Should I buy an old house built in 1890?

A house built in 1890 can be a great buy if the foundation is sound and any settling has been addressed, but you should walk away or renegotiate if you find active structural movement that has not been priced. Old homes in New Hampshire usually sit on rubble or fieldstone foundations, and those need a clear look before you sign. Get a structural inspection. Then you will know what you are buying.

What an 1890 house is really telling you

Most homes from that era around here were built on stone foundations laid by hand. They have lasted more than a century, which says something. But they were not built for a dry, finished basement, and they move with our freeze-thaw winters. The dirt around the foundation is disturbed backfill, the looser soil that got put back when the house went up. That fill drains slowly and holds water. So a wet basement in an old house is common, and it is usually fixable.

Frost heave is the other thing. NH winters push the ground, and over 130 years that pressure can bow or crack a wall a little at a time. Some of that is old, settled movement that stopped long ago. Some of it is active. Telling the two apart is the whole job of the inspection.

What to look for before you buy

Walk the basement. Look at the floor wall joint where the wall meets the slab, because that is where water shows up first. Stair-step cracks in a block wall, a wall that leans in, doors upstairs that stick, sloping floors. Any of those means call for a closer look. None of them means run. They mean get a number before you commit.

We do free inspections, and we will tell you when a house does not need anything yet. That happens more than you would think.

What the common fixes cost

Old-house fixes usually fall into a few buckets, and the prices below are our confirmed New Hampshire figures.

A wet basement gets the Forever Dry System, a full interior perimeter drain with a sump pump, a 12-mil wall vapor barrier, and a dehumidifier. That runs $3,000 to $30,000. It is 100% guaranteed to be dry for life, and that guarantee transfers to you as the new owner!

A bowing or cracked wall is usually stabilized with carbon-fiber straps at $850 each or a power brace at $1,300 per brace. A single foundation crack gets injected for $1,000 to $3,000.

Settling or sagging gets supported from below. Helical piers run $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that. A lally column or floor support post runs $1,300 to $2,500. An old sill or beam that has rotted gets replaced at $7,000 to $40,000. A failing section of wall can get an auxiliary sister wall at about $1,350 per linear foot.

If the listing has a dirt or crawl-space foundation, encapsulation runs $3,000 to $25,000. That seals the ground off with a 12-mil wall and 20-mil floor vapor barrier over dimpled drainage matting, plus a dehumidifier and sump.

One thing we do not price sight unseen. A full foundation-wall rebuild, wall anchors, or steel I-beams, we price that after we see it. We do repair, not new foundations.

A note on radon

Old houses with stone or dirt basements often test high for radon. The EPA action level is 4.0 pCi/L, and the EPA says to consider fixing between 2 and 4 (epa.gov/radon). A radon test runs $50, credited toward the job if you move ahead and a mitigation system runs $900 to $6,000, and most homes land around $1,950 to $2,250. For a dirt or fieldstone crawl we install a sub-membrane system. This is easy to fold into your purchase negotiation, so ask the seller to credit it.

How to use this when you negotiate

Get every issue priced before closing. A clear repair number is leverage. Sellers expect some give on a 130-year-old house, and a written estimate from us costs you nothing and arrives within 24 hours. That turns a scary unknown into a line item.

A short word on what we would skip. Exterior excavation waterproofing gets pitched on old homes a lot. In our field experience it fails in about two or three years. Interior drainage is the durable fix, and it costs less to keep working.

Want a basement looked at before you buy? Call us at 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection and we will give you a clear number within 24 hours.

Read more: basement waterproofing, structural and foundation repair, helical piers, sill replacement, supplemental support, crawl space services, radon mitigation, and the 603 guarantee.

Related questions

Is a stone foundation a dealbreaker? No. Stone foundations from the 1800s are common in New Hampshire and many are solid. The question is whether there is active movement or water, and both have fixes. Get it inspected so you know what you are taking on.

Can you make an old basement dry? Yes. The Forever Dry System handles old basements with interior perimeter drainage, a sump pump, a vapor barrier, and a dehumidifier at $3,000 to $30,000. It is guaranteed dry for life and the guarantee transfers to you!

Should I get a separate structural inspection on an old house? Yes, on top of the general home inspection. A general inspector flags concerns, but a foundation crew can tell you if movement is active and what the repair costs. Ours is free and we put a number in writing within 24 hours.

Who is liable if the foundation fails after I buy? Once you own it, you do. That is why pricing repairs before closing matters. Talk to your agent and check what your homeowners policy covers, since most policies exclude foundation settling (iii.org).