Session One: Old House Analysis: A Systematic One

January 24th, 2004

by Robert Morris

Analyze a property based on its current condition and what it has produced. Look at what you would need to make it a good property, and whether the property merits the kind of attention needed to make it an excellent property. Consider these issues when looking for a property, or if you already own a property.

• Assessing the Health of the Property
• Water Problems
• Surfaces
• Porches
• Systems

Assessing the Health of the Property

When first starting to assess the property, there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, any object is stronger along the longer axis than on a shorter one. The problem with some houses is that because of their rectangular shape, they tend to have sagging in the middle.

Site of a New House [:49 , 956 KB WMV]

The greater strength of the material on the sides of the house works against the lesser strength of the material in the middle of the house, producing sagging in the middle.

There are a few different reasons for the sagging:

• A house may have had triangular rafters before, but when the house was modified the builders failed to put in reinforcements, thus leaving it unstable.
• Houses are typically reliant on rafters on the second floor ceiling, in a normal two-story house. The sagging is cause by ceilings that are either missing or that run in the wrong direction.

These problems can all be stabilized so that it does not get too much worse. You can add an array of supports that keep the current supports from moving in relation to one another. This can be done by nailing plywood to the bottoms of the rafters and alongside the house.

Water Problems

If you can't fix water problems first, you will not be able to solve any other problems. There are a few different ways to determine whether you have water problems, such as efflorescence, which is a crystal-like substance that appears on walls, or mildew.

There are several contributing effects to water in your home. If there is a large adjacent piece of flatwork cement (driveway, patio, etc.), it can cause leakage.

If the driveway is tilted towards your home, it will have to be redone so that it tilts to the street rather than your home. Downspouts also cause water leakage. The downspout has to run out further than the trench line of the original foundation. It has to run far enough out to run away from the house, rather than into the basement. You can also add a grade line to the foundation in order to help water flow away from the house.

Surfaces

One of the most obvious things about houses are the surfaces. The marks of a bad roof are plain: moss, missing/cracked shingles, etc. A roof can leak and not show those signs. If the edging of your roof looks more like a “D” than a “J”- it looks boxy, and has a broad edge- it's probably covering multiple roofs.

New Roof [:37 , 724 KB WMV]

Try to find out how many roofs your house has had before deciding to add to it. You should not add on shingles to your home if it is going to be the 4th layer of shingles. There will be a big money difference between re-shingling a roof, and having to put a completely new one on.

Cracking means the center of the house is settling more than the outsides of the house. Look for cracking in the top corners of doorways.

Cracking can also happen on the ceiling, and it looks like tectonic plates that are moving away from each other.

Think long and hard, room by room, wall by wall, ceiling by ceiling. It's sometimes better to over-layer surfaces, rather than removing them. When thinking about removing interior wall surfaces keep in mind a couple things:

1. You will lose some R-Value
2. You will lose some sound value

Re-siding systems that are high tech, and done by sales people, tend to mask problems that you might not want masked. Windows and doors might have been changed at some time or another, before you lived there, which may have affected the siding. It is possible to apply vinyl siding to a house, and still preserve the trims on a house.

Porches

One thing to bear in mind about porches is that they deteriorate faster than houses. One reason is because of moisture. They were built with bad footings, because there was hardly any weight on them, therefore, they were not built too deep in the ground.

Every time the ground freezes, the footings move in different directions, usually towards the street. Most porches slope towards the street, and will move in the direction of the slope.

If moisture under a porch isn't allowed to dry, the porch can rot. And when the porch skirts are solid rather than open, there is no ventilation.

Removing a Porch [:38 , 744 KB WMV]

Tree shading can be a reason for a bad roof, and can sometimes mean you have to cut down trees. Putting a porch on the sunny side of your house is the safest because it keeps it drier.

Systems

Look at systems (light, electrical, etc.) with a professional, but also review them before you talk to a professional so that you know what you want. For electrical systems, knob and tube wiring is good to use. It's a lot safer than most wiring because the strands that could cause a short are separated.

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