Home Restoration Problems Connected with Older Homes
When you choose and eighteen hundreds or early nineteen hundreds home you truly have an old home. These homes were not built with what home builders use now a days. Many, if not most all old homes that have not already been renovated or restored contain many dangerous and unexpected things. Here are the possible dangers in detail.
The beams of a house are the bones of a house. Are they strong or are they weak? If your beams are weak you’ll need to brace or replace them as soon as possible. Older homes have logs for beams. Often termites get inside them and weaken them. Other times water damage does the same. When you are renovating your home you’ll want to make sure that it’s not going to collapse from underneath you. The beams need the attention first. The biggest danger of renovating an older home is the fact that the beams may just not be structurally sound. Never remove one. Renovations must work around the beams. They are set up to support the house and if one is removed things could get remarkably dangerous. If you fear you have weak beams and don’t know what to do the best thing to do is call a professional.
The next possible danger is the roof of your older home. Is it solid? Does it leak? Many older homes needs roofs. They likely have leaked for years. These leaks can rot the wood beneath the shingles and cause ceiling to fall in. Water can also be running through areas of you walls which contain electrical wires. People doing home renovations on old homes need to make sure that the roof of their home is repaired quickly to stop the damage that is occurring. As for the damage that has already occurred over time, it should be repaired promptly. Wet wires, rotten wood, caving ceiling and such can all be very dangerous.
Sometimes, when it comes to very old homes, the beams will be okay but the floor boards will be weak. When a house stands empty for a long period of time, such as years, it suffers. It lacks being heated through long, cold winters. It misses the vibrations that are sent through it when people walk on the floorboards. Without that vibration nothing moves. Nothing has weight put on it or is flexed. Over the years the boards weaken. In some cases the years have been too long and the floorboards can no longer take the weight or the vibrations. This can be dangerous. Weak floors are very dangerous, especially to children. They can be fallen through. If your floors are weak but your beams are not them you can replace the floor boards. This should be done in the beginning of your restoration process as well.
Way back when people painted their homes with lead paint. Lead paint can be poisonous. Not all paint in your home will be lead but you’ll need to pay special attention to any walls that have many layers of paint. It will be on the doors and even floors as well. This is another danger that needs to be taken care of ASAP. On the same note asbestos was often used in a variety of areas of old homes. The ceiling tiles, the insulation, and the flooring may all contain asbestos. In most cases someone has taken those things out of your home a long time ago. However, if you are renovating a home that no one has begun to restore as of yet then you’ll need to be care full. Get anything you think could contain lead or asbestos tested before you begin to tear into it. Take care and thanks for reading.
