7 ms·

Or have plausible deniability. When I've have had some new windows installed a couple of times, the installer tacked on a lead mitigation fee which was fine be

by ghaff 21d ago

Or have plausible deniability. When I've have had some new windows installed a couple of times, the installer tacked on a lead mitigation fee which was fine because they knew there was probably lead paint buried somewhere but I don't actually specifically know about lead paint buried under layers of newer paint and the like and most of the interior has been reworked to a significant degree. If you personally really care, don't buy an old house. (Also, when I had the latest round of rework after a kitchen fire, my electrician replaced a bunch of remaining knob and tube wiring which probably dated to whenever the house was electrified.)

rootusrootus 21d ago
Yeah you have to be committed to buy an old house. It's fun but can be a lot of work. I was selling the home I grew up in after my mom passed, so getting it sold was my only priority. We ended up not doing anything but refinish some old floors (not because they really needed fixing per se, but because an original doug fir floor in good condition here brings way more in value than it costs to have done). The electrical was a mix of modern and knob & tube. Buyer didn't bat an eye, they knew the score. They also wanted the house so bad they agreed to eat the cost of the sewer line replacement that was basically mandatory (good old terracotta & rotted out cast iron, I wonder what we will think of PVC/ABS/HPDE in a hundred years). Speaking of lead ... I was surprised we didn't get any pushback from the floor guys on that. Someone had painted parts of the floors, then laid linoleum in the middle, and my mom had a lot of it covered in carpet that was really in rough shape at this point. I couldn't get a positive test on the paint for lead with an inexpensive test kit but I really would be surprised if there wasn't any. But the guys doing the floor didn't even bring it up. And this is work they specialize in, so they deal with a lot of floors this vintage.
- ghaff 21d ago
  >The electrical was a mix of modern and knob & tube. Buyer didn't bat an eye, they knew the score. That's sort of the key. If you have your eye on a >100 year old home, love on unless you're OK with a lot of what probably comes with that.

by ghaff 21d ago

rootusrootus 21d ago

Yeah you have to be committed to buy an old house. It's fun but can be a lot of work. I was selling the home I grew up in after my mom passed, so getting it sold was my only priority. We ended up not doing anything but refinish some old floors (not because they really needed fixing per se, but because an original doug fir floor in good condition here brings way more in value than it costs to have done). The electrical was a mix of modern and knob & tube. Buyer didn't bat an eye, they knew the score. They also wanted the house so bad they agreed to eat the cost of the sewer line replacement that was basically mandatory (good old terracotta & rotted out cast iron, I wonder what we will think of PVC/ABS/HPDE in a hundred years). Speaking of lead ... I was surprised we didn't get any pushback from the floor guys on that. Someone had painted parts of the floors, then laid linoleum in the middle, and my mom had a lot of it covered in carpet that was really in rough shape at this point. I couldn't get a positive test on the paint for lead with an inexpensive test kit but I really would be surprised if there wasn't any. But the guys doing the floor didn't even bring it up. And this is work they specialize in, so they deal with a lot of floors this vintage.

ghaff 21d ago
>The electrical was a mix of modern and knob & tube. Buyer didn't bat an eye, they knew the score. That's sort of the key. If you have your eye on a >100 year old home, love on unless you're OK with a lot of what probably comes with that.