Old house with challenging paint issues
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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- 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
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Foundation issues - or 'just an old house?'
Comments (12)My nearly two hundred year old home.....I am laughing........is so out of plumb there isn't a straight wall or rectangular door or window in the joint. The foundation, however is pristine. It is nothing but huge stone slabs, and doesn't even appear to have any type of mortar or cement to it. Prolly why it's been able to tolerate the expansion and contraction. I live in clay country. I am not afraid of this old house, and just plan to touch up plaster as an on going project and do one room a year as and if needed. I would really want a foundation assessed however if it were block before any problems got too far out of hand. The proper time would have been proactively, before purchase. Foundations scare me because I cannot see "minor" repairs where they are concerned. The big problem is getting somebody in who does not stand to profit from your problem.....if you know what I mean. It's very hard to take somebody's word about the severity of a problem if they can make more money based on how bad you need help. That's what some of these other threads have been about. Two contractors with totally different stories and estimates. Who can you believe? My ex.......a civil engineer........used to do home inspections. He stood to gain nothing if something was minor or major. The fee was modest and he knew what he was doing. I even asked him to come with me when I was considering a property for investment a few years ago. I'd rather hear the estimate then than later. LOL. Good luck....See MoreDesign Challenge Old House Addition - How to make it fit
Comments (6)I think an architect will be able to give you the visual appearance that you are looking for. Experienced contractors are good to have, but an architect looks at more than how to remove a load-bearing wall--they look at how to make the rooms look as if the load-bearing wall was never there. My brother ended up hiring an architect to design an addition on his house--one that included a family room, mudroom, and an accessible bedroom and bath for a disabled family member. The architect managed to copy the style of the rest of the house, down to the post and beam construction, trim moldings, etc. Once the outside of the addition was painted, you really cannot tell that the house was added on to. The only way you can tell inside is that they couldn't exactly match the wood flooring. Otherwise, the addition looks as if it was always part of the house. The best place to put the addition was right off the dining room--but that would leave the dining room without any windows. So the architect solved that problem by putting french doors from the dining room to the new family room and adding skylights to the family room, so that there is a ton of natural light in the dining room and you really don't notice there are no windows. My brother would have just put a regular doorway with a regular solid door between the two rooms. The architect also suggested adding a second stairway in the addition, and punching through a wall on the second floor (the addition is one story, but the ceiling is vaulted) so that in case the parents needed to get down to the child's bedroom fast, they wouldn't be running to one end of the house to get downstairs and then running the length of the house to get to the child's bedroom in the addition. I think it is the details like that--noticing that a room won't get as much sun and working out a way around that--or realizing that a second stairway is necessary--that you pay the architect for. They are in the business of planning rooms and houses that work and that look good. For what it's worth, my brother and SIL had wanted to buy a house with an accessible bedroom and bath, but found that the houses that were available had made awkward choices in adapting the existing house--an accessible bathroom immediately off the dining room, you had to walk through the accessible bedroom to get from one part of the house to another, the accessible bedroom and bath could only be entered by leaving the house, things like that. If the architect will fit in your budget, I'd say use one....See MoreFirst old home-asbestos,water seep & foundation issues
Comments (1)First off, take the owners inspection report and toss it in the garbage. Not that it is useless, but it will be biased and more than likely missing the really scary stuff that may be wrong. Find your own inspector that has experience in older homes, make sure they can talk to you on YOUR level, this is most important. If the guy/gal starts getting frustrated with you because you are asking so many questions dump them and find someone else. The water could be from anything. Worse case a leak in the roof that is traveling down inside exterior walls, across the underside of a couple of floors, down an interior wall and finding a spot to drip in the basement. Best case the current owner spilled the de-humidifier when taking it out to empty. Let your inspector know where the puddle was (if it is gone when they come) and they should be able to trace it back if it is a bad thing. Foundation trouble would scare me away from just about any home, not all though. Some really horrible looking foundation issues can be cheaply and easily fixed, some minor looking foundation issues can cost more than the home will ever be worth to fix. On this I'd have your inspector check it out, then bring in a foundation company for an estimate of repair. Reduce your offer dollar for dollar on the cost of this repair unless the home is well below market anyway. Yes, shingles (just like about everything else) used to contain asbestos. I haven't looked, but I doubt shingles are very high on the friability list. More than likely asbestos was used to aid in the binding of the asphalt material. If that is the case then you would have to burn them or grind them up to get the asbestos airborne. HOWEVER, even if this is the case, first check if your city/state is hyper paranoid about asbestos, if they are then you will have to have them taken care of like they were made of powder. Research, research, research when it comes to asbestos. If it isn't friable, it isn't dangerous. Unless of course you do stuff to change it to make it friable....See More300 yr old house, minimal upkeep, what hidden issues to look for?
Comments (10)Love your photos. Your primary concern is water infiltration, as others have said. That means check hard, and repair/replace the roof. Also, double and triple check the slope of the yard surrounding the home and make sure it drains away from the foundation. Then when those items are taken care of, you can start repairing window sills, sashes, door sills etc. If you want a book that touches on many different aspects of the old home evaluation and repair, consider "Renovating Old Houses" by George Nash. Our copy is very worn and proved quite useful at times when we redid our 1838 home. Most of your photos show little of concern to me. DO NOT let some roofer convince you that you need a ridge vent. They'll either install it, and it will be useless or they'll cut into your ridge pole. Whatever ventilation the house has had for the past 300 years was/is working just fine. And DO NOT insulate. The photos of the interior mostly just show plaster that has broken keys. That is quite repairable. Finally, I'd say that the peeling paint is from one of several possible causes. It could be water infiltration. Pay extra attention to the siding to roof transition. Your next possible problem, is that some misguided person may have plugged up vents/cracks that allowed the interior air to flow up thru the house. Now the moisture created by living is migrating thru the walls. That could be the cause of the paint peeling. The last possible issue could simply be poor preparation prior to the painting. All areas must be scraped down to bare wood or a very firmly attached prior layer of paint. Then apply high quality primer and re-paint. Good luck and check back here often. Many of us will enjoy following your progress....See More- 8 years ago
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