Buyers and Sellers
The Love and Hate of Old Homes: Character and Prolonged Maintenance
A home built before 1900 can be a great buy if you expect maintenance going in. Most have stood for well over 100 years and are structurally sound. Many also carry deferred maintenance: knob and tube wiring, sloped floors, field stone foundations, wood rot and old insect damage. Budget for the history, not just the price.
Watch: Bobby McShane and I talk through what you take on with a pre 1900 home, and why so many buyers fall for them anyway.
When most people say "old house," they mean something different than I do.
A 1930s center entrance Colonial isn't what Bobby and I had in mind for this one. Those are great houses, and Belmont is full of them. We mean the pre 1900 homes. Victorians, early Colonials, Saltboxes. Houses that went up before anyone on the street had electricity.
They've been standing for well over a century. Most of them are structurally sound, and they earned it. A hundred plus years is also a long time for small problems to sit, and a lot of these homes come with deferred maintenance.
Buyers tend to love and hate them in the same showing. Both reactions are fair.
What problems show up most in pre 1900 homes?
- Knob and tube wiring
- Floors with a noticeable slope
- Shallow closets and very little storage
- Crumbling field stone foundations
- Old or active termite damage, plus small holes from powderpost beetles
- Wood rot, outside and in musty basements
- Dirt floor basements
- Thinner beams and joists than modern renovations need
- Settlement you can't push back up without damaging the rest of the house
- Closed layouts that never planned for a TV or a big holiday crowd
Some of these are cosmetic and some are expensive. Let's walk through them.
Knob and tube wiring
Plenty of these houses were wired after they were built, and a lot of that early wiring was knob and tube. Some of it is still live. The wire itself isn't usually what ends a deal. Insurance is. Many carriers won't write a new policy on a home with live knob and tube, and without a policy, the lender won't fund the loan.
We had exactly that happen on one of our listings, and I wrote the whole story up in Knob and Tube Wiring: The Insurance Problem Hiding in Old Massachusetts Homes. If you're buying, call your insurance agent before you sign a purchase and sale agreement.
Sloped floors and settlement
Set a marble down in some of these living rooms and it's going somewhere. A few floors slope enough that you feel it the second you walk in.
Most of the time, that slope is settlement that happened decades ago and stopped. A buyer's first instinct is to jack it back to level. That usually does more damage than it fixes. After a hundred years, everything above that beam has shaped itself around where it sits now. Push it back up and tile floors crack from the pressure underneath. Plaster walls split. Doors that finally close right stop closing.
The better move is to have a structural engineer confirm the settlement isn't still active. If it's stable, most owners learn to live with a little slope.
Field stone foundations and dirt floors
A lot of pre 1900 homes sit on field stone. Stacked stone, set in mortar, that has held up a house for over a century. Mortar doesn't last forever, though. When it crumbles, stones can loosen and water finds its way in. A mason or structural engineer can tell you if you're looking at routine repointing or something bigger.
Some basements still have a dirt floor. On its own, that doesn't hurt the structural integrity of the home. It does invite moisture, rodents and bugs. Moisture is where most of the trouble in an old house starts.
Termites, powderpost beetles and wood rot
Older homes have had a long time to attract termites. Inspectors find old damage all the time, and sometimes they find active colonies. I covered what to look for in Termite Signs Every Massachusetts Homeowner Should Check Before Listing.
Then there are the tiny holes. You'll see them in old beams and floorboards, and buyers tend to panic. Those usually come from powderpost beetles, and they usually aren't a structural problem.
Here is how it happened. The lumber sat untreated in a lumber yard. Beetles laid their eggs in it. That wood went into the house, the eggs hatched, and the beetles chewed their way out and left. The University of Kentucky's entomology extension notes the most common type starts emerging within a year of the wood being processed. Small numbers can keep coming out for about five years. So the holes you see in a 130 year old beam are mostly exit doors from a very long time ago.
One caution. Fresh, light colored powder piled under the holes can mean beetles are still active. Some species can also reinfest wood in damp basements. If you see fresh powder, have a licensed pest professional take a look.
Wood rot is the one I take more seriously. Look at the exterior first: sills, trim, clapboards, porch posts, anywhere water sits. Then head to the basement. If it smells musty, wood down there has been wet for a while. Untreated wood plus moisture plus time is how rot gets into the framing.
Framing built for a different century
Carrying beams and joists in these homes were sized for the house as it was built. They tend to be thinner than what we use today. Modern renovations add a lot of weight. Stone countertops, tile, a big refrigerator, a second floor bathroom with a soaking tub. The original framing was never designed to carry all of that.
If you're planning a renovation, put a structural engineer in the budget before the kitchen designer. Reinforcing the framing first costs far less than fixing it after.
Closets, storage and layout
The closets are shallow. They were built for two outfits: the one you wore every day and the one you wore on Sunday. Storage throughout the house is thin.
Design can be an issue too. Nobody building a Victorian in 1885 was thinking about where the TV goes, or how to seat 40 people for Thanksgiving. Rooms were separate on purpose. There is no open layout. And opening up walls runs straight into the framing issue above.
Why do inspectors spend so much time in the basement?
Every home has a history. On most houses you can stand in the basement and see the changes made over the years. Older homes have a lot more history to read.
Good inspectors spend much more time in the basement and with the utilities on these homes. A big part of the job becomes figuring out why. Why is that beam doubled up? Why was this section repaired and not that one? What was the house dealing with when someone made that choice? You can learn a lot about what's coming from what's already been done.
Expect the inspection to take longer on an old house. Let it. Walk the basement with the inspector and ask questions.
Does anything in an old house meet code?
Almost nothing. And that's normal.
Somewhere in the middle of an inspection, a buyer hears "that isn't to code" and their stomach drops. Sometimes they panic before the inspector finishes the sentence. The rest of it is usually "but nothing is." Building codes change constantly. A house finished yesterday may not meet the new code that takes effect tomorrow.
With a pre 1900 home, virtually no part of the house will meet modern building codes. That doesn't make it illegal. It means the house was built under the rules of its time, or under no written rules at all. Keep in mind that new work you do on the house generally has to meet the code in effect when you do it, so build that into any renovation budget.
Knowing this ahead of time prepares you for a more serious analysis at the inspection. Expect a long list of items on your report. A good home inspector will walk you through which ones simply come with an older home and which ones really need to be addressed by the new owner. That second list is the one to focus on.
Why can't you just replace the bad part?
In a newer home, a damaged piece comes out and a new piece goes in. Old homes rarely work that cleanly.
Say termites eat into the sill or the main carrying beam and cause a structural issue. You can't just cut out the bad wood and slide new wood in. Everything resting on it has been settling around it for a century. Disturb one piece and you affect the pieces connected to it.
My best home inspector told me once, "You're only adding to older homes, never taking away."
So the fix is usually to add. Sister a new joist next to the old one. Put in another support. Reinforce what's there. And once you open things up, you often find the next issue waiting behind it.
So why do buyers keep falling for them?
The short answer is character.
Turn of the century homes were built to look good. Ornate woodwork. Stained glass windows. Molding made by the most skilled carpenters of their day. Architectural designs you don't see repeated down the street. Even the layout had a purpose. Tall ceilings, tall windows and rooms arranged to move air through the house long before anyone had air conditioning.
Newer construction, even good post modern design, rarely gives you that. You can't really buy it new. For a lot of buyers, that's worth every quirk on the inspection report.
Can a historic district limit what you change?
Yes, and buyers don't always check.
Homes with historical significance, or homes inside a local historic district, can come with real limits on what an owner can change. In Massachusetts, local historic districts are created under Chapter 40C of the General Laws. A district commission reviews exterior changes that can be seen from a public way. The law lets that review include paint color, unless the town chose to exclude it.
It happens close to home. Belmont's Historic District Commission has approved exterior paint on a Pleasant Street home against a previously approved historical color palette. The goal is to preserve the original look of the house.
Before you buy, find out whether the home sits in a district or carries a historic designation. Ask the town. Read the local bylaw. If you plan big changes, talk to a real estate attorney about what you can and can't do.
Should you buy an old home?
If you're buying, go in with your eyes open. Give the inspection extra time. Bring in an electrician, a structural engineer or a pest professional when the inspector points that way. Call your insurance agent early. Ask about historic district rules. Then budget for the history along with the price. If the numbers don't work after all that, there's always another house.
If you're selling, get ahead of it. Pull together receipts for the work you've done. Know what's behind the walls and under the floors before a buyer's inspector tells you. A pre listing inspection on an old home can turn surprises into a plan, and Massachusetts law requires your agent to disclose known material defects. Buyers who love these homes will pay for character. They pull back when the history shows up unexplained.
If you want more on that part of the process, read What Is Reasonable to Request After a Home Inspection in Massachusetts.
Old homes aren't for everyone. For the right buyer, the character outweighs the maintenance. Know which buyer you are before you fall in love.
Thinking about an older home?
Buying one or selling one, I'd rather have this conversation before the inspection than during it. Let's walk through your situation.
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- Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 40C, Section 8, Historic Districts. malegislature.gov
- Town of Belmont Historic District Commission, Certificate of Appropriateness HDC-23-12, 2023. belmont-ma.gov
- University of Kentucky Entomology, Powderpost Beetles, Entfact 616. entomology.ca.uky.edu
This article is general information and is not legal, engineering, pest control or insurance advice. Every house is different. Consult a licensed home inspector, structural engineer, electrician or pest professional about a specific property, your insurance agent about coverage, and a Massachusetts real estate attorney about disclosure and historic district rules.