Today after reading a few discussions about heating with wood problems of combustion air (inside vs direct combustion) and also about insulating homes to be more energy efficient I started thinking about my old house and other older homes I have worked on and the problems caused by attempting to make a old house a modern efficient home of today.
My home is an extreme example of a old house trying to be a modern home.
It is an old New England saltbox with 3 fireplaces around a huge central chimney stack.
Now when I think about the changes already made and the other changes I had to make based on the fact that we do not live like the early settlers that built this house.
I thought I would post a few thoughts I have and lessons learned on how to avoid the problems many a old house has had over the years in trying to adapt to modern living.
First some history that may help explain why these homes have lasted as long as they have even though many do not come close to meeting modern codes and why many of their problems are fairly recent ones.
Well first off in 1740 there was no plumbing no central heat and no air conditioning and no electricity Now I have a furnace but not in 1740 they just heated with the fires in the fireplaces so one would think based on our lifestyle that those fires kept the house warm. Well you would be wrong.
The fireplaces kept the area around the fireplace warm and when cooking was going on in the kitchen with it’s huge fire box and dutch ovens it would be nice and warm in there but directly above the kitchen under the saltbox roof was the attic space no insulation so that heat would quickly escape. And although in my house one of the upstairs bedrooms has a fireplace that was not common so the bedrooms would be quite cold. If any of you have even done any winter camping you know you can sleep quite well in a tent with a insulated sleeping bag even when the air outside is very cold.
Well that was pretty close to what sleeping in 1740 New England bedroom was like your bed had bed curtains and a well insulated quilt of some type but it was cold when you woke in the morning close to outside cold.
First thing you did in the morning was you ether reached for your chamber pot, which was probably frozen since you did not want to walk out to the outhouse in the middle of the night, or you had a long walk out in the cold to go take that morning pee.
Now the first thing you would do after that if you were the lady of the house is fire up that fireplace in the kitchen the coals in the fireplace would be still hot if you were lucky so it would offer some warmth as you got the kitchen fires going for the days cooking. The other fireplaces you would only light those if someone was going to be working in those rooms. If you were a farmer the men of the house would be out to the barns to tend to the animals and their days work, so you would close the doors to the rooms not in use. You might spend the whole day in the kitchen in the winter keeping what tools you needed in that room because it was warm in that room. So with no indoor plumbing to freeze and no one in the other rooms of the house during the day you really did not need central heat and you did not worry to much about the cold in those rooms you were busy.
So for the first 150 years or so of a 200 year old houses life the problems of venting moisture buildup was more like that of a barn then a house for the most part it was cold in the winter and warm in the summer. So soffit and roof vents not needed roof was wood shakes or slate over slats and purlins so the roof was vented alright the entire roof was a vent it let the wood shingles dry from both sides. The attic had no insulation over the bed room ceilings and for the most part the space below was mostly unheated so no build up of moisture in the attic.
And Carbon monoxide buildup? what was that? unless you put a wet blanked over the chimney stack or something the large flues sucked plenty of air up and out and if they got blocked the smoke would be a problem long before CO.
Now the first water in the house was in the kitchen it was a most likely some type of slate or stone sink with a hand pump no hot water on tap. But that was a big deal over having to go and pull a bucket up on a rope and then carry it back to the kitchen. but since this pump let the water go back down when you stopped pumping freezing of the pipes still was not a problem.
Now this being a country home even as technology advanced no reason to tear out that kitchen sink with its pump it worked just fine and what do you need hot water on tap for in the kitchen but you sure would like a modern stove no more fireplace to cook on a stove was added but maybe it was still a wood stove and maybe a coal stove.
So now the first problems of trying to make a old house a modern home started some time around the end of the 19th century depending on if it is a city or country home some like my house did not have a bath or central heat until close to 1918 That is when they add a bathroom now you can’t let the pipes freeze and you sure don’t have hot water with out a boiler so some type of furnace and central heat was added.
Now at first no one thought about stopping any drafts they just made the heating system so big that it basically heated the house plus half the out doors around it no big deal coal was cheap enough and after all those people were used to it being a little cold in the bedroom at night. Now this 1900s bathroom was not a luxury bath of today it had a tub a toilet and a sink no shower. But it was the hight of luxury of it’s day now you could get up in the morning and it was warm (well fairly warm anyway) and you had a toilet no trip to the out house. Then gas furnaces and stoves were added now you had central heat you did not have to shovel coal into the fire box to keep it going and the gas stove in the kitchen was ready to cook on almost on demand no need to start a wood fire and wait for coals. to so you needed to heat even the kitchen.
But in the history of my 1740 house these are fairly recent luxuries And with them they brought problems and destructive forces the original builders did not think of. Also even if your old house is not 200 years old it could still have been built long before handling the problems associated with conditioned spaces and moisture where known so they were not addressed when it was constructed originally. Much of the rotting and mold and moisture problems of older homes were only a problem once heating costs started rising to the point that people started thinking about stopping drafts and insulating homes. Even I who was born in 1965 have seen old houses that only in the 1970s received their first modern insulation.
So we are only now over the past 20 or so years seeing the problems that arise due to trying to make a Old house a modern energy efficient home and many a house even some built as recent as 1940 have problems associated with adding insulation and siding materials that they were never designed to have.
A lot of the mold problems are very recent and the roofs that have sheathing that lasted 50-100 years under all types of shingles and roofing materials are now in less the 10 yeas rotting from the inside. Sealing the roof deck with asphalt roofing that does not breath well over heated space without ventilation is not a good idea.
Many old homes have windows in the attic that never get opened no soffit vents and no ridge or gable vents then insulation is added many times a loose blown in right out to the soffits no venting added.
Then the walls are covered with vinyl or aluminum siding is added over a layer of foam insulation but the walls have no vapor barrier on the inside. Then they seal as many air leaks as they can add showers to bathrooms install heat and air conditioning all without updating the basic structure and design of the building envelope. All this leads to problems that are destroying houses that have lasted 100 years or more in just a short 20 years or so.
Also of many of these structures are not associated with a historic past so their value is as a home before their historic value and modern changes need to be made to accommodate modern life styles but these changes must be made correctly or they can do a lot of harm to a old structure that was designed or built before anyone even thought about the effects of interior moisture problems and energy efficient heating systems.
Now I would like to address some of these problems in future posts but for now I would like to invite you to share your thoughts and your own stores of homes that you have see that were facing problems of modernization.
Replies
in the 70's ,Doris Duke bought a lot of 1600 colonial homes in Newport and started restoring them
they are all updated to late 1970's requirements .... heating , plumbing.. etc
they have amassed quite a lot of knowledge of what works and what doesn't
and as a bonus she knew how to work with interior decorators.
Barry E-Remodeler
Yes I know of these homes but... Restoring an old house to be a museum house vs updating it to be a cost efficient modern home are two different things.You can't go wrong if you simply return the house to what it was and you have a budget that allows for the use of historic materials and methods. But you are not going to have a modern home ether. I am involved with a few organization that maintain historic homes it is much simpler when the goal is to return the house to it's historic state and then preserve it at that time period. And the budget to heat and maintain it is at least partially funded by a nonprofit preservation foundation of some type. Also many of the historic houses I have worked on that were owned by preservationists were not maintained as a modern home but preserved as is or returned to exactly how they were at the time some historic figure lived in the home. They really do not care about updating the electrical system for modern appliances or to include a modern master bath or that the kitchen is a modern kitchen in fact they would prefer that that it was kept as close to original or as lived in by the historic figure that lived there. The occupants if there are any live with the down sides as just the cost of living in a historic house and to those into the history of the house that is great.But an Old house with no ties to a historic figure or event of some type except that it is old is not as easy to save and often the only way to save it is to make it a modern home that is efficient to heat and maintain and has all the features of a new home. Or the house is old enough to have been built without modern insulation or modern heating but not old enough to be considered of historical value. But when updating that house you must still consider it was not built with todays heating costs. keep in mind that as you tighten up the buildings envelope you also need to address the ventilationSo although I love historic preservations of old houses as much as anyone I also know that not every old house is going to get the Doris Duke treatment. And it is those old house I want to see saved for their value as a home of today and the future and not just for their value as part of history.There is a lot of talk about green building but what is more green then keeping and updating a old house over using new resources to build an new one.So thanks for your reply I suppose the example of my own house built in 1740 may have swayed the discussion toward historic houses but I only meant to use it as a living history of changes that can happen to any old house over time and that many times well meaning updates can cause problems the original builder did not account for.
Edited 10/6/2008 11:42 pm ET by MFournier
these are NOT museum houses... the colonial houses of Newport were restored and modernized so they would be desirable homes to live inmost of the restrictions are to the exteriors.... inside.. they are thoroughly modern millieMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I guess I am only aware of the houses Like the Simon Pease House, Christopher Fowler House
And some of the others on the house tours. Yes although these homes are lived in and the interiors do have modern features they do have original (or like reproductions of original) Windows and doors meaning they are not going to make a list of energy star rated homes :)
I am sure they are better insulated then originally but I doubt that they have R40-R55 insulation value in the attics. The houses owned by the Newport restoration foundation are still maintained by the foundation so home owners that might make changes that are not in keeping with a historic house are not a issue so these homes will be kept as restored and that is great.
And yes they are great examples of houses that have been restored correctly.But not all house are going to be bought by a foundation and then restored like these homes. It would be nice but most homes are not restored but remodeled a little at a time and done using the home owners budget and that often leads to bad updates that cause problems and destroy the fabric of the house or cause other problems. (as was done to some of the houses in newport before they were bought by the foundation)If you were involved with these projects please I would love to hear details about what work was done and problems addressed during the restorations and modernization.I have a friend that wants to update a 1850 greek revival to meet a LEED Platinum rating this is going to be one huge project and it is my first involvement with LEED certification. This is not like building a new LEED house and it is not like the other restoration projects I have done.
I am learning a lot and we are still in the planning and evaluation of the structure part we have not even started doing any updates yet. I hope to post details as we go but I think I will start a Blog and post there once I have it up I will include a link.I am also collecting a bunch of individual project details that I have done on other older homes as well as my own house that would provide some examples of what I mean by previous updates that later proved to be the wrong thing to do.
and I will include them in my blog as well. problem is I did not get pictures of all these projects and it is hard to see in the pictures I do have exactly what the problems are or what was the cause from the photo.Thanks againEdited 10/8/2008 9:17 am ET by MFournier
Edited 10/8/2008 9:19 am ET by MFournier
no... i wasn't involved... but a lot of guys i grew up with got their start working for the Foundation...
one i know is Bill Munger.. who owns Conanicut Marina today
Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
How about some pictures?
MFournier
Those old houses lasted for much of the reasons you gave.. (also they happened to be lucky.. I'm sure well made houses in New York went into the crusher becuase they were in the way of bigger buildings)..
To save those old houses and not go broke heating them you need to think things through.. Both Fiberglas and celluliose absorb and retain water.. Closed cell foam doesn't.. That's your insulation..
Water systems need full consideration they have to work efficently and be well fabricated.. I'd be extremely reluctant to bury in my walls unproven Pex or systems that might develop leaks. The old standby of copper is looking good. (water systems alert,, depends on water available)
waste I would trust cast iron over plastic.
Wiring frankly should be your main scare.. both power and communications.. put in more than enough power so nobody makes those ugly electrical octopusses. If you need a duplex outlet every 3 feet to achieve that then have one every 3 feet.. If the minimum is 14 guage use 12 or 10 guage to ensure any furure overload doesn't cause problems.
Put phone jacks and TV cables in every room heck ever wall! Only leave the unused ones behind a plate so people know where they are.
Make sure the electrical water and sewer are laid out "as Built" and include a set of plans on attached to the circuit breaker. Same with the water system.. do an as built and include a set of plans at the water meter in a sealed envelope.. then put a duplicate set up in the attic as well as another set in a file for all of your household papers.
While you may always be able to tell where things went.. remember you are only temporary custodian of that home.. Furture owners will appreicate the information and that will save your walls for posterity..
You are so right - it's a constant balancing job! (My house was started in the 1690's, added onto, moved, added onto again...)
Thanks so much for the thread. I will be very interested in your conclusions, & I know that many other knowledgeable folks will be chiming in, like Mike Smith...
kate... what did you wind up doing with your house ?Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Not much, yet...I'm trading my rental apartment to a really good handyman - He's very good at blending new work into old, and honoring the spirit of the house, if that doesn't sound too New Agey..I know you know what I mean.
He's done a really good job on the apartment kitchen, skimcoating many walls & ceilings in the apartment, & he is presently finishing patching up & painting the exterior. I can't afford new siding yet, so we are making do, but just painting makes a huge difference! It's SW Farmhouse, a nice deep red.
Next, I want to have him sheetrock my kitchen, but we had a little mishap with lead paint in my stepson's apartment, so he's downstairs with me...
And I am spending my free time worrying about the heat bill! I did put in 2 new gas boilers ten years ago, so at least I'm not using oil...
What I'm planning, when I can afford it, is to redo the siding with fiber cement, over tar paper, with all the openings properly flashed, & while the siding is off, filling the walls from outside with either dp cells or cc foam...
Meanwhile, I'm rebuilding the windows, & sealing, sealing, sealing...
Put on a new roof two years ago, so at least that's done!
Kind of you to ask!
Edited 10/8/2008 3:27 pm ET by kate