Historical buildings and houses are artifacts of the past, a visible connection to our history, and require a certain level of care beyond the basic seasonal maintenance you would perform on a newer home or building – inspecting the roof, cleaning the gutters, exterior repairs to damage caused by weather and age, as well as other tasks to keep the structure looking its best inside and outside.
Before you can begin maintenance on your historical home, it’s a good idea to learn all you can about the structure so that you have an understanding of how the building materials and construction details function to avoid over-simplifying maintenance processes and treatments, which may result in long-term and costly damage. There are a lot of products on the market designed to cut down on the amount of time spent maintaining and repairing homes, but typically these shortcuts will cost you more in terms of damage to the original building materials, due to accelerated deterioration.
Monitoring, inspections, and maintenance should be done with safety in mind, not only to preserve the historic structure, but also to keep the people doing the work safe. It’s important to be aware of health issues associated with older buildings, such as lead-based paint, bird and other animal droppings, and asbestos. If the job looks too dangerous or you aren’t certain about how to proceed, seek professional services.
Part of the charm associated with older homes is signs of aging and wear, like patina that gives character to hardware like brass doorknockers. Take extra care to protect not only the features you are cleaning, but also the area around them. It’s also best to test procedures in a discrete location on the building to make sure the product or process will not cause extensive damage. Simple steps like masking off the area around a special feature with painters tape, or using gentle cleansers will help you avoid unnecessary damage.
As you might guess, maintaining a historic building or house can be costly. This is especially true if you have to repair damage to the original building materials. It’s a good idea to establish a budget in order to repair unexpected damage from weather and natural disasters, and to cover the basic maintenance requirements of the structure based on a seasonal schedule. If you’ve owned the house for awhile and have already implemented a schedule and kept track of regular repairs, it should be easy to plan a budget to meet the anticipated wear and tear on the structure. If possible, plan to set aside extra funds each cycle just in case there is additional unforeseen damage.
SCHEDULES, PLANS, AND CHECKLISTS
We cannot stress enough how important it is to have a schedule for regular upkeep, and checklists that will help you complete the repairs and preservation of the structure, and hopefully help limit unexpected costs. If you are a new homeowner or have little experience with the maintenance and preservation of historical buildings, it’s best to get help from professionals – either a preservation architect, preservation consultant, or a historically-based contractor – who can help you develop a written guide for maintenance. Some of the very basic elements of a plan include:
- Schedules and checklists for inspections
- Forms for recording work, blank base plans and elevations to be completed during inspections and when the work is done
- A set of base-line photographs that can be added to over time
- Current list of contractors to help with complex issues or emergencies
- Written, step-by-step procedures for the appropriate care of specific materials, including housekeeping, routine care, and preventative measures
- Record-keeping sections for work completed, costs, warranty cards, sample paint colors, and other information
You can keep this information in a simple three-ring binder, or use a computer database for easy updating. Everyone involved in the maintenance of a historical structure should become familiar with how the house or building should look so that they can recognize problems as they occur. By following this simple advice and making regular inspections, you can prevent unnecessary damage, maintain the original beauty and unique features, and save yourself from having to make costly repairs.