How to consider whether a house has good plumbing and electric

Question

I currently have a property in mind that has an old home that was built in 1900. The house is solid, with a new metal roof, and an old, yet solid stone foundation. It has good windows, hard wood floors, and tons of oak accents that still look good today. There are a few concerns that I have about the house. The first being that it has the old "2 button" light switches, something that I've only seen a few times in my lifetime. The other is that, with the house being well over a hundred years old, the plumbing as well as the electric may be close to needing replacement. All the light switches seem operate without issue, drains drain fast, and none of the faucets have dripping issues. Going into a deal with this property, what should my concerns really be? Am I overthinking this or are these valid concerns?

Dan Bryskin · Answer

@Spencer Herrick

2 button toggle switch is a dead give away of old knob and tube wiring. Most times you will see a partially rewired house, with the basement and parts of the first floor rewired and upstairs is not. If this is something you see-plan to replace knob & tube. Having it powered from modern wire is a fire hazard and in my neck of the woods inspectors won't let it fly. Couple suggestions: look in the attic & pull one of the outlets / switches off the wall, see what kind of wire is coming to it. Good luck.

Jake Hartnett · Answer

I work in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and most homes I deal with were built between 1890-1930. The first thing I would do is go to the basement and check the electric panel. You are looking for a breaker box with 100 amp service. Fuse boxes aren't the greatest, but they still work. Less than 100 amp service might not be enough power for a modern lifestyle.

I have a fuse box in my rental property and it works just fine. If you see romex then the house has been at least partially rewired. Many times I see older homes where the basement and first floor have been rewired but not the second floor, because it is harder to access those wires. Its not the end of the world if you have old knob and tube wiring. There are thousands of houses with this old wiring and it works fine, until it doesn't. As far as I can tell if you don't touch it and it doesn't get wet and critters don't get at it then there is no reason for it to stop working - but I'm no electrician.

With plumbing I always look for a copper main. A lot of people are having to replace their hundred year old water mains and the cost around here is $5,000-$10,000. Also look for lead vs copper pipes in the house. Sometimes people only replace the horizontal pipes because they are the first ones to clog up, and they are much easier to access.

Another thing I do is scope the sewer drain. If that fails it can mean $10,000+ to replace it. A $200 test is cheap peace of mind.

I personally don't get too hung up on old mechanicals (my furnace is 60 years old and still going strong!) but you might need to budget their replacement down the line.

As far as I know there is no good way to estimate how long they will last, the probability of failure just continues to increase until they fail at some point, but they might last forever.

Hope this helps.

Spencer Herrick · Answer

@Jake Hartnett

Account Closed

Thanks for tips guys. These old homes scare the hell out of me, especially with insurance and and a mortgage in place (If I finance the property). I have yet to go into the basement and look to see if there is a breaker or a fusebox. Also, I definitely like the tip to snake the drains ahead of time, along with check for the copper main coming in. The property has a porch that is caving in that needs repaired in order for insurance to be in place. Other than that, it seems like a solid place. Thank you guys both for the insight. It was more than helpful.

Account Closed · Answer

The risk with relation to electrical is the house more than likely needs to be grounded and needs a new electrical panel.  I would also check to be sure the house is wired for 220 as opposed to 110 (a quick way to determine is to see if there are two large wires going from the pole to your mast above the panel where electric service comes into the house).  This shouldn't be an issue unless 1) the power has been turned off for more than a year and the panel needs to be re-certified; or 2) any work needs to be done to the panel itself.  Upgrading electrical here in Colorado is about a $25,000 job.  This would include replacing all wire with Romex, changing out the outlets to three prong, replacing and grounding the panel, adding GFCI to the outlets in the kitchen and bathroom.

Over the years, I'm willing to bet that there have been "fixes" to get around this in that home - that includes, grounding outlets back to themselves (photo below), and/or grounding GFCI outlets back to the panel (which isn't really a ground).  This is not current code.

With relation to plumbing, the risk is many of the pipes back then were cast iron.  Essentially, they rust from the inside out.  Think of it as cholesterol in your veins.  What's worse in a lot of homes had water softeners put in during the 70's....which adds salt to the water...which makes the rust even worse.  This can lead to busted pipes - I myself have taken a wrench to a pipe to replace it and had it shatter in my hands.  If it's kept on top of, it shouldn't be an issue.  If it hasn't, then it will be an issue.

Keep in mind that when you're doing permitted work, the building inspector is not obligated to just inspect the job at hand.  If the inspector sees something else that looks out of place (like inadequately spaced stair pickets) they can require you to fix that.

How to consider whether a house has good plumbing and electric

Most Popular Reply