after a certain amount of years you start breaking down.

And so same with houses, same with foundations. You constantly are having the forces of nature working on the house.

Freezing, heating, shifting, rain, wind, all those things over the years, they just have an effect. And so we have seen remarkable foundations on homes that were 100 years old. Big old field stone, not a crack in the entire foundation.

It's amazing how it was built. And those are awesome. But that's the exception, that's not the norm. And so issues like cracked plaster, deteriorating wood beams.

One thing that can be difficult on inspecting older homes is assessing whether cracks are primarily cosmetic or if it indicates structure. Now, first of all, any crack through a concrete type structure indicates some kind of settling.

You may have curing or drying cracks, especially in newly poured concrete. But generally any kind of crack that's offset at all or wider than a quarter inch indicates some kind of shifting. Now, has it stopped? Is it ongoing?

That's something we have to determine as part of an inspection and maybe follow up inspections with an engineer or a foundation contractor. But those are something. It's just more common to see it in older homes than you would in a newer home. And that's foundation problems.

And along with that, uneven floors, many Times uneven floors are just simply a result of, of poor planning on the joist placement way back when they built it. Beams that have been deteriorated by insects, powder post beetles especially, are almost always found somewhere in the structure of an old home.

The good news is that a lot of the structures in old homes were built with the lumber from that era, which was the old growth type lumber, which was much harder. They made them thicker than the nominal widths they use today. And like two by fours, they used to be, literally be two by fours, now they're not.

And so those help. But the downside is they don't always make those perfectly straight. They didn't in many cases they might even been hand sawed.

So that's why you're going to have a little bit of the unevenness between how they made them, how they supported them, the effects of insects, possibly moisture, and then the H Vac guy comes in there and cuts out a chunk of it and it sags and so forth. So all those things work together and create challenges in older homes.

I know when I was first getting started in inspecting 20 years ago, one of the classes that I took, extra, not required by the state, but that I took for my own benefit, was old house construction. And just goes into detail of how old houses were constructed and some of the challenges you'll see on it. And if it's a problem, isn't it a problem?

Because it can be confusing when you compare it to modern architecture and structure and building methods. So something to look for when you go checking out.

If you're looking around with your real estate agent checking out older homes, look for things like that, uneven floors, cracks, plaster that might be falling off, things like that. So we talked before about electrical and plumbing.

And the reason why these are important is because not only can they be inconvenient, not only can replacing them be very expensive, but also can be a safety hazard. Knob and tube wiring is probably the most common older system that you hear about.

Knob and tube wiring is an older type of wiring that was used up even into the 40s and 50s. Primarily it kind of stopped in the 30s. So think about that.

If you had knob and tube wiring from the 30s, that's almost 90 years old, that's a long time for any component, but especially one that is susceptible to rodents chewing on it, to drying out and cracking, to insulation being added over it improperly, to being spliced into and improperly altered by newer wires. All those things can affect the viability of knob and tube wiring and the safety of it. And so those are extremely important issues.

Getting a two story old house rewired, very expensive. I'm not an electrician, I don't set their prices. I know it's hard work.

We've heard estimates ranging from 20 to 40,000 depending on how big the house is. So it's not something that you want to take lightly. Certainly if you're renovating and gutting a house, good time to do that.

If you're not planning on gutting the house, it's probably going to need to almost gut it anyhow. They get it all done and fixed up. So that's definitely one consideration. And then along with that electrically in an old house.

Older houses didn't have near the electrical needs that modern houses. Half. They might have had a couple of kitchen appliances and that's about it. A radio here and there.

And so you would see in many rooms you'll see one outlet in the room. Now it's required that you have an outlet within 6ft of any spot on the wall. So that frequently leads to three or four outlets per bedroom.

want to live like they did in: 1930

But if you're buying an old house, that might be an option for you even if it's older. 50s are older even, maybe even into the early 60s. You have a lot of two hole ungrounded outlets.

Well, that's because the older wires they ran had a hot and a neutral and did not include a ground wire with it. The only way to truly ground those is, is to run new wires.

And so you're going to have to rewire the house or at least take some specific liberties from the electrical panel to a certain outlet in a certain room where you can just pop it up through one wall. You don't have to go horizontally through the walls to do the whole circuit. So either way takes work, takes money, it's inconvenient.

And so things to think about as you're going along. Plumbing. Plumbing. Galvanized and cast iron is very common in older homes. And what do they do? It's metal. It corrodes. It corrodes shut.

Pretty soon your drains don't work. Pretty soon they're leaking, they can split. And plumbing repairs are not cheap. So you definitely want to want to deal with that.

Think of that going in as a potential problem. So what are some of the hidden hazards in these old homes? Talked about the main systems that can be problematic. Foundation, electrical, plumbing.

Well, environmentally, there are certain things you only learn the hard way. I've been that way my whole life, most of the time.

And so products that were once made that everybody thought were awesome have found been found to create health hazards. And so you don't want to have it in your house. For example, asbestos. Asbestos can be in insulation.

It can be in floor tiles, ceiling tiles, siding, roofing, and it can be on duct wrap, it can be on boiler pipe wrap. All these things can get airborne and they can be inhaled and it can be a problem. Another thing you might find in old houses is lead paint.

That's even up to: 1978

But poor ventilation, poor design plus 100 years, that can create a big problem.

Now, ironically, what you'll find is the real old houses, the way they were originally constructed didn't have as much problem with it because they were so drafty, you had plenty of air movement and nothing got trapped in the walls. Then they come in and they renovate and they add insulation, but they don't improve the ventilation and then you can end up with problems.

So the environmental issues are real and they will potentially be a problem in your old houses. Another thing that related to what I was just talking about is energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency was not something they really considered in decades long ago. And so renovating an older house to try to make it energy efficient can be tough.

You may have, there are some older houses that simply had no insulation in the wall. So you can put as much as you want in the attic. If you don't have it in the walls or to the degree that you should, it's a losing battle.

So that might be something to consider as you're thinking about buying an older house. You know, practical things, easy things like replacing windows sound great. You know how much it costs to replace all the windows in your house.

If you're going from single pane older windows to older windows, it could be a problem.

, say it's a house older than: 1978

And then how much do you really save energy wise by upgrading your windows?

Something we'll talk about in a future podcast, but something to consider before you do it, find out what the calculations for that would actually be. So with an old house, one thing you want to try to find maybe is a little bit of their maintenance history. When have things been installed?

How have they been maintained? We've got to say older generations were awesome at maintaining things.

Records, books, they took their time, they weren't as rushed, and they fixed things the right way. How has yours been taken care of?

There's been some old houses we've seen that are just spectacular testaments to human ingenuity and maintenance and diligence and other old houses that frankly ought to be, you know, leveled and start over. So it just depends on how they've been maintained and how they were built.

So what I want to get to in closing here is we've talked about what to look for from the main systems, from the foundation, what it would take to upgrade windows, get rid of environmental hazard, things like that. So just some advice. If you're buying an old house, prioritize the inspections early. Don't wait till the last minute.

Budget for unexpected repairs and research the home's history for context. Find out what was done there, who lived there, how many owners were there.

We suggest maintenance routines like annual chimney cleaning or checking for water intrusion after heavy rains.

A lot of times older foundations were really good, they were really strong, but they don't necessarily keep water out the best, and they're just susceptible. They're not solid poured concrete like you have on modern houses. And so those are some considerations to think about.

If you do have moisture issues, maybe you need to upgrade to kind of a waterproofing type system for the basement, especially if it sticks around or you want to use that to finish it off. So number one thing you can do if you're considering older house look at some of the basics.

Decide what you're willing to accommodate as far as inconvenience, whether it's electrical, plumbing, lack of outlets, etc. Determine your needs. Are you a one income household that's going to be homeschooling?

You're going to have to put 30, 40, $50,000 into this house in the next few years. If you can afford it, great. If you're handy, great.

If it's something you want to move into a house and not have any problems and not any issues with it. An older house probably isn't the one for you, but that's something you can discuss with your real estate agent.

Look around, find the one right, the right one for you, and certainly call a professional inspector get that thing inspected. We're going to give you the real deal. We're going to tell you the truth on it. We're going to give you the good, the bad and the ugly.

And you can take it from there and decide how you want to proceed.

So thanks so much for watching, listening, and please share this with your friends, anybody that's thinking about buying a home, and we will talk to you soon. 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, podcasts and YouTube. For more information about Gold Key Inspection services, go to goldkeyinspect.com.