1951 era house. What would you be looking for?

Thanks to the housing crash, prices are great right now. I've found something which might be ideal, a ~1500 sq. foot one story house, has no attached garage but has a sizeable pole building which could be converted into a 4 car garage/shop combo, could easily add a freestanding 2 car garage and breezeway, all on a nice high nearly square 1 acre lot with fruit trees, ~2 miles from a large lake, a desireable section of town etc and the best part: a killer price. The price is mostly because the house was built in 1951, it's on a crawl space (a big plus in my book!), frame construction, 3br/2 bath, aluminum siding.

I hold a home inspectors' license and know what to poke/prod at (and if I decide to move forward will have someone come behind me just in case) but I was wondering what the hive mind here might suggest that I look at in particular or any experiences you may have, good or bad, with houses of this era?

If its on pillars see if it has been anchored. Pull up all the carpet and look for hardwood floors. No closets for the wife if its from 51, lathe and plaster interior walls are a pain to repair but you get good at it. Bathrooms will need to be taken out at some point due to sizing if your married. Check to make sure that its not a mix of cast and copper piping it will leak about once a year if it is.

Just remeber that people were smaller and had less stuff in the 50's. Or at least thats how they built a lot of the houses.

I had a "1950" built 1,200 sq ft ranch house and loved it. In the Chicago area; concrete foundations, steel beam, basement headroom, a kitchen you can put a small table into, and 3 bedrooms were important. Yeah it was all hardwood floors and plaster.

One bathroom sucked and our lots were city like and the cedar siding needed paint every few years but to this day I miss my first house. Taxes were also reasonable. We also had all iron pipe that was slowly changing over to copper as needed. And my windows were double hung 1950 vintage.

I spent the last two years living in a 1950 build.

Grounded Outlets? We had none.
How many outlets per room. In that era, one seemed typical. That is what we had.
Quality of windows/doors?
Is there a dishwasher? Can one even be installed given the cabinetry layout? Our layout could not accommodate one built in.

I've had three houses from the 50's and they are typically solid. When looking for our current house we looked at a lot of houses from the 50's to brand new. The older ones felt much more solid than new. I'm more comfortable buying a 60 year old house than one that is 6. All these houses thrown together by the latest flunkie to get a contractors license have crap shingles that are almost done at 5 or 6 years, the furnace is a Chinese-made turd that won't see 10 years and so on. A house that's been around for 60 years, through tornado's, blizzards, earthquakes and the like are pretty solid.
More to the point, I'll echo the point that the closets aren't as big, bathrooms are for pooping, shaving, and showering, that's it, and they usually have hard wood floors that are beautiful.

Asbestos pipe insulation, and in the plaster, which will be covered with lead paint. Not a problem as long as you don't disturb it, but when you sell the house, the new owners will discover the toxic materials and will sue your ass to recover the remediation cost.

Meanwhile, don't chew on the windowsills.

My house was built in 1955. We bought it in 1976. Over the years we have had to do all the "maintenance" stuff: new furnace, roof, new kitchen cabinets, etc.

The only real problem area for us has been the electrical system. Didn't have any grounded outlets except in the kitchen and those were grounded with a separate wire running to a water pipe. Also found a couple circuits where the lights and outlets in a room were on the same circuit.

I was able to make the changes and bring everything up to code myself, but if you had to hire someone it would be expensive.

What everyone else said about no grounded outlets,small bathrooms & small & few closets. Also at least around here (eastern NC) no insulation unless it's been added to attic since built. Also,if the house has or has had carpet in the past, the bottom inch or 2 of those nice solid wood interior doors has probably been cut off when the carpet was installed.

I agree with jrw1621 in that electrical can be the biggest nightmare with a house this old. The house I bought a few years ago has original electrical in the front part and the "new master bedroom suite" has newish electrical...but it may have been haphazardly installed by the former owner.

The good news? These are very strong / ruggedly built homes. BUT, little things like leaking windows can take the edge off your wallet.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Asbestos pipe insulation, and in the plaster, which will be covered with lead paint. Not a problem as long as you don't disturb it, but when you sell the house, the new owners will discover the toxic materials and will sue your ass to recover the remediation cost. Meanwhile, don't chew on the windowsills.

This^^^^^^.

And the fact that, based on the roofing work I did in high school, any 50's house that is due for a roof is probably gonna have 3 layers of shingles and rotten roof boards.

Not only asbestos pipe coverings, but also the potential for asbestos vermiculate insulation. It looks like little pebbles.

abestos is only "really" dangerous if you breath the fibers and are a smoker, it is probably no better or worse for you than fiberglass (the glass fibers that is, don't breath that E36 M3) but it is a huge legal and cleanup problem, but only if you disturb it.

I didn't have asbestos insulation or paint in any of the three houses I've owned (56, 55, and 52). I assume somebody else took care of it? The house I grew up in, built in the early 20's had it. Here in MI, any house sold that was built before, 60 or 70 sumthin has to have the paint tested for lead so the new owner can't sue you.

Along with what some of the others have said...

If it's a wire-lathed house, it's an excellent plaster job, but a pain to repair.

Look for asbestos in the "vinyl" floor tiles (they are 9" square), and roofing products.

50's are a pretty good vintage- they are generally good bones.

'cept for the electric wiring...

I have a 1949 house, 1200 sq ft, 1 1/2 story, brick construction with a basement. Another casualty of the faltering market. The previous owner was obviously had stripped everything, rebuilt, and intended to flip it.

So I have pleanty of grounded electrical sockets, multiple in everyroom. PVC piping for plumbing, and insulation that comes from this century.

Odd quirks, kitchen is small and obviously before washing machines. I eventually will need to get a compact "apartment washer" because this doing by hand stuff sucks. No phone jacks or cable hookups either. I think those last two were oversights on the renovations. Going all cellular and pressuring Comcast to help keep one of their present customers rectified both of those.

But the big bonuses have been mentioned. It's survived the last 60 years, small and well insulated keeps energy costs low, even during the Irene "stress test" the little water we got coming up from the basement was easily managed by the French Drain.

My contractor brother echoes the solid construction opinion. He says most of the houses around here of that vintage have tongue and groove wall paneling which could ease any mechanical upgrades tremendously.

This house is 1487 sq feet. My last house was ~1900 sq ft including the ~300 sq ft FROG that we rarely used so it may not be that much different, size wise, from where we were. There's just me and the Curmudgeonling so that may be plenty of room. Once she's out of the nest, it'll only be me (unless I can find somebody dumb enough to tolerate me!).

According to the listing, it has inside W/D connections, a built in microwave, dishwasher, range, oven etc and central air. Meaning that upgrades have been done through the years. I'm sure that it's been done somewhat piecemeal, after one look the 'House Hunters' types would soil their unmentionables.

I have not been inside yet (probably will on Wednesday) and will look real careful before thinking of making an offer. A few more good things: there's lots of trees, there's a big deck on one side, it sits on top of a small hill (no drainage problems!) and the entrance is on a cul de sac that you have to look for. It has privacy yet is close in to just about everything.

Oh, and it's just across the road from a golf course. Meaning I can sit on the deck with a beer and heckle the duffers. Or maybe 'tune' an unmuffled rotary on a Sunday afternoon while they are all hacking away.

Sounds pretty good, but don't get all gooey until you see it. I cannot tell you the number of houses I got all hyped up over until I went to see it. You know more about building construction than I do, so no help here.

There are more things asbestos can be found in that not. If it has a popcorn ceiling that is suspect. We rarely find it in drywall, but often find it in joint compound. Rarely find it plaster. Linoleum older than 1977ish likely has it. Look for hidden layers of linoleum under a thin sheet of plywood. Sanding asbestos linoleum residue can easily contaminate the whole house.

I rattle around a 2400 sqft house built in 1950 in a prosperous part of Milwaukee.

First off, its gorgeous. Fantastic hardwood throughout. Stone real wood fireplace, marble slabs in front.

I am fairly fortunate that this house was well maintained before I got my mitts on it. Its also unusual in that its two huge bedrooms, so each bedroom has a walk-in closet. Its also got a full 4' deep crawlspace under the house, no basement. It affords full access. All the utlities and the washer/dryer are in a utility room.

For build quality, you can't touch it. I have done mainly electrical and wiring stuff to it since I moved in, 200 amp service, upgraded garage and house wiring, dropped a few new outlets here n there, put in grounded receptacles and new switches. Ran wiring for my HDTV, ran ethernet and cable to all the rooms, you name it. Its easy.

The house needs insulation and windows something fierce. But it keeps the rain off my head and was priced right.

Did someone mention wiring? There's a chance for glass fuses and aluminum wiring, based on one or two I've lived in.

We lived in and renovated a 1949 brick 1300 sq/ft colonial for years. ^what they said^. Plaster-on-lath walls, non-grounded outlets, mystery switches. We ended up touching every square inch of the house. Gutted and built a new kitchen and bath, stripped and skimmed every square inch of every wall, primed, sanded, 2 coats of Ben Moore Regal. all new grounded outlets+GFCIs, all new faucets and toilets, all new appliances. One paneled room had (decades old) extensive water damage that required furring and drywalling an outside wall and drywall sheathing the rest. New high efficiency HVAC, built a new entryway. New driveway and garage slab, big brick and flagstone patio on a concrete pad, etc. I did nearly 100% myself and probably saved $150k over the 10 year project.

We sold it for nearly 3x what we bought it for and bought a 2000 sq/ft 1950 rambler last year. This one has a big master suit added on w/ a machine shop below, and a 26x32 detached garage.

We paid professionals to notch in some new hardwood in the main house floors and to lay 5" white oak in the master suite, all sanded and w/ 4 coats of water base poly applied. This was worth doing once, right. We covered the whole thing w/ rosin paper and ripped out every bit of original trim, skimmed all the walls and ceilings, and re-trimmed w/ clear poplar I had milled by an Amish planing mill in Hicksville MD (seriously). All new doors, outlets, switches, fixtures, etc.

Race season being over I just gutted the master bathroom - once it's done the kitchen renovation wil expand the kitchen into the tiny pink tile bath we're using while the master bath is apart.

We intend to leave this house feet-first, so we're doing it exactly as we like, right and once. mid-century houses are vastly better built than new construction, but in most cases are nearly uninsulated and need significant improvements to be remotely energy efficient. They have character, and you can work on 'em like they had carburetors or something.

You mentioned trees. They can be a costly "feature" if they need to come down, or you need to have limbs removed to appease neighbours. Certainly not a deal-killer, but when I bought my first house no one ever mentioned to me that tree maintenance could be a costly and unexpected expense.

In reply to ZOO:

n watch for them tree roots bogardin' into the sewer pipe

You didn't mention the heat. Is it under the slab, hidden in a closet? If it dies, can it be replaced or fixed easily?

Does it go below zero in your area? Where are the water pipes run? What if you lose heat for a week?

My parents' 1966 house is on a slab, the builder ran a gas line under the garage floor. Saved money at the time, but got to be a big project when they smelled gas.

Dan

My house is also from the 50's (40,000 sq/ft, wine cellar, 4 car garage, heated indoor pool, I am kidding) and the biggest obstacle I have faced is the "can do" attitude of the previous owner. Meaning, he did all home repairs and improvements himself, regardless of whether he knew how or not.

He had a good supply of 40d nails and they hold everything together: plumbing, electrical, doesn't matter. Nail that sucker down!

It was also built by regular people after the war, not professional house builders, so some things are a bit questionable. But solid.

So look for other people's mistakes before you commit.

Around here, 50's houses have a special attribute, tongue and groove roofs. Much stronger than plywood, will hold up to those pesky hurricanes far better. Jalousie windows suck bad though.