Were 19th century homes really built to last? Examining the interiors of years past
*This will be a part of a three part series on American victorian architecture and an economic and political history of what is shaping housing. This will be part 2 that focuses on the interior of older homes. To view part 3 click here.
Hello again. Let us continue our discussion around victorian architecture, and why we are witnessing city and countryside landscapes changing so drastically. Maybe the better question would be, what ever happened to honest wood? Today there is a huge discussion around making homes energy efficient, because using wood to build homes is environmentally destructive and does not hold up as long. For that reason the world went crazy for plastic. Plastic was sold to Americans as the way of the future coming out of the second world war. Products and homes that could hold up indefinitely. At the worlds fair homes entirely constructed out of plastic, cars made by Henry Ford touted the power and longevity of abandoning precious steel. In the first article we spoke around the economics and politics of city code enforcements and how that has reshaped American architecture in a huge way. In this article of our three part series, we are going to focus on the structural analysis of American homes and the birth of the energy efficiency industry.
Before we get into the matter , we have to have a basic grasp and understanding of architectural design. We have to understand the basic concept of interior design and how carpentry and woodworking was utilized in the past compared with today. Surprisingly such drastic changes have gone unnoticed as they occurred gradually. It begs the question that if victorian structures and homes were built with solid woods and honest craftsmanship, then why have they not stood the test of time? This moves onto structural theory in asking the question, can a house made of wood be built to last a thousand years or even indefinitely? As fewer and fewer homes from America’s past remain standing today, many ask if wood was ever a good building material to use from the beginning. After all plastic does not rot, it does not expand, insects don’t eat it, and it’s not very flammable. After all it is not uncommon for a modern carpenter in the industry to never touch millwork, while in the past mill working would have been considered an essential skillset. In the last article we really explained how housing code has put interior design as an afterthought. Changing housing regulation and building code really opened up a new industry of energy efficiency and conservation, because using too much wood was considered wasteful and dangerous, and the pricing in the marketplace reflected that thought.
Coming out of the second world war American companies like Dupont began developing an exciting new resin. In the year 1957 Walt Disney would open up his Disneyland exhibit he called the Monsanto House of the Future, an all-plastic dwelling. Over the next decade there would be millions of visitors passing through its fantastical rooms, designed by MIT architects with curved walls and large windows. The house was equipped with plastic chairs and plastic floors, the kitchen with precise stacks of plastic plates and plastic cups. Monsanto’s house trumpeted the wonders of science, as well as the chemical industry and its products. Plastic, it proclaimed, was the material of tomorrow. All of a sudden every American home had to be equipped with all things cellulose. Those nasty scrapped up hardwood floors would no longer have to be refinished, because the technology of polyester fibers now made it possible to produce full house carpeting without weaving silk by hand. As the price of wood only continued to rise, the country turned to the conveniences and glamor of linoleum and plastic cabinets as well as latex paints.
It would be the new conveniences of shag, with an added bonus of insulating floors to lower heating bills during the oil and energy crisis. Instead of having to invest in hand painted silk wallpaper, home owners could now slap on latex paints themselves and it would be dry within the hour. Other synthetic materials that were more economical and resourceful such as popcorn ceilings, drywall away from plaster and replacement windows that would be sold on the value of durability and saving new home owners money.
Construction code has to do with safety not craftsmanship. For example homes now must be designed with fire safety and electrical safety in mind. When the construction industry adopted building codes for the first time in the 1930’s nationwide, contractors started building homes just enough so that it would pass code. Building codes have nothing to do with the quality of materials used, the country they are sourced from, or the attention to detail and design. In the victorian time period of homes, it was common to use giant lumber of hemlock and oak timbers placed in cellars. The common “2X4” you can witness are vastly different than what you will find being used on modern homes. Victorian structures actually used real aged wood from old growth forests. This variety had qualities such as water resistance, insect resistance, and added strength. The farmed pine we are using today simply does not withstand the test of time. You cannot make a comparison.
As the industry changed so did the way we constructed our homes, and did trade school education and craftsmanship that now put more emphasis on electrical and construction code rather than skills of the hand. The older growth woods we once used had a much greater tendency to insulate keeping out moisture and heat during the summer, and could better preserve warmth in the winter. Overtime these original aging woods however may get cracked from freezing temperatures after a home owner dies and utilities get cut off or damaged. Notice that most trim in a home built around that time period that you want to buy today has a white trim painted interior. This was used to coverup damaged molding beyond repair. Instead of taking time to replace house trim or restore the finish, we just paint over it with filler. Of course there are certain woods that are meant to be painted, but this is not what I am referencing. Getting a contractor to do a proper miter cut is nearly impossible today unless you are willing to spend a lot of money for the expertise.
However this not just affected cosmetics by what you see on the surface. Very few seldom consider and many time confuse code with quality craftsmanship. The easiest way to showcase this is to observe the frame of your home which can be found in your basement. If you noticed the frame on victorian period homes or older, the wood used will look vastly different from the wood being used today on the frame. This is where construction code comes into play.
Construction code has to do with safety not craftsmanship. For example homes now must be designed with fire safety and electrical safety in mind. When the construction industry adopted building codes for the first time in the 1930’s nationwide, contractors started building homes just enough so that it would pass code. Building codes have nothing to do with the quality of materials used, the country they are sourced from, or the attention to detail and design. In the victorian time period of homes, it was common to use giant lumber of hemlock and oak timbers placed in cellars. The common “2X4” you can witness are vastly different than what you will find being used on modern homes. Victorian structures actually used real aged wood from old growth forests. This variety had qualities such as water resistance, insect resistance, and added strength. The farmed pine we are using today simply does not withstand the test of time. You cannot make a comparison.
Just ask home contractor Mark Mills out of Florida;
“Getting a contractor to do a proper miter cut is nearly impossible today. It used to be a skill unto itself and you’d hire a guy where trim is the only thing he did. Today, you can just get ‘close enough’, caulk up any imperfection, and then the white paint hides the defect.” — Mark Mills (45+ contractor)
Take it from another carpenter Mark Bortner out of Pennsylvania;
“I’m one of the millwork guys that can make literally anything you’ll see in any home. Sadly few are willing to pay for it anymore and the ones with the cash have no patience. The cost just of overhead is outrageous because there is very few who know how to do it today. This trade is dying.” — Mark Bortner (Miller 30+ years)
Wood is not meant to be painted with acrylic paints. It’s meant to be stained properly by an oil based paint or finish. Hence why it peels so often today. On most modern homes many contractors do not even bother with molding. Wood is far more costly today than it once was, and a homeowner would perhaps want to buy a new roof than worry about refurbishing the wood around the corner of their hallway. The reality is that much of the original interiors that once made American homes so unique are now gone because the public was sold on“remodeling” or “brightening up” their home. Vanished from the history books as well because interiors were not that well documented at all. Even most historical societies only protect the original integrity of exteriors, and they tell house flippers they can remodel or do whatever they like on the inside. Fixing up old homes commonly referred to as “house flipping” is a form of gentrification which essentially involves white washing home interiors, and there are even television networks dedicated to changing neighborhoods. Why is this happening though? When we look deeper there is a very real reason why this architecture is going away.
The industry as a whole started to switch over to latex paints which are finished over paint-grade woods, instead of oil based stains which are painted over stain-grade woods. There is a huge quality difference between those two. Paint grade woods are actually sourced from lower quality lumber yards and are are known as fiberboard. Fiberboard is made by chewing up wood fibers in a defibrillator and compressing them together. All historic era woods were fabulous quality. None were “paint grade”. Paint grade wood is made from scrap wood, and is finger jointed and pressed. It has a greater moisture content and a rougher surface, because it is intended to be painted and caulked. These woods have to be painted because if not they would shrink and expand with the moisture and heat and begin to crack. The public was sold that wood was wasteful and bad, and with marketing on television networks such as HGTV the pubic ate it up. It’s unfortunate to say that one of the worst offenders may be the Property Brothers television show , who’s format and plot involves finding older homes within a new couple’s budget and remodeling the entire interior to create a “livable” space for a lot less. This is happening across many American homes today as wood has become a sin.
Wood is really not meant to be painted with latex paints. It’s meant to be stained properly by an oil based finish. Hence why it peels so often today. On most modern homes many contractors do not even bother with molding. Wood is far more costly today than it once was, and a homeowner would perhaps want to buy a new roof than worry about refurbishing the wood around the corner of their hallway. The reality is that much of the original interiors that once made American homes so unique are now gone because the public was sold on“remodeling” or “brightening up” their home. Vanished from the history books as well because interiors were not that well documented at all. Even most historical societies only protect the original integrity of exteriors, and they tell house flippers they can remodel or do whatever they like on the inside. Fixing up old homes commonly referred to as “house flipping” is a form of gentrification which essentially involves white washing home interiors, and there are even television networks dedicated to changing neighborhoods. Why is this happening though? When we look deeper there is a very real reason why this architecture is going away.
We have to understand what you are looking at when you walk into an older home. During this era of architecture the most was made to create an elaborate sanctuary out of small spaces. The above Pennsylvania home is a typical Second Empire interior you once found across the United States. Its emphasis as seen on the photo was complete separation of the floor plan to emphasize privacy. This naturally came along with many plastered walls, hallways and designs, and this provided an avenue to create unique decoration in every space. As we talked about in the last article, it was once a common sight in America to see elaborate millwork as exposed wood along doorways, stairwells, and trimming along the ceiling. When an older home is renovated, gutted, or repaired to meet code this is often the first thing that is lost. What’s tragic is that it can almost never be replaced, so older homes are becoming former shells of what they used to be. Not because hardy and honest wood doesn’t last, but because this has been intentional butchering. It is unfortunately not very profitable to restore and save original interiors. It is estimated that only about 10–15% of the buying public are looking for original interiors. They are known as the “purists” or at least “semi-purists”. That means there are 85% of the of public that will see this and tear it down.
At the same time American homes began to shift away from installing plaster structures and shifted towards the wonders of drywall. During the 1960’s it became common to install what were called replacement ceilings, as we entered an energy crisis where we tried to save costs on heating a home. At the same time extravagant ceilings became “gaudy”, and a common method was lowering ceilings by covering up to the molding with popcorn stucco to hide damage instead of keeping the oringal silk wallpapers or metallic covered plaster. Drywall is basically a temporary building material. It can not take moisture and it is made of paper and a water based product. Concrete board and Portland cement base products last longer and are totally waterproof and fireproof but are heavier and more time consuming to put up. They need more support for the higher weight. A staple in every American home at one point in history used to be called the tin ceiling and also imitation plaster. They were hand carved by rope drop hammers and pressed dies. In many surviving victorians you will many times see these covered up. On top of that, plaster is no longer used in modern homes, which is the reason soundproofing is not very good and also why walls can easily dent. The chance of finding a team of workers that are experienced in putting up new plaster are also close to impossible to locate today in large numbers in many parts of the country, which drives up the costs tremendously.
Since we brought up ceiling, let’s go even higher and talk about the roofing. When driving past an older home one thing you may notice is the roof. It looks dramatically different from the roofing you are used to looking at on modern homes. In the 1960’s when the plastic industry took off, cities across America began to be designated as “plastic cities”, where the majority of plastic manufacturing took place. Anyone remember Foster Grants, Dupont, Solar Chemical, 3M, Borden Chemical, and many more? Well as you know, plastic is derived from petroleum. The plastic and oil industry during this time period produced a lot of waste in a new plastic fantastic land. These companies used to be able to dump their waste in rivers in the 1950’s including teflon and PCB’s. They were called tar pits or dumping grounds. However in 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the Clean Water Act (CWA) which completely banned the practice of dumping petroleum and oil waste in our river. We started declaring federal cleanup zones across the country that continue to this day and we needed somewhere to put this waste.
Now the oil industry was plagued with where they would dump this waste. It was now against the law to dump petroleum in our rivers, but what if we disguise it in the name of infrastructure spending? What better way to secretly dispose of waste than to disguise it as roads, parking lots, and roofing? So cities turned to the American Mafia for help in disposing this waste. Roads went from reinforced concrete to asphalt, and roofing went from ceramic slate to tar and asphalt shingles. This opened up a new line of workers in this country called “roofers”. Roofing is simply not an historic trade as it is today, because to be a roofer implies that your job description is replacing old roofs. Sorry roofers and contractors in the business and I mean no disrespect by saying this, but maybe the question that should be asked is why do so many roofs in America need to be replaced anyhow? The very real reason is because we started abandoning the use of slate production. Sourcing the material can also be a problem. There were once hundreds of slate quarries along the east coast of the United States, but today only handful remain. This brings up the cost of materials tremendously as the product itself is more scarce. Unfortunately this leads many home owners down the wrong path of gutting their roof with a material that won’t protect their victorian. Slate roofing has an average lifespan of 150–250 years or more and they are moss and mold resistant. Asphalt roofs have to be replaced every two decades or less. This is why you see a lot of churches and cathedrals that use this material. Nobody wants to climb up on a high tower every decade when you don’t have to.
However this is also the reason why so many victorians suffer from rot. On many shows you can watch on television, usually the first thing any renovator will do is look at the ugly roof and replace it with fresh tar. Too few understand that the architecture of a victorian period home was built for using slate. When contractors built slate roofs, there was usually spacing on the roof frame because it did not matter. The roof spacing could be as large as 2" and that was common. Now when you rip up that slate roof and put on a rubber roof, all of a sudden those spaces which are wide open allow an access point for your roof to leak as tar does not act as a good barrier. You can tell a roofing company to cover over the holes with plywood, and most contractors will do it but I have found they will refuse to cover with insurance. When we used slate roofing not only was it a better defense at keeping away moisture and rain from your roof frame, it also made an environment that was extremely difficult for moss and other fungus to grow on. Unfortunately home insurance companies discourage its use today by indiscriminately raising rates on homeowners that choose to go with the material. Their reasoning is that slate roofing is dangerous because if a tile fell it could cause serious injury. If your roof was properly installed it’s not going to blow away and hit someone in the face, but that also brings up the point that it takes a greater skillset. It really has to be installed by a team of masons and that brings up costs.
This moves me into a discussion around the foundation of homes and how the construction of setting a foundation has changed over the centuries, and how that pertains to moisture and water management. When homes from this era were constructed we did not invent reinforced concrete as of yet, so the foundations came from locally selected stones from quarries. These stone foundations have been known to last thousands of years, and we can look at the castles throughout Europe still standing as proof of this. Along with picks and shovels, horse drawn scoops were used to dig pit for the foundation. Now for the fact that these homes were built as a stone foundation, meant they were constructed with cellars as opposed to basements. What this really meant is they had a dirt floor and this will now be the focus of our discussion. One of the main line of defense to keep out the rain is a working roof shield, but beyond that and maybe even more importantly is your draining or plumbing system. Believe it or not, in many homes from that time period the draining system was the front porch and no other draining system was installed. Homes being built today keep this in better mind. As inviting as a front porch or otherwise known as a piazza may appear, it also had a rather important functional purpose as well. It blocks and moves rain and snow away from the foundation, which in many cases would have been a stone wall foundation. Many front porches were left sadly as an afterthought, and are either in very bad condition or simply torn down and never replaced again.
When a front porch begins to decay, you have water that leaks underneath and into your foundation, and that is when you foundation begins to separate and you get water in your cellar. Now this wouldn’t be a problem when your home could breathe. Victorian architecture can be a lot more complex than you think. For that reason it was common in servants sections of homes where a front porch was not located, in the bottom windows there were engineered rain catchers as seen in this Italianate built in 1886 in New Hampshire. This was common in areas that received a lot of snow where a wrap around porch was not used, but what was the exact purpose of these? A large feature of water management that many home owners neglect today on older homes is the concept that we moved away from self reliance water management to a city hookup sewage system. By and large homes during this time period unless they were built in the city were not designed to be hooked up to a sewage system. Victorian homes in so many cases were designed for well water. When looking in the back or front yard of your property you may find evidence of a well that once existed but no longer exists, or even a capped well. You may believe this adds to the historic qualities of your yard and smile whenever you cross paths with it, but these wells in many cases served a very real purpose beyond supplying drinking water to your home.
A well thought out well system was designed to take advantage of the ground water underneath your property, and where does ground water come from? Every time the weather man comes onto the television and states it is about to rain, you can be sure that your home is going to get a healthy dose of moisture. Those wells on victorian property in that time period were called cisterns, and the cistern would take in the redirected rainwater away from your property and collect it for use in your well water. Cisterns often included very tight brickwork and could be described as “very pretty” inside. The system would store rain water from your roof of house via downspouts, and it would often pipe the groundwater through multiple floors of your home. As both cities, suburbs, and small town communities began to outlaw and shift away from outhouses and septic tanks to municipal sewage, these well systems were discontinued and often times removed and covered up with concrete and cement after many home owners refinished their cellars and turned them into basements. This inadvertently removed the original drainage system on these homes making gutters now necessary. The problem with gutters of course is homeowners neglect of cleaning them.
“Grandma used water from our cistern to wringer wash her clothes in basement, fill the bathtub upstairs and wash her dishes in it in the kitchen sink. They brought in buckets of fresh pumped well water to drink and cook with. My dad had to crawl down into the cistern a few times a year to scrub the walls when he was a kid. You truly don’t understand what soft rainwater is until you’ve had it from a cistern in your bath, luxurious. — Joan Meany
When we moved towards finished basements in many cases this involved covering up the original stone foundation with cement, and would often involved adding layers applied to the foundation that was made to look like concrete blocks. Now you had a pretty basement you could walk in not full of mud where you could put a washer and dryer, but now the rainwater had no where to collect. The rainwater now has a tendency to simply sit. You pair the removal and plugging of cisterns with pouring cement over the hidden damage of stone foundations and dirt floors, removal of the original front porch, and the addition of modern gutters, you add a recipe for structural problems and hidden rot that is making victorian period homes experience foundational shift and complete structural failure of the wood. Another mistake many homeowners make is adding the gutter system. If you are in a normal northeast freeze thaw cycle keep an eye on the down pipes. The nature of copper is that it stays cold and freezes very easily. The seams (which they always turn to the back against the structure for esthetic purposes) regularly split open because of the freeze thaw, and water will then just pour out the split and down the outside wall of the structure causing other issues. Apparently the flat roll they use to easily make the perfectly round down pipes isn't as structurally solid if they do a crimped or corrugated band all the way around, and the seams have a higher probability of splitting open.
“Our home was built in 1865 with long eaves and no gutters. I find the gutters ugly and they do very little to manage water flow. The need to be cleaned every year and because of the architecture they can’t be installed properly.” — Daniel Schiavone
After centuries went by these systems would often be removed and rust away, and today many homes from this time period have been destroyed from neglect and not because wood is not a hardy structure or doesn’t last. As we moved towards the market of energy efficiency we also opened up a new market for windows. Part of that shift during the mid 20th century away from using woods and onto synthetic materials that don’t rot was the window industry. Let’s talk about windows. Windows are smaller than they used to be on American homes. The reason real fireplaces went “out of style” is from a lack of ventilation because of the industry’s attitude towards glass. Most homeowners don’t bother replacing a window wood structure. They are encouraged to buy replacement windows that are filled with gas insulation because they don’t have storm windows and we have to consider economics. They are always white because they are made out of plastic not hard woods. This involves a double pane and most of the time triple pane design that when it breaks cannot be repaired. When we took advantage of single pane leaded glass, each pane could be replaced and it would last a lifetime. It’s also the reason we don’t see leaded stained glass design anymore in homes.
“Never, never, never throw away old windows. People replace 200-year-old windows with new vinyl ones that are guaranteed for five years. They are made of oil products and evil gases and soon their useful life is over and they end up in the landfill. Old windows are made of clean wood and glass, and, once rebuilt, are good for another 200 years.” — Mathew Cummings
You have to remember that anything known as “replacement” are meant to be replaced. That goes with replacement roofing as well that isn’t built to last. In such a new industry was born called the replacement window market. In different shapes, sizes, and gases galore. Replacement windows took America by storm in the 1980’s with advertisements at first for aluminum storm windows. By the turn of the century we had moved almost entirely to vinyl with the benefit of being completely safe from rotting, and new gas insulation that provided double or even triple the protection in energy efficiency. Almost overnight home owners started began out their old rotted and dangerous contraptions that would chop off your fingers, and architecture began to change drastically and this was especially apparent on older homes. The second worst thing about replacement windows is how much they detract from the beauty of a victorian home. Original windows are usually larger and are designed to give the home some character and class in the molding details. It’s easy to overlook the importance of original windows to an original victorian home. You think you want a nice quick fix to your stuck rattling old wooden sashes, but many believe it’s worth the time to restore the originals.
“My house was built in 1890’s. The windows are original with wooden sashes. The custom storms also are wooden, that attach by hooks on the outside and they are easily removable. I love them. The wood is a much better insulation than more modern metal storms. My friends that have newer plastic coated windows have noticed that the thermal glass part does fail after 10 years and the sashes crack discolor and shrink. If your windows are a good fit and not rotted you really do not need to change them. Do not fall for the pressure from the industry that likes to sell you things you really do not need.” — Gary Spence
The largest window replacement companies are selling customers on replacements that last a little more than a decade. Little do many know that repairing an old single pane window and adding a storm window for increased insulation can cost three times as less for the customer and last drastically longer. For many though repairing windows are simply a task that is more complicated, takes more time, and many are not willing to look into. It can be far simpler taking a sledge hammer to a dirty old and warped window and popping in a fresh new and clean plastic pane. For one when you’re going back that long ago, the putty being of that age begins to fall apart. Most original windows from that time period used 1/4" slats of oak to hold in the glass. For the most part the only shielding you got from the lead in the windows was wood, and eventually the wood starts to warp and separate from the glass every time they heat up from the sun. Sunlight is what oxidizes the lead and turns it into dust. Restoration involves carefully removing each window and bringing them to a specialist to place a new inner frame and glazing/putty, to insure you don’t contaminate your home or breathe in the dangerous dust. Restoring stained glass if it needs lead work can be costly, and a lot of new home owners ended up removing the original artwork.
Since the construction of these homes are meant to breathe, if down the road homeowners upgrade to modern windows you can read various literature about the problems that you may create. When these homes can’t breathe it also leads to the potential for out of control mold and mildew growth as condensation gets trapped within the walls and structure of the home. This includes blocking the gable vents commonly found near attics.
Now because of all of this, one of the arguments that is commonly told is that it is “very expensive” to keep a home from this time period heated during the winter months if you live in a cold climate. A common theme you hear is that an older building is not “energy efficient” like modern builds. They would be right to say this, but does that really make sense? How could a home made of fiberboard and thin plywood keep away the cold better than dense old growth lumber? Maybe the better question we should ask is, why do we need to use so much insulation and thicker windows in modern homes? The reality is what you’re witnessing in a victorian home is almost no insulation, and it actually does a pretty decent job because old growth wood is better at keeping your home cool during the summer. It would only be fair to compare the two buildings if you tried putting single pane windows and zero amounts of insulation in a modern home, and I wonder how freezing inside temperatures would get? One of the big points where heat escapes are the windows, and the realties are as the putty sealing leaded glass begins to degrade it is not only a health hazard but it fails to keep cold air out and warm air in. Reglazed and restored single pane leaded glass has been shown to outperform modern double insulted windows in longevity and performance. The reason being is we used to utilize storm windows in the winter months which gave you 3 to 4 inches of trapped air. People stopped using them when they became a “pain”. With a modern gas insulated window you are lucky to have 1/4" of trapped air so you lose a large amount of efficiency which an older home was not designed to handle.
The simple reason why American homes stopped utilizing storm windows is simple. It is far less expensive to use storm window attachments than to order replacement windows. This is a common theme of planned obsolescence. Instead of building a structure that can be repaired indefinitely, industry has moved towards a product which is designed to be irreparable. Opening up a new industry of “energy efficient” window companies. There would simply be no business model to be made if your windows lasted another two centuries. Another scare that is quickly brought up about this era of architecture is wallpaper laced with arsenic. You should know however that this should be incredibly rare. Misinformation being spread about the dangers of wallpaper led to removal of truly unique hand painted silk features. Wallpaper used to be considered a unique way to dress up each room. By 1950’s most renovators ripped them out and replaced them with plastic paints, so it is incredibly rare to find papers that have been kept in good condition to begin with. However even if you do encounter wallpaper it should be of no alarm to anyone.
For one arsenic when it was still used was only used to make certain dyes such as greens known as “Scheele’s Green”. A huge myth is that arsenic was so dangerous that it was banned. The reality is the use of arsenic in papers has never been banned by any governmental organization to this day. The phase out of arsenic was completely voluntary as consumers demanded safer options. Moris Walpapers and Logman’s & Company among the top wallpaper manufactures switched to arsenic free papers by the year 1872. That means really the last five decades of the American victorian era of architecture should not contain any arsenic worries if you own a home built after the 1850’s. Always get an older home tested for air quality before moving in. Yet another scare word we usually hear when buying an older home is “asbestos”. Asbestos was once a common insulating material used in a home’s piping system and could become airborne when it breaks down. It was also used in plasters for a long time, so as plaster broke down or cracked you could become exposed. Here is the thing about asbestos though. Asbestos was not commonly used in homes until really the 1930’s. If you are buying a victorian built in the 19th century it would have been built using horse hair lined plaster which is how we gave plaster it’s strength until the 1920’s. From there we replaced wood shingling with asbestos siding. Buildings built from 1860 to 1930 are very much the safest homes we ever produced.
I often hear asked, how did our ancestors survive without air conditioning? Many of the homes being built today have an alarming lack of ventilation and shade. This helps during the winter months to keep warmth in, but it also works during summer months as well. Think about it. When you open windows during the summer month and have a breeze, it’s much more pleasant to tolerate with no climate control. Homes built before mid 20th century required adequate ventilation because air conditioners did not exist. During the summer months the only way to cool down your home was with very large windows, so it was common for victorian house construction to have opposing rooms from one another. What this meant was if you had a bedroom on one side you had a bedroom on another side. The windows were built directly opposite of each other. It was called cross-draft. You often here the phrase “wow they made windows so big back then”. The high ceilings and transom windows placed on every door that would remained shut in each room allowed the heat to rise and pass from room to room creating a slight vacuum, and out the lowered outside windows. Otherwise the heat would just be trapped. You could even create a little breeze even on the stillest days. If they built houses back then the way we do today they would roast in the summer heat. In the winter you closed the transoms thus trapping any heat in the room. It was a very effective way of controlling the temperature. That’s why you had hallways instead of open concept. This created a huge draft of air circulation to cool homes during the summer, along with high ceilings. It was called a dogtrot house among other designs. You pair that with old growth woods that stay warmer in winter and cooler and moister in summer. Many owners of homes from this time period notice how much cooler their rooms stay during the summer months.
Today we favor open concept instead of many smaller rooms, as we have grown accustomed to the luxuries of climate controlled central air systems. We like to pretend that modern homes are more energy efficient, but we have to remember these older homes were built with no insulation. Imagine if you remove all of the foam insulation and “energy efficient” vinyl windows built into modern homes that are sealing you from the outside air. How energy efficient would drywall really be in keeping out the cold?
We also planted trees very close to homes, to provide adequate shading and a breeze to allow a draft to move back-and-forth between the windows. Also we had front porches and storm windows. They were called shotgun features during the victorian era, that allowed home owners to keep windows open even when it was raining and even during the winter because front decks shielded wooden windows from the elements and prevented rot. As inviting as front decks are recreation was not their only purpose. A lot of times when the decks themselves on these older homes are torn down during a remodel, the outside structure becomes more prone to rotting and termite destruction. It’s often the bottom windows where puddles settle and moisture builds up in wood previously protected, as gutters were not originally built during this time period. These features brought more air circulation, more cross draft, better ventilation and kept homes cooler blocking windows from direct sunlight. The decline of the American front porch is not only socially and culturally sad to see, but it is creating a host of new problems, such as the inability to maintain proper airflow for a real fireplace setup to occur.
Also chimneys played a huge role. A lot of people think chimneys were constructed to remove toxic chemicals from the area high enough so it would not be dispersed on the surrounding population and homes. Not true. Large chimneys were built to provide a good draft in your home. The taller the chimney, the bigger the draft and air circulation you could get. Homes are no longer built with large brick or stone chimneys anymore to save on costs, and most homeowners with original chimneys get them capped or outright removed. Laying a chimney is a dying art that is disappearing as we switched to gas. Kids growing up today will have no idea what Mary Poppins is talking about. They will have no concept of Santa Clause. Can you imagine that Homes that were built before the mid 20th century were designed to be heated by wood or coal. This meant that a home had to have an adequate ventilation because in order for a wood fireplace to work adequately, they need what is called draft. Modern homes do not have enough draft in order to keep a wood fireplace lit. They will go out. This is because space heaters replaced fireplaces for energy efficiency, so new forms of insulation have replaced asbestos and fiberglass such as foam. Soot which is also a carcinogen from a fireplace is created from incomplete combustion, from the existence of no draft or a weak fire. So many homeowners wonder why their original fireplaces are so dirty or won’t stay lit, after they just paid a lot of money for a contractor to make their home “energy efficient”. This requires them to put chemical agents in the wood at the factory to make them more flammable, which are also more dangerous to your health.
Gas originally replaced your real wood fireplace, so what that meant was you put a gas ignitor inside of an actual chimney. However newer homes are no longer being built with real chimneys, and they have little to no draft. The industry adopted what is called ventless gas, and that is exactly what it sounds like. There is no ventilation, there is no draft, and we are made to believe that this is perfectly safe. Many people don’t realize that gas just like wood or any other substance that is burned, creates some carbon monoxide and a host of other chemicals when it is burned off. You would never turn on every range on your gas stove and leave it on all day in a closed room, but that is exactly what we’re doing when we keep a gas fireplace running all day in a newer energy efficient home? Do you ever feel lightheaded or sleepy close to one?
Real fireplaces used volcanic rock as embers, which are more expensive today and getting harder to find. So even the real fireplaces today that are left are even using new artificial rockwool embers that pose unknown health effects when they are burned in the air and handled. Old growth woods also burn cleaner and they produce better flames. The woods we are using today produce more soot because they have a higher BTU which means a more difficult time combusting and keeping a good flame. The denser the wood, the less soot it produces and the slower it burns. The more efficient. Your typical commercial firewood sold in stores today has flame inducing chemicals in them to make them more flammable, because they are not dense at all. They are sourced from young trees that are harvested to grow extremely fast unnaturally. With less access to better woods today because it is more profitable for the market to sell young lumber, the less of a quality fire you will have and the more lumber you end up using.
BTUs in large branches versus the main trunk wood
Another feature that often made real fireplaces work was central heating ducts throughout the entire home during the victorian era. You heard that right. Vents that were built in the floor leading from the stairwell would allow hot air to travel throughout the entire house as heat rises, and these were often covered up when new flooring was replaced over the years. This makes heating a home by one or two central fires even less efficient. It would be the equivalent of building a modern home with three floors, but only putting baseboard heaters on the first floor, and then complaining that your home is difficult to heat. Not mentioning how thick horse hair plaster really is. Another common problem is an aging fire place when your flute door isn’t sealed properly, you’re losing all the heat right there. Newer homes are often jokingly referred to as trapped cages of formaldehyde leeching insulation foam, epoxy resins, radioactive windows, plastic fumes, and no ventilation what so ever. It’s true though. It is estimated that newer homes have 2–4 times the amount of VOC’s in the surrounding interior air. Older homes can actually breath and have a draft. Asbestos was not used in the mid 19th century so that would not be something you would need to worry about either.
Another aspect was the art of the drapes. Very rarely will you find a very old home with its original curtains still in tact. Drapery were visually appealing but they actually held a purpose, and that was to insulate. You would typically have spring and summer fabrics and fall and winter. However many interiors were often upgraded when the blinds craze took off. The nature of the way the floor plans used to be built also actually makes it easier to heat too. For instead of one large open concept area, you have many small and cozy rooms with many doors you can shut to keep out cold. Closing off areas of your older home is always an option to make heating easier. The old plaster walls we once used also worked as great insulators, and that was one of their main functions. It was common to see two foot thick of horse hair. The issue is they crack and have openings after around seventy years. Usually it’s hidden behind wallpaper you cannot see and is a major flaw with older homes.
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Don’t get me wrong you will always have a much larger draft compared to a modern home, but you can take measures to make a victorian livable in colder climates. Context really matters when you are talking about living in these homes. A majority of heat loss occurs through the roof. If you don’t insulate the attic, of course it will feel cold in any age of home. A two hundred year old wooden door is not going to fit as tightly as it may have once. The house will have settled with time, and doors will need to be planed and adjusted. You simply cannot compare apple to oranges, as I would be interested to see how comfortable it would be to live in a modern home two centuries from now. Being the caretaker of an older home for this reason is a lot more involved, and this is what usually turns a lot of people away from owning one.
Are older homes bad for the environment?
The point of writing this entire article was to showcase that what is happening to victorian homes across the country has very much to do with neglect, and that newer homes are not energy efficient or environmentally friendly as they are being advertised. Is a home really environmentally friendly if it is not being built to last more than a few decades, or is the victorian home that has lasted for the last two or three centuries win that contest of sustainability? These earth tones landscapes are becoming so rare even in the victorian homes they once stood in, as fashion trends and keeping up with real wood interiors can sometimes cost more than owners are willing to spend. It’s so much easier to slap paint and drywall over existing architecture, than it is to refurbish historic architecture. The same thing happens to roofs. Many of the original slate roofs that lasted hundreds of years have been replaced with modern asphalt, along with modern gutters that are often times become clogged because of laziness. Then many wonder why it’s so expensive to keep up with an older home, or why older homes are now rotting out in unprecedented numbers. Many victorians because of this are former shells of what they used to be. This is a part of America that is dying.
The greater question though is why is this happening? The incredible tragedy of this entire debate is that victorian homes are not a respected aspect of American history. In many cities and towns across America, later victorian era homes (1880–1920) are not protected from getting demolished. In my town, in order to be designated as an historic home you must be older than 150 years old and have someone notable that owned the property in the past. It’s extremely difficult to get a new home improved, and local governments can be picky on what they choose to save and what they choose to demolish.
The greater tragedy is that we have simply lost the knowledge and skillset, and natural resources available to make homes in the same way we once did. Maybe that is why we are never going to see a victorian revival. A lot of insurance companies fail to appraise the real value of these homes. How could these homes ever be replicated again if they were lost in a fire? The real answer is they couldn’t, and many have truly been lost to fires over the years. The amount of woods such as walnut today is far less common, you simply couldn’t replicate molding the way it was once built. How could you find the workers to build horse hair plaster instead of drywall? Code standards force new safety precautions in homes that discourage pointy objects and wooden windows that can chop your fingers off. Which reminds me you should do everything you can to prevent a fire from destroying your home, and that is why homes from the past used to come equipped with lightening rods since it was once common to have metal roof gates and tall towers during this time period. Normally you’d see a rod connected to a grounding wire which would go straight into the ground. A trend on victorian homes once was to put glass/ceramic balls on the rods as a decorative means, but more so as a practical measure. If the ball was shattered or broken, that indicated that lightning struck the rod. Everyone I’ve met with a rod on their house says it’s worked anytime lightning struck.
In a better sense of the question then, what is the impact on our environment? For many, victorian period architecture represents a time of excess luxury and are often viewed as monstrosities in comparison to refined contemporary homes and buildings that would make up the movement towards 20th century modernism. It is often said that the environmental impact that would occur in building homes like “we used to” would be extremely wasteful and if not impossible to construct today. However when you look closer at that statement, is it really true that a style of architecture could be bad for the environment? Perhaps modern developers do not want to realize how well American homes were once really built. This was not just the exception for a very long time, it was the norm for all wealth classes. Below is a photograph of an Italianate home that was demolished long ago, of your typical middle class victorian lifestyle in the middle 19th century. The standard of living and longevity among American homes today in rural America is at an all time low as more Americans are moving into urban areas. People simply value saving a quick bargain over preserving a lifetime legacy with your family. It was once common to keep a home in the family for multiple generations. Most of the homes being built today will be torn down in less than a hundred years. As bad as cutting down old growth forests may have been in the short term, ironically it was perhaps better for the environment when we crafted homes that could last thousands of years. The lumber we are using today forces us to cut down even more trees because the structure simply does not last. We have simply lost the resources, the tooling, and the knowledge from old timers on how to build homes like these anymore. These older homes were truly hand built and no two were alike. It was once a way to leave a legacy. Is shortage of lumber really responsible for what we are witnessing?
We shouldn’t use population growth as an excuse for why we can’t build these homes anymore. As of 2020 there were 19,495 incorporated cities, towns and villages in the United States. 14,768 or 75% of these have populations below 5,000 people. In the year 1950 45% of the United States population lived in a small town. In 2018 that dropped to below 20%. 80% of the American population lives in 200 of the most populated cities in America. World population including American population is set to reach its peak by the end of the century as we are having less children than we did in the past. In other words we are not running out of room. These staples of small town America are disappearing and it is a sign that industry which once supported these communities are drying up. As the people flee the homes become abandoned and the cycle continues.
Most of the buildings in cities are being constructed with steel, glass, brick, and concrete masonry. The reason why prices on hardwood lumber have skyrocketed is simply a matter of demand and trade. Over the last century demand for solid lumber products haver seriously declined in the industry. According to U.S. Forest Service in 2016, of the 13.9 billion cubic feet of North American forests consumed in the United States in that year, over half went towards the paper industry and biofuel. Of the half that is cut down for lumber, according to Weyerhaeuser only 29% in 2019 was used for new residential. That means out of all North American forestry that was cut down in 2019, just 14% was consumed from building new homes.
“Some some time thinking about what went into building your old house. Was the lumber harvested locally, with no transportation-related carbon foot print? Was it sawn in a local water-powered sawmill, with no carbon footprint. Were the bricks made of local clay and fired nearby with locally harvested wood? Was the lime used for the mortar and plaster in the house brought to the community by sailboat, steamboat, train, or wagon? How many petroleum products (plastics, Styrofoam, synthetic carpeting, asphalt roofing) were used in the construction of the house? Now think about building a comparable sized modern house, the building materials for which might be transported from around the world. It doesn’t require an advanced mathematical degree to conclude that, on a sustainability scale, most historic houses start off with a significant advantage. In this context, is it necessary for the historic house to perform as efficiently as a new house to match its sustainability? The old house starts the carbon-footprint race two laps ahead.” — Scott T. Hanson (Restoring Your Historic House Pg. 338)
What’s even more alarming is when we look closer at the numbers. 40% of North American lumber in 2019 went towards “remodeling”. In other words the yearly kitchen remodel, furniture that doesn’t last, buying a new bed every three years, maybe a new backyard deck with every season is taking its toll. Seriously how many companies building homes in America today are concerned about the outlook of their home in the next century? How many home owners are concerned about that same question? The demand just isn’t there, and when there is no demand then prices rise and the talent and speciality knowledge needed to support that market dries up. Demand for hardwoods like walnut and redwoods are lower than at any point since the 1950’s. For that reason I truly believe we are being priced out of craftsmanship. On the contrary it’s quite possible to build a home in the style of a 19th century floor plan without breaking the bank.
A Queen Anne Victorian Designed in 1885 but Built in 2002
A couple in Garland, Nebraska did just that when they were inspired by an old floor plan of a home that was built in 1887. You can read about their home below and read countless other stories. It was eventually sold for $650,000 which isn’t too bad in this economy for a mansion. There really is nothing stopping us from building homes of these styles. In many areas of the country that expertise is just not available. Builders want to build what sells. The bottom line is that, if victorian style would sell in the 21st century they would be building them. It’s not very popular. It really has nothing to do with builders or developers not wanting to harm the environment by using up too much wood. The industry has found a way to maximize profits and its not in making homes that are built to last multiple generations. It is now said that the average American family moves residences in less than 8 years. The homes being built in this century are no longer considered family heirlooms. Look around at the historic buildings we cherish and try to protect around America. Ask yourself, in four centuries from now are the homes being built today going to be still standing now. Are there going to be history enthusiasts restoring and obsessing over the current development? Like many areas of the economy that has moved towards planned obsolesce, the housing market is no exception to the trend.
I asked a few friends of mine in the industry why we have not seen a Victorian revival like we did Colonial? They simply stated it would not be cost effective to build homes like we once did. The grandeur interiors and gaudy exteriors that set left your mouth open in their presence. I wanted to showcase in this article that it really is a choice and that is what makes homes from this time period so special. They were the last era before mediocrity reign supreme and building code mattered beyond quality craftsmanship. I feel that is something we should never forget.
*This will be a part of a three part series on American victorian architecture and an economic and political history of what is shaping housing. This will be part 2 that focuses on the interior of older homes. To view part 3 click here.
