i meant in the basement....all vertical ductwork above grade is buried in the walls anyway.

you'd be surprised how many homes have poorly though-out mechanical and plumbing work in the basement....

99% of homes in Canada have basements - and when you want to finish the basement (like a lot of people do), things like poor ductwork can be a glaring indication of a poorly executed build.

i always look at un-finished basements as an indication of the quality of home/builder.

 

same.

the hand that writes the cheques is killing me...

 

It all depends on the builder/contractors.

Sam

 

I have a house built in 1950.

Pros:
- It has lots of old growth lumber in the walls.
- Interesting when you have to do surgery on it, but doesn't really matter.
- Nice tongue and groove ceilings.
- Overall design is great, it's the reason I bought it.
- Lovely redwood siding
- 1/16" inch plywood interior wall surfaces (instead of drywall)

On the down side:
- No insulation anywhere in the house
- Single pane aluminum windows that leak badly when closed
- Door carcasses actually falling apart
- Electrical system poorly installed, designed (completely different than being undersized because of the times)
- No exterior wall sheathing. That and the plywood interior / siding exterior means it sounds like you are outside all the time.
- Nice tongue and groove ceilings are all that is there (flat roof with hot tar over the tongue and groove - no insulation)
- Walls between bedrooms are made with 1 x 1 frame (not 2 x 4)

I am getting close to fixing all those problems, but realistially the only things that I / previous owner) have not completely redone are:
- Exterior framing
- Ceiling tongue and groove panels
- Exterior siding (had to remove and rehab, though)
- Slab. It has an ominous slight bump, but I am intentionally ignoring it for now.

I think that there was old construction that was much worse than any current construction. The codes mandate some minimum standard, however low that is. On the other hand, there are so many large construction projects that have to make shareholders happy at the end of the day to the detriment of the home owners.

There has always been and will always be junk houses. Nowadays we call old junk houses "slums" or "demolished and rebuilt". One thing that affect people's view of old housing is that really bad old housing is rehabed / demolished and rebuilt. It's like that book 1984 - after a while, it's like they never existed.

In my area, a sign of old junk houses are groups of apartment buildings in the middle of a housing tract where the apartments are 20-30 years younger than the surrounding houses. They just buy a block of junk houses, demo them and bulld a new junk apartment complex. Lately, they do the same thing, but build townhomes - more upfront profit.

 

1960's house here.

I just paid for an asbestos abatement (trash-hauling dudes wearing Tyvek) for a central a/c install.

Insulation? Yeah maybe R2-rated. Geez I hate handling fiberglass.

I had to bump my electrical service from 100 A to 200 A to add enough circuits to meet code in the new kitchen. Not that I'm complaining too much. It is good not to have to decide what appliances I can run at the same time without blowing the circuit.

I'm really close to needing to re-thresholding a few sticking doors (earthquakes on slab I think).

 

Good to hear. Wife works for them as an Architect. Nice company. Feeling the tough times now though.

Pulte Homes in Metro NY unfortunately are mega $$$ with a min asking price of 1mill.

 

As a custom home builder I had problems with appraisals because my cost to build was sometimes more than I could get the homes appraised for. The customer (most of them) only looks at the sq. ft. and ignores the quality until after they move in. A home can be built right but it's hard to find the customers that want it done right the first time.

 

Kinda like the car business in a sense. Most buyers looks at HP/$. So mfrs give them that and cut corners in interior quality.

 

My girlfriend's last place was a condo that was new when she moved in, and the air conditioner flooded the whole downstairs, and mold was growing everywhere. The construction company had to put her up in a hotel while they fixed for a few weeks. After that the next door neighbor had similar problems. Luckily she moved soon after.

 

i may start ax'ing some of the neighbors what they think of their places.

I just noticed that my driveway is like the bottom coat of blacktop....large stones.... seems like it should have a second coat put on that is mostly black stuff with nearly not noticable stones.... just one more shitty way to save a few $. the driveway is already as high as the sidewalk so i am pretty sure they are finished.