Setting Expectations When Buying An Early 1900’s Home

Buying a home? Don't panic, just listen to the rest of this podcast!
[Music]
welcome to home inspection authority
straight talk podcast with me john
leform
are you a home buyer
a realtor or maybe a home inspector
if you are then this podcast is
definitely for you
so let's get right into some straight
talk about home inspections
check check check is this thing on
okay everybody john here from home
inspection authority welcome to my very
first podcast
in this episode one i want to cover
setting expectations
for home buyers and their realtors
who are looking at purchasing a early
1900s home
first thing i want to say is these homes
are not new even though they've been
remodeled so they come with a lot of
unexpected surprises so let's try to
clarify that now
when i am going through my overview of
my findings
the experience i have is
can be quite numbing it's like
wow uh
everyone's jaw just drops
uh the amount of disbelief in their eyes
is like oh my god you're serious
and this is typically because
you know they walked into a house that
was flipped or remodeled so when they
walked in the front door all they saw
was new drywall new appliances
new electrical receptacles new lights
new faucets and fixtures in the
bathrooms
and no one's given any thought to hey
what's holding up the house
or um
you know what's in the attic or
you know is my
wiring that's hidden behind the walls is
it actually uh
is it new is it the original wiring
and that's the cause of all the shock
and awe that i get when i'm delivering
my uh overview it's
it's like wow
but anyway
so i don't expect
the buyer to understand all this
they're just buying a house it doesn't
mean they're home experts by any means
so don't feel bad about not knowing
anything about the house you're buying
but it does does help to do a little bit
of research on it maybe if you have a
chance look it up online just kind of
read through what it might have
are there any upgrades to the property
has it been disclosed that maybe the
plumbing's been upgraded the electrical
has been upgraded
these are the things you really want to
pay attention to
so there's no you know big surprise uh
when your home inspector
uh tells you that yeah you know this
house looks great inside but
all your major systems are still
original
let's talk a little more about
disclosures from the sellers often times
in the recent
year or so
i show up and i'm like oh did anybody
let you know that you know the uh
foundation's been retrofitted
and the first thing they say is well no
we haven't gotten disclosures yet i'm
like really i'm here to inspect the
house and you don't even know what's
been done to the house so that to me is
a little
a little uh you know
backwards it's like putting the cart in
front of the horse
so i just don't agree with that and i
think that's uh
i think that's just bad business for a
listing agent not to give
the buyer's agent all the information
they need before the home inspections
even start
so
i think that should be addressed between
sellers and buyers and uh
there should be a lot of clarity on that
before the home inspector shows up
because if you don't have any
disclosures and i show up at the house
and it's built in 1901 or
or maybe a little later
expect to have some surprises and some
shock and awe and some disbelief in your
eyes when i start telling you what's pro
what the problems are with the home
seeing how homes are built from the
ground up let's just start there with
the foundation
so the first thing i want to do is
identify what type of foundation is
under the house
um
is it made of brick
is it poured concrete
is it
boulders is it twigs from a tree
who knows but that's one of the things i
want to point out for you right away is
let you know what kind of foundation you
have so as i'm inspecting it i want to
then determine the condition
of the foundation so there's a lot of
different conditions that can exist
on a house this old
and one of the conditions
could be
efflorescence
so efflorescence on the foundation
is an indication that water's getting in
from around the building which is pretty
likely to be present on any house this
age
and that's
that's a normal thing to find honestly
i would expect to see that
however
has it been addressed in the recent
years have there been
drainage installed around the house has
there been any rain gutters installed on
the roof
so forth to keep the water from getting
under the house the last thing you want
is moisture in your crawl space
another condition that we can find on a
foundation this old would be spalling
now spalling is
a much worse condition
than efflorescence spalling is an
indication that water's been getting in
for a long time
and when spalling occurs it means that
the
the side of the foundation that's
visible inside the crawl space and
sometimes you can see it on the outside
of the foundation when you're walking
around the house
is because the
the
the foundation is
starting to deteriorate
and when that happens you can see the
rocks the aggregate that's inside
the uh
concrete it's exposed because
all of these smooth finish of the pour
has now just crumbled off and you can
literally see it building up a little
pile
all the way along the foundation when
you're underneath the house
now that that there uh may require a
foundation guide to do a drill test on
it to see if see if he was able to drill
it and actually try to
screw an anchor into it would it hold
that determines
whether or not your foundation may need
some rehabilitation reinforcement or
maybe a report right beside it a sister
foundation
which can be expensive
so these are conditions that you want to
know about before you make your final
decision on the house your home
inspector will not be able to give you a
price quote on these repairs or
replacements
further evaluation by a qualified
foundation specialist would then be
recommended so they can come out
give it a further evaluation and
determine what the cost for repairs or
replacement would be let's talk about
foundation cracks
foundation cracks are pretty common to
find on a home this age
cracks are not all scary
most of the time you just see fine
hairline cracks
in one or two areas under a house or you
know sometimes maybe three or four areas
but that's pretty common i would expect
to find that and most home inspectors
will probably agree with that
however if you start seeing cracks that
are you know more than an eighth inch
wide
reaching into quarter inch half inch or
an inch wide that's a bigger problem
you could definitely have some issues
with that so you might be wondering what
causes cracks on the foundation
well that goes back to what i mentioned
earlier about drainage around the
building rain gutters around the
building
the age of the building as they have
negative grade which means when you're
walking around the house
the dirt is
sloping towards the foundation which
means when it gets wet all the water
sits right up against the foundation
that's the main reason why cracks happen
there's also a condition called
expansive soil
this means the soil on your property has
a lot more clay than usual and when it
gets wet it expands and when it dries it
shrinks
and it leaves behind shrinkage cracks
that you can visibly see in the soil
this condition is not specific to early
1900 homes it can happen to any type of
home on any type of property so just
wanted to throw that in there because it
is a possibility it may be found
this condition can cause cracks
in the foundation as well as
lift and lower
the
post and piers that run between your
foundation exterior walls
and
what that means is if you're walking
inside the house and you notice you're
going uphill in one area and going
downhill in another area
those are some of the
uh
causes
from
expansive soil i've literally seen um
column wood columns and piers posts and
piers where there's a gap like a quarter
inch gap in between
the post and the pier or the or the post
and the beam above it because it wasn't
nailed together properly so this can
happen and these are things that you can
expect to find if you have expansive
soil this is not under every house but
it can happen
and here's the number one question i get
asked on every home is
the house anchored is there bolts
holding the wood sill plates to the
foundation
well
if you're buying a 1901 house or maybe a
1908 house chances are you may have a
brick foundation
and if it's a brick foundation there is
no way to anchor it because the brick
and mortar will not hold any type of
bolts as soon as you drill into them
they'll just break
and they will not do any good at all so
brick foundations
are not ideal
unless you have a lot of money to spend
after you buy your house
because it can be very expensive to add
a new foundation to the property
this can all be done it just takes time
and money like everything else
so if you're looking for something with
a solid foundation you may want to pass
on the brick house foundation and find
another one with the poured concrete
foundation
i also want to mention i have been to
homes
with brick foundations
that were skim coated with a
concrete motor
or a
almost like a stucco finish to try to
conceal the brick
so this is the importance of your home
inspection and foundation inspection
some people will try to conceal the
brick
and sometimes they do a pretty good job
about it but there's ways of finding it
you gotta just take a really good look
between the sill plate and the top of
the foundation
and you will see that there's brick
and sometimes you can see the outline of
the brick and the skim coat because it's
just too thin
so
buyer beware if there's a brick
foundation someone may try to conceal it
very recently i was at a house that was
built in 1906
and when i first arrived the realtor was
very concerned about the foundation
because the sellers
would not answer her question about what
the foundation was and what kind of
material it was
and we actually found a brick foundation
so that explained why they weren't
telling her what it was
and this happened to be a foundation
that was skim coated
but they didn't do a very good job of
skim coating it because i noticed the
brick foundation right away if you do
have a poured concrete foundation under
the home you're looking at and there's
no anchoring
that's not too hard to fix that's called
foundation retrofitting where the
foundation professional will come in and
install universal anchor plates which is
like a clamp that they they bolt to the
wood seal plate
and then they also bolt it to the
concrete foundation which keeps it
secure so in the event of a big seismic
seismic shake
the property will not be able to slide
back and forth on the foundation
so that's a good upgrade to have however
it's not a requirement in california yet
it's just a recommended upgrade
to add that to your house so if you're
buying it and it's not been retrofitted
that's one of the first things i would
do after you bought it the wood framing
in your attic also needs to be looked at
the rafters supporting the roof
and then all that weight transferring
down from the roof onto the walls below
all that needs to be looked at as well
oftentimes on a home this age
you'll find split rafters that might
have been poorly repaired
uh or this inadequate um
framing
supports between the rafters and the
walls below
the ceiling joists
understand the home was built a long
time ago to a much more
lenient building standard
as compared to today
multiple layers of roof materials may be
the culprit for causing split rafters
or damaged framing in an attic
it's not uncommon to find multiple roof
layers on these flipped homes i do find
it quite often actually
from the street you might see
composition shingles on the roof but
when i get in the attic
the first thing i see is wood shingles
with maybe one or two layers of
composition shingles on top
and that is just too much weight for the
structure especially if it's built in
the early 1900s
so
this is not a good condition to have
there is absolutely no benefit to having
multiple roof layers it does not make
your roof any more watertight than one
layer would if this condition exists on
the home you're looking to buy it's
going to require stripping the roof of
all layers and then re-roofing the roof
correctly with one layer
another condition you may find in this
older home is knob and tube electrical
wiring
otherwise known as knt so knob and tube
wiring is not ideal to have
it's definitely something you want to
upgrade and replace
and the reason for that is it's
basically a first generation type wiring
that was original to the building's
construction
it's not grounded
which that alone is a good enough reason
to replace it
a typical condition of the wiring is the
insulation around the wires deteriorated
exposing the wire
so if you were in your attic or under
your house and you happen to touch this
exposed wire that's uh that's gonna give
you one hell of a shock
so
that there is a couple reasons to
replace it uh and and when i do see it
on a remodeled house
that house may have a brand new
electrical panel
and if you look inside the panel you all
you see is new
today's type you know copper
non-metallic sheath wiring
and wow i think hey you know what they
maybe they rewired the house
but then after further investigation of
the house i look underneath the house
and the crawl space i look in the attic
and i'm finding knob and tube spliced
together with the romex that was
added at the panel
so
not a good install in most cases i have
yet to find
partial knob and tube connected to
updated
romex that was done correctly it's
always sloppy it's always a fire hazard
it's a safety hazard
so that's something you could definitely
expect to find
in a home this age that's been remodeled
and in some cases i inspect houses like
this that were not remodeled which may
mean everything is original
oftentimes when i find knob and tube in
an attic there happens to be blown in
insulation present which
in some areas it's concealing
the knob and tube wiring knob and tube
wiring should not be in an attic that is
insulated
because the wire can
produce heat from being live
and that they're
being surrounded by insulation will not
allow
the heat to dissipate from the wire
which could lead to ignition of the
insulation
or wood members or anything it's in
contact with so
a lot of times it is concealed which
means there may be more than your home
inspector can see
so the whole house should be further
evaluated for
proper inspection of
knob and tube wiring
what i noticed during my inspections
with my clients
the home buyer is that
every time they see an electrical panel
upgrade they automatically think that
the whole house is rewired
just want to clear the air on that
that's
usually not the case so just because you
have a new panel upgrade does not mean
the whole house was rewired
okay so what kind of plumbing can you
expect to find under an early 1900s
building
well
uh most likely we're going to find cast
iron pipe
and that pipe was likely original to the
construction of the building so you're
definitely going to want to expect to
upgrade that after you buy the house if
that is present
hopefully it's been upgraded to an abs
plastic which is today's typical drain
pipe application for a residential home
sometimes you may find
sections of cast iron connected to abs
plastic which means
only spot repairs were done
not the whole system was replaced
some homeowners take the
uh just fix what needs to be fixed for
now other homeowners take the
proactive approach and replace
everything and just be all done with it
so
that might be found and that's something
you may have to deal with now moving on
to the water supply pipe
which could be galvanized pipe
it could be copper it could be pecks
typically
what i find in
a early 1900s home
that has been flipped is
still traces of galvanized pipe
still in service
connected to copper or connected to pecs
i've seen
all different kinds of scenarios
the ideal
condition is to have all the galvanized
removed
galvanized pipe does one thing it rusts
from the inside
so if the inside diameter of the pipe is
half an inch
by the time it's all rusted in this is
barely a pinhole there
so that restricts your water flow
and it may cause uh rusty water at
faucets
from all the rust buildup in the pipe so
there's nothing good about keeping
galvanized pipe it's definitely
something you want to get rid of
so if the house has a partial copper
upgrade
the first thing you want to do when you
move in is just remove all the rest of
that galvanized and continue with copper
or pex whatever you choose
here's another popular unrealistic
expectation
during a home inspection a lot of
customers think you're gonna
inspect the plumbing underground between
the home and the street
that is your sewer lateral and that
requires a separate inspection by
somebody that has sewer inspection
equipment such as a camera
that pipe should be inspected it's my
belief
should be inspected on every house
doesn't matter how old or how new the
house is i've found problems in the past
with brand new construction
and of course everything in between from
1900 to brand new so
uh
i just want to clear that air on that
one
that is not part of the home inspection
and definitely is highly recommended on
any house
i hope i was able to set some realistic
expectations for you in this episode
going into purchasing an early 1900s
home
and the key takeaway from this i want
you to have is
get a foundation inspector lined up the
same time you line up your home
inspector it would be very much
worthwhile for you it'll save you time
going through your inspection
contingency period
before the close of escrow
another takeaway from this should be
getting a termite inspection done for
all the wood framing on the property as
well
and uh you know your home inspector will
cover most other stuff
i wouldn't worry about getting
electrician out there right away unless
you already know there's knob and tube
wiring
so
let your home inspector determine that
if you need an electrician to come out
for that but otherwise
i do have a youtube channel that you can
actually watch videos of some of these
topics i cover today
breaking them down and explaining them
better and that's a home inspection
authority on youtube
uh if you do check out the channel
please subscribe to the channel and
you'll get notifications on new videos
as soon as i release them as well
okay so i want to give a special shout
out to the person who inspired me to
start a podcast
matt neal
matt is actually one of my customers who
hired me a couple times to inspect two
houses for him
and uh he really liked my service and
then he uh had a conversation with me
and
inspired me to start a podcast and share
my knowledge and thoughts with everybody
out there
so here we go
this is the end of episode one i hope
everybody found this helpful and
interesting and uh informative and
that's the goal here is to inform
everybody
and make your home buying's purchase
process
simpler and less stressful
buying a home should be fun
so if you are buying a home in the los
angeles area
and you are looking for a home
inspection company like mine
uh you can look online at
homeinspectionauthority.com
and you can schedule online or you can
give us a call at 800-950-8184
and we can do general home inspections
sewer camera inspections swimming pool
inspections
indoor air quality testing and mold
inspections