r/Oldhouses
▲ 66 r/Oldhouses
Old apartment living room
What do you guys think of my space? I've gotten a lot of pieces from antique malls.
u/Silly_Ad_1513 — 9 hours ago
Ahh Se eu tivesse dinheiro e tempo disponível...
Tem tanta pérola perdida em são Paulo..
R. Conselheiro Cotegipe, altura do n 700
u/Monsieur_Policarp — 13 hours ago
Brick walkway
My fiancé and I found this brick while digging out our garden bed. It appears that the bricks were placed on an angle. Does anyone know why that would be and does anyone have any recommendations on what to do with it?
u/Dinkerdoo17 — 10 hours ago
Terminix worth it?
I live in Jacksonville, FL. My house is over 100 years old, I bought it in October last year. No active WDO on inspection, but signs of previous damage. I called Terminix out for a quote and I have since seen mixed reviews, but…
They quoted me $254 a month for 60 months to do subterranean and dry wood termite prevention (liquid and bait treatments), put down a vapor barrier in the crawlspace, treat the crawlspace and attic with borate liquid, clean the attic (major previous rat problem), remove and replace attic insulation, plus spray down an antique cabinet which has active termites. $254 is a lot of money!
I do think it’s clear that the treatments are needed, I’ve been down in the crawlspace and it is moist and there is some mold growing.
I’m just a single lady trying not to get bamboozled here. Any thoughts/comments/suggestions are much appreciated.
u/Organized_Chaos_2788 — 9 hours ago
Buying a 1910 house .. but discovered lots of large cracks and damp
I’ve had my offer accepted on a house , after doing a second viewing I noticed lots of cracks mainly running along skirting boards , door and window frames. There is also damp in places . There is a loft conversion ( no regulations ) agent said the seller has never had any . So it’s been marketed as a 2 bed plus loft space . I noticed a long vertical crack on the archway which leads to the staircase to the loft ( shown in photos ) I know old houses come with some problems but I’m stretched to limit on this and if it needs major repairs I won’t have any spare cash to get stuff fixed . I know to move forward I would need a level 3 survey done to put my mind at rest . Not sure if to go ahead or walk away .If this falls through it will be so deflating as I’ve been house hunting for 5 months at the same time I can’t take on what could be a money pit . Any advice out there would be appreciated.
u/Freespirit_989 — 13 hours ago
▲ 44 r/Oldhouses
An old 16th-century house built in the typical Flemish-Dutch style. One of the distinctive features of the style was a roof shaped like a staircase or clock with rounded ends.
u/Admirable-Secret-810 — 15 hours ago
▲ 69 r/Oldhouses
Architecture on 1903 home
Trying to find what the architecture would be of this home we are in contract with and what other colors could be recommended instead of the green & blue (of if leaving it the way it is, would be more original). Trying to give it a bit of a refurbishment without compromising the history or choosing incorrect coloring for that era.
u/No_Beautiful7437 — 1 day ago
▲ 76 r/Oldhouses
Found the original floor plan drawings for my 1917 farmhouse. MI, USA
Fun little find in a stack of wildly organized receipts the original owners kept for the house. It was a single family owner until about 2015. This was the second house built to replace the original farmhouse which was next door. Aerial imagery shows the whole area was still minimally populated in 1951 but come 1957, suburbia was fully built around it.
The first floor now has a bathroom in the center where the china cabinet was originally. Top floor with the bedrooms remains almost identical except the largest bedroom stole the closet from the adjacent room by sealing one side and opening the other. I went and looked at the wall just now and I can see where the original doorframe was covered over. The non-excavated section of the basement was ultimately dug out, but the floor in that area is bricks just laid on dirt. Last photo is the house when purchased in 2019.
u/Your_Product_Here — 1 day ago
First time ever restoring brick: Rescuing our 1936 coal-burning fireplace from the crime of modern latex and the 90-year-old limewash. (And a question at the end!)
Hey r/CenturyHomes, r/DIY, r/HomeImprovement, r/Renovation
I wanted to share a progress update on a project that has completely consumed my life over the last few days. Trigger Warning: I will never use the term Brick by Brick flippantly again. We have a massive brick fireplace in our (new to us) 1936 Tudor basement. Historically, it was an old coal-burning fireplace for a large home.
I have absolutely zero experience with brick restoration—this is my very first time ever trying to strip or rescue historic masonry, and it has been a massive learning curve.
1. The "Before" (Painted Brick)
When we moved in, the entire fireplace was buried under a thick coat of bright teal latex paint.
- The Initial Attack & House Archaeology
I slathered the brick in Dumond Peel Away 1 and left it for 48 hours. When I started scraping, it turned into a toxic, goopy oatmeal slurry. But it did reveal something incredible: beneath that 5-year-old teal latex layer was a thick, ghost-white layer of original 1936 limewash.
Peel Away 1 is for Older Paint and makes a slurry of new latex instead. of peeling.
3. The Despair Phase (And a shoutout to my daughter)
This is where the project almost broke me. The top mantel row of bricks was smooth and non-porous, so the paint lifted off easily. But the front face of the arch is made of highly textured, wire-cut historic bricks—they acted like absolute sponges for the paint and lime.
I hit a total wall. I threw everything at it: vinegar, terry cloths, Dawn Powerwash, Goof Off, a hot steam cleaner, and even Windex. My daughter and I spent hours upon hours down on the basement floor scrubbing until our arms ached, and we were barely making a dent. Looking at that clean top mantel row against the stubborn, white-hazed face genuinely made me want to cry.
After Peel Away 1 and hours of failed options.
- The Drill Failure vs. The $8 Gun Accessory Hack
I figured a power tool would save our backs, so I bought heavy-duty brass wire wheels for my power drill. Total failure. At high speeds, the rigid bristles just skipped right over the deep valleys of the brick and violently smeared the wet latex sludge around without lifting it.
The breakthrough came when I realized I could reactivate the dried residue with plain hot water and a tiny, toothbrush-sized soft brass wire brush from a paint aisle tri-pack. Because the manual brass bristles were fine and flexible, they could actually hook into the micro-texture of the brick and rake the limewash out of the pits without scratching the 90-year-old clay.
My daughter and I ground that first toothbrush down to absolute nubs, so I hopped online and found a major saver: a 12-pack of soft-brass gun-cleaning toothbrushes for $8. They are designed not to scratch precision gun barrels, which makes them the absolute perfect tool for historic brick. I also picked up a tri-pack of larger wooden-handled soft brass brushes to cover more ground.
After Scrubbing with the Brass toothbrush.
5. The Indoor "Power Washer"
To handle the massive, muddy rinsing mess inside the house without flooding the room, I bought a 1-gallon hand-pressurized garden sprayer and filled it with warm water. It gave me just enough targeted hydraulic pressure to blast the liquified slurry off the brick face and down into a catch bucket.
6. Turning Hours of Work into 30 Minutes
Right now, the fireplace is a work in progress. I wrapped the right side in Dumond Smart Strip (which is engineered for modern latex) to eat through the remaining teal layer overnight, while the left side got the Peel Away 1 treatment for the 1936 limewash.
After last night with the Smart Strip
But on the exposed sections, the workflow is finally down to a science. I dip the large wooden brass brush in a 5-gallon bucket of warm water, and scrub the face with heavy horizontal and vertical agitation until it turns into a thick, foamy white slurry. Then I switch to the gun-cleaning toothbrush using circular motions to clean out the mortar joints, nicks, and pits, followed by a spray rinse.
This morning's run took me exactly 30 minutes total for a massive section, compared to the hours of soul-crushing misery my daughter and I spent fighting it the day before.
Post slurry rinse and re-slurry
7. Where it Stands Now (I Have Hope)
The wire-cut texture of the historic 1936 clay is finally breathing again, and seeing the variation in the natural brick tones is incredibly rewarding.
After 3 rounds of scrubbing this morning (about 30 minutes of actual labor)
There are still stubborn white flecks of old limewash stuck deep inside the nicks, pits, and mortar joints—especially around the top of the arch. Goof Off did absolutely nothing to touch them.
I Need Your Advice!
As a first-timer, I'm stuck on the final detailing. Since original 1936 limewash is basically calcium carbonate, I'm wondering if a mild acid wash like Lime-A-Way (applied carefully with a toothbrush and rinsed immediately) would dissolve these final white ghosts, or if that risks damaging the historic mortar joints?
How do I clear away the excess mortar at the top of the arch?
Excess Mortar hiding the detail of the thin layer of brick, maybe? Or maybe it's just mortar?
Thanks for letting me share, and I appreciate your input!
u/Tell-Your-Story — 1 day ago
▲ 4 r/Oldhouses
Thoughts on these cracks?
I am seriously considering putting an offer on this house. Do these cracks look concerning? There is some paint peeling on the side wall inside the room right there. Thank you!
u/Financial_Spite_7365 — 1 day ago
Building home progress photos
My friend lost his house in the altadena fire . I’ve known him since he was 15 years old. He called me and said he needed my help to rebuild . No we’re doing 4 houses in altadena , two of which are modular IT Vista Homes and Two which are traditional wood framed homes .
Feel free to reach us at www.Casanova-pro.com
u/sceneoneone4teen — 2 days ago
Anyone else constantly wonder what old abandoned buildings looked like when they were brand new?
I’ve always been the type of person that drives past an old abandoned house, factory, school, random building in the middle of nowhere and immediately starts wondering:
“What was this place?”
“Who used to live/work here?”
“What did it actually look like when it was brand new?”
Sometimes I’ll literally end up going down a Google rabbit hole trying to find old photos or history on it and still come up empty.
That curiosity is actually why I started building an app called Origin Search.
The idea is pretty simple: you take a picture of an old building, abandoned house, forgotten structure, etc. and the app tries to:
• Restore what it most likely looked like when it was new
• Identify what the building/place likely was used for
• Give history and background info on it
• Estimate time period / architectural clues
For example, if you pass an old boarded-up Victorian home, an abandoned gas station, warehouse, school, or historic building, it can try to reconstruct how it probably looked in its best years and tell you the story behind it.
Still building it out, but honestly it started because I figured I can’t be the only person weirdly obsessed with old forgotten places 😂
Does anyone else do this when driving around? What’s the coolest abandoned building/place you’ve ever found?
u/Top_Action_4143 — 3 days ago
▲ 60 r/Oldhouses
anyone know what this is?
we are digging in the back yard of our 1901 home and found this? is a water line? gas? any ideas?
u/Intelligent_Mango_64 — 3 days ago