I am considering buying another house here in a small town in Montana. I
was looking up the tax records on this house, and it says it was built in 1947.
I realize it depends on where you are, but at what point did poured foundation walls start to become standard? It also has 2×6 walls (I think…unless they added rigid foam or something to thicken the walls at some point, I haven’t dug deep enough yet).
Before I saw the tax records, I was thinking 70s vintage. Anyone have any thoughts?
Replies
That 1947 designates the recorded role of the tax records only.
On older houses often times the date recorded doesnt mean much towards timing the actual building date as they were built way before the arrival of the local record keeping.
Never heard of a recorded earlier date than the actual construction.
I'm guessing the more modern building practices seen on the house in mention would in all probability be the result of various improvements over the years. IMHO
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Hard to believe, but for many years, the toilet and lavatory industry marked their products with the date of manufacture. Of course many fixtures have been replaced, but if you ever want to date a house, start by looking under the tank lid of the toilet. Sometimes it's stamped in before firing, or it could be lettered on or stamped.
Date the toilet and you might just date the house.
Greg
Hey Greg,
Ditto. must have posted same time!!
Choose the quote you like best . . .
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OR
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; > )
Greg
This might sound crazy, but I remeber someone telling me to flip the toilet lid and a lot of times there is a date stamp. Of course this will not work if all the toilets have been replaced.
> at what point did poured foundation walls start to become standard?
Probably about 1900 - 1915. I saw a brick foundation from 1901, and site-mixed footing and stemwall from 1911 and 1917.
-- J.S.
I had a building that was on the maps before 1900. My last building permit was pulled in 1991 it shows up on most records as built in 1991.
Like John said, poured walls have been around for quite a while. My house in Minneapolis was built in 1913 and it has poured concrete walls in the basement. They're still in pretty good shape, too.
There is a home that I worked on in the hills of Laguna Beach, Ca. that was built in the very early 1900's and this home was/is solid poured in place concrete. Walls, floors, ceilings. It was origionally heated with individual resistance heaters in each room that were set in the form work prior to pouring
It could be 2x4 walls with car siding planks or 2x6 T&G sheathing.
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