4 ms·

Honestly, if I had to choose between buying a house built 50 years ago, or one today - I personally would take the older one. Nothing scares me more (relative t

by ejb999 3y ago

Honestly, if I had to choose between buying a house built 50 years ago, or one today - I personally would take the older one. Nothing scares me more (relative to owning a house) than buying a brand new one. If it has been around for fifty years, it has been tested - may have some things wrong with them, but you usually know what you are dealing with and usually the skill was better and materials better. Heck, my parents house is now 250 years old, and still as solid as can be. A brand new one where the builder was trying to save money by using the latest and greatest techie products, and may or may not how to install it properly? No thanks. To each their own though - I know plenty of folks that wouldn't even consider buying a 'used' house.

Ekaros 3y ago
50 years I think puts here them highly in danger zone... That means 1970s... Which have whole host of very well known issues. Now 100 or even 70 year old houses... If not ruined in 70s-90s by renovation...
- ejb999 3y ago
  Fair enough - but point still stands, newer is not always better (to me). Give me a house that is still standing decades after mother nature threw everything it could at it, over a shiny new one any day.
aclatuts 3y ago
The tried and true asbestos insulation
whartung 3y ago
Well we recently upgraded to a new build, selling off our 50 year old house. We had to relocated to a different area, because the only houses in our area were...50 year old houses. And swapping from one 50 year old house to another one didn't make a lot of sense to us. Mind, we had done remodeling, new kitchen, new baths, new roof, new windows, new HVAC, insulation, "more sound proof" dry wall, structural engineering changes (original owners underspec'd a new addition, and we had to get that fixed), relined the sewer. The two last things on our list were redoing the electrical panel, and landscaping. So, it had some modern elements, but at its core it was a 50 year old house. When we had the work done, the contractor mentioned how the house was well built. "Good bones" as he said. Our new house is VASTLY more efficient. The foundation is 50-100% thicker than our old house (which had other issues). We have that lined plywood in the attic (one side has some material for efficiency), lots more insulation. The only "exotic" thing in there, IMHO, is the plumbing, as its the clear plastic tubing style plumbing (there's a trade name for it that escapes me), vs copper. No idea how long that will last, our old house was already re-piped with copper when we bought it (can you say "slab leak"?). But I'm assuming that the new plumbing is not simply cheaper (copper, oh my) but actually "better" for more values of "better" than not. I saw the house go up, I got to learn house geek stuff, and this is a solid house. We already have stucco cracks, which is not surprising -- I've had 4 felt quakes so far this year, and it's only March. 3+, one was at least 4. Been rocking and rolling for some reason this year, this activity is unusual, and, hopefully, not foretelling. But the house is solid. California has codes for a reason. We use stick framing for a reason, particularly in Southern California. I wish we didn't have to leave the area we were in, but this house is so far so good and appears very well built, more so than our older house was.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  The tubing is called PEX I believe and it seems to be what is used these days, replacing cemented PVC and soldered copper. Some codes (commercial buildings?) may require copper but I believe PEX is used everywhere it can be, it's easy to work with, durable, and connections almost never leak.
  - donavanm 3y ago
    Yes. PEX is a specific type, and general term for, modern polyethylene supply tubing. Both materials and labor costs are around half of residential copper. Unless you have a really specific reason new plumbing is going to be PEX supply and PVC/ABS waste. PEX service lifetime is in the 30-50 year range, copper is 50-100 depending on wall thickness.
    - wstrange 3y ago
      And if you are a DIYer, PEX is super easy to work with.
      - SoftTalker 3y ago
        I'm going to try it on my next project. I've done copper, I'm OK at soldering ("sweating") but far from a pro and sometimes I get leaks which is super annoying. And depending where you are working there's a real risk of starting a fire. PVC and CPVC has never leaked for me but the cleaning solvent and the cement is messy, once you apply the cement you have only seconds to join the fittings, and the fumes give me a headache. PEX sounds great because you can run it around bends (up to a point) without extra fittings and you don't need cement or solder.
bombcar 3y ago
I'll trade you my 40s house for a todayhouse any day of the week. Sure, there are bad builders and if you're having something custom built you need to educate yourself (or hire someone trustworthy to monitor), but there are so many things much better than a 50 year old house, at least if you're in a climate that has lots of degree days. Maybe in San Diego it doesn't matter as much. Of course, the shittiest 50 year old houses have mostly been knocked down, so the remaining stock gets better and better ...
- jghn 3y ago
  It's a tradeoff, as you allude to at the end. Our house is a mid-1800s build. Thus it's safe to say that there's some survival bias at work and it was solid enough to persevere. There are things our friends with newer houses go through that we never experience. On other hand, we have our own issues. retrofitting modern benefits is difficult, at best.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    It also varies on location, too - around here the 1800s houses are decent "all around" except for what you'd expect for an almost 200 year old building. But in other areas I've lived houses that old will have major issues that have to be remedied eventually (as my builder there said, the tops and bottoms are shit, the middle is great - because the river rock foundation would crumble to dust eventually, and the roofs were basket cases) - costing hundreds of thousands. And most of them were marked historic, making it even worse.
acheron 3y ago
Yeah, when I was looking for a house several years ago I didn’t remotely consider anything new. Aside from the fact that almost all new construction has HOAs, I also assume any new house was shoddily built with poor labor as quick as possible, and the main goal is to sell it to someone else in a few years before it collapses.
rascul 3y ago
There are many 50+ year old homes that are basically held up with thoughts and prayers. Many of the building methods and materials were very questionable. I would not recommend buying an old house in the USA without a thorough inspection by someone who works on old houses regularly. Many are fine, many are death traps.

by ejb999 3y ago

Ekaros 3y ago

50 years I think puts here them highly in danger zone... That means 1970s... Which have whole host of very well known issues. Now 100 or even 70 year old houses... If not ruined in 70s-90s by renovation...

ejb999 3y ago
Fair enough - but point still stands, newer is not always better (to me). Give me a house that is still standing decades after mother nature threw everything it could at it, over a shiny new one any day.

aclatuts 3y ago

The tried and true asbestos insulation

whartung 3y ago

Well we recently upgraded to a new build, selling off our 50 year old house. We had to relocated to a different area, because the only houses in our area were...50 year old houses. And swapping from one 50 year old house to another one didn't make a lot of sense to us. Mind, we had done remodeling, new kitchen, new baths, new roof, new windows, new HVAC, insulation, "more sound proof" dry wall, structural engineering changes (original owners underspec'd a new addition, and we had to get that fixed), relined the sewer. The two last things on our list were redoing the electrical panel, and landscaping. So, it had some modern elements, but at its core it was a 50 year old house. When we had the work done, the contractor mentioned how the house was well built. "Good bones" as he said. Our new house is VASTLY more efficient. The foundation is 50-100% thicker than our old house (which had other issues). We have that lined plywood in the attic (one side has some material for efficiency), lots more insulation. The only "exotic" thing in there, IMHO, is the plumbing, as its the clear plastic tubing style plumbing (there's a trade name for it that escapes me), vs copper. No idea how long that will last, our old house was already re-piped with copper when we bought it (can you say "slab leak"?). But I'm assuming that the new plumbing is not simply cheaper (copper, oh my) but actually "better" for more values of "better" than not. I saw the house go up, I got to learn house geek stuff, and this is a solid house. We already have stucco cracks, which is not surprising -- I've had 4 felt quakes so far this year, and it's only March. 3+, one was at least 4. Been rocking and rolling for some reason this year, this activity is unusual, and, hopefully, not foretelling. But the house is solid. California has codes for a reason. We use stick framing for a reason, particularly in Southern California. I wish we didn't have to leave the area we were in, but this house is so far so good and appears very well built, more so than our older house was.

SoftTalker 3y ago
The tubing is called PEX I believe and it seems to be what is used these days, replacing cemented PVC and soldered copper. Some codes (commercial buildings?) may require copper but I believe PEX is used everywhere it can be, it's easy to work with, durable, and connections almost never leak.
- donavanm 3y ago
  Yes. PEX is a specific type, and general term for, modern polyethylene supply tubing. Both materials and labor costs are around half of residential copper. Unless you have a really specific reason new plumbing is going to be PEX supply and PVC/ABS waste. PEX service lifetime is in the 30-50 year range, copper is 50-100 depending on wall thickness.
  - wstrange 3y ago
    And if you are a DIYer, PEX is super easy to work with.
    - SoftTalker 3y ago
      I'm going to try it on my next project. I've done copper, I'm OK at soldering ("sweating") but far from a pro and sometimes I get leaks which is super annoying. And depending where you are working there's a real risk of starting a fire. PVC and CPVC has never leaked for me but the cleaning solvent and the cement is messy, once you apply the cement you have only seconds to join the fittings, and the fumes give me a headache. PEX sounds great because you can run it around bends (up to a point) without extra fittings and you don't need cement or solder.

bombcar 3y ago

I'll trade you my 40s house for a todayhouse any day of the week. Sure, there are bad builders and if you're having something custom built you need to educate yourself (or hire someone trustworthy to monitor), but there are so many things much better than a 50 year old house, at least if you're in a climate that has lots of degree days. Maybe in San Diego it doesn't matter as much. Of course, the shittiest 50 year old houses have mostly been knocked down, so the remaining stock gets better and better ...

jghn 3y ago
It's a tradeoff, as you allude to at the end. Our house is a mid-1800s build. Thus it's safe to say that there's some survival bias at work and it was solid enough to persevere. There are things our friends with newer houses go through that we never experience. On other hand, we have our own issues. retrofitting modern benefits is difficult, at best.
- bombcar 3y ago
  It also varies on location, too - around here the 1800s houses are decent "all around" except for what you'd expect for an almost 200 year old building. But in other areas I've lived houses that old will have major issues that have to be remedied eventually (as my builder there said, the tops and bottoms are shit, the middle is great - because the river rock foundation would crumble to dust eventually, and the roofs were basket cases) - costing hundreds of thousands. And most of them were marked historic, making it even worse.

acheron 3y ago

Yeah, when I was looking for a house several years ago I didn’t remotely consider anything new. Aside from the fact that almost all new construction has HOAs, I also assume any new house was shoddily built with poor labor as quick as possible, and the main goal is to sell it to someone else in a few years before it collapses.

rascul 3y ago

There are many 50+ year old homes that are basically held up with thoughts and prayers. Many of the building methods and materials were very questionable. I would not recommend buying an old house in the USA without a thorough inspection by someone who works on old houses regularly. Many are fine, many are death traps.