Risks with a house built in 1905

typical jabroni wrote:

better built wrote:

A house built in 1905 probably has more life left in it than a house built any time after 1970 or so.

what does that even mean? do you have any experience in construction at all? houses are built 10x better now then they were pre-1970. You may have a valid point if you're talking strictly architectural design

Oh total BS! Quality of construction and materials back then was superlative. Too many shortcuts taken with modern houses.

tips after living in and selling two older houses:

1) electrical will need to be upgraded most likely, yes to 200amp service. new plugs with grounds

2) look for signs of water damage in the basement

3) the roof shingles might be ok but inspect the flashing around the chimneys, that's where the leaks happen 99% of the time

4) rodents..mice love older houses, easy for them to crawl around in the walls

5) plumbing: it is most likely copper in the walls, check to see if it's 3/8" soft copper that was bent at the joints or 1/2" copper that was soldered at the joints. Soft copper cracks easily.

6) get in the basement and check the above floor joists for cracks

7) the furnace might be old and that's ok, the older furnaces had sturdy cast iron boilers that can last 1000 years. But look at the burner, it should be fairly new. And make sure the furnace is wired into the thermostat system properly.

8) what kinds of radiators in the house? Older cast iron or have them been replaced by newer baseboard models? The older cast iron ones are much better source of heat but might need to be flushed out as they can clog up with iron particles over time.

FWIW, we had almost zero issues with our 1910 house. It had the windows, electric and HVAC all updated in the late 90s. We lived there almost 10 years. My brother bought a house built in 1983 and had tons of expensive problems during the following decade. My home buying philosophy is buy something built before 1960 or built after 2005. It’s the “sort of” older home that tends to have issues

I had a house like that once. Asbestos was everywhere, but so was fifty coats of paint over it. I added two or three more, and called it a day.

The only issue that worried me was a furnace the size of a VW bug, that sounded like an old school bus when it started up. It ran as long as I lived there, and I would assume still is running - you'd need to demo the house to remove it.

Q: "I'm currently looking at a house in Portland . . . What else do I need to watch out for?

A: The Antifa idea.

It depends on how the owners took care of it. But, I can suggest you take Building Inspection Perth https://www.thinspect.com.au because they will say concretely if the house worths to be bought or not. I took them when I wanted to buy my first house and I didn't want to fall into the trap. I didn't make a mistake when I called them because the house had needed some good investments to reestablish it. But the second house was perfect and now we live here. Their analysis was good and they were right at all the points. You can call them with big confidence.

CrispyChicken wrote:

Q: "I'm currently looking at a house in Portland . . . What else do I need to watch out for?

A: The Antifa idea.

A friends son-in-law and daughter bought a house in Portland that was a flip. Several problems on the remodel. Biggest issue was an addition done a decade or more before that was not inspected or approved. That had to be disclosed when the family was transferred for work, and had to sell. Took a big hit in a short period of time.

I know this is an old thread, but the truth is that the 1905 house is probably built like a battleship. I have a 1916 house that some dip tried to remodel in 1990 and removed a weight-bearing crossbeam. When we did a second remodel in 2015, our builder called me and told me if we didn't live inside of a house built stronger than a Panzer tank, it would, and should, have collapsed through the middle. Of course, the beam needed to be replaced to the tune of about $5,000. Aside from some fanning of the brick, that part of the house survived 25 years without its main support structure. Pretty cool.

We still have the huge original furnace in the basement, but it was remediated and filled with foam decades ago.

The wiring is still an issue from time to time, so I would like to totally replace that at some point. I think our wiring is like a Rube Goldberg machine throughout the older sections of the house. It scares me.

Your biggest risk about purchasing this home in Portland is getting attacked and killed by antifa

My house is older than your country :-D

It takes a bit of care to look after (and the walls are so thick that mobile phone signals struggle so wifi calling is a must) but it's a really nice place to live.

The majority of the houses built after 1970 are certainly better built and more durable than older ones, buuut, we cannot ignore the fact that the vintage/older ones have a lot more "personality".

Yes, the majority of the houses built nowadays are of course better built and also more durable than older ones, and about the "personality"... I totally agree, I'm also a big fan of vintage houses. But it also can cost a lot more to restore or repaint such a house. Painters usually charge between $1.50 and $3.50 per square foot to paint the interior of a house. Add in ceilings, walls, and trim and the number rises to $3 to $4 per square foot. And that's for a normal house, without any problems like cracks in the foundation, etc. But for an older house, you will probably have to pay more and hire good house painting services.

https://www.paintingservicesingapore.sg/house-painting-services/

That house more than antiquity would be a very good heritage, but the truth is I recommend that if you bought it, look for professionals, you can view some of the contractors' work and get an idea of what you want to not modernize that home if not to make that home functional because it would be very ugly for you to change everything without respecting the original.

I suppose it's time to end these childhood worries and excuses and start doing what is long overdue. If you are very worried about the current state of the building, then find a team that can cope with this task, for example, at https://www.roofadvisor.co.uk/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have -gutters-repaired/ where you can find about gutter repair. It's time for you to get down to business, it can't take any more delay.

Quite an old house. Of course there can be a lot of problems, all it depends on its condition in general. But you can always make necessary repairs, just find good building contractor in your location and order materials. For example here on https://www.mgnbm.co.uk/timbers-joinery/sheet-materials/mdf-boards/ you can find MDF board, bricks, lighting, plasterboard and so on.