I love homes from this era! The quality of the materials, at least among the homes still standing, is often excellent. This is anecdotal, but I find that they also tend to have a lot of natural light and stay cooler in the summer.
Yeah they’re great if maintained. They do tend to have a lot of windows (and larger windows) than typical modern homes. I suspect it’s because windows are expensive and the homes still standing were generally the higher quality homes of the era. Also - no AC back then so windows were very much functional appliances.
Double hung sash windows are especially popular in this era because they are designed to maximize airflow. You’d open the bottom sash’s on the cool side of the house to let cooler air in and open the top sash’s on the other side to let hot air out. This also creates an airflow across the home.
Yeah I’ve done extensive work on the house and anywhere that’s original is in great shape. All the wood is old growth. It had termite damage at one point but the termites only ate areas where newer (lesser quality) wood was used.
Heck, even the mirror in the bathroom opens and closes perfectly and it’s 110 yrs old.
The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it and the leaded glass windows are single pane. I’ve mostly fixed the insulation problem but the windows will always be pretty to look at but inefficient.
Comments
I love homes from this era! The quality of the materials, at least among the homes still standing, is often excellent. This is anecdotal, but I find that they also tend to have a lot of natural light and stay cooler in the summer.
Yeah they’re great if maintained. They do tend to have a lot of windows (and larger windows) than typical modern homes. I suspect it’s because windows are expensive and the homes still standing were generally the higher quality homes of the era. Also - no AC back then so windows were very much functional appliances.
Double hung sash windows are especially popular in this era because they are designed to maximize airflow. You’d open the bottom sash’s on the cool side of the house to let cooler air in and open the top sash’s on the other side to let hot air out. This also creates an airflow across the home.
I never knew that about the double sash windows but it makes sense.
Yeah I’ve done extensive work on the house and anywhere that’s original is in great shape. All the wood is old growth. It had termite damage at one point but the termites only ate areas where newer (lesser quality) wood was used.
Heck, even the mirror in the bathroom opens and closes perfectly and it’s 110 yrs old.
The downsides are there was zero insulation in the walls when we bought it and the leaded glass windows are single pane. I’ve mostly fixed the insulation problem but the windows will always be pretty to look at but inefficient.
To be fair, "nothing" is like, the best thing you'll find when you look at the insulation in old houses.
In some cases you can add a separate plain, featureless double pane window behind your original feature windows and get the best of both worlds.