What to fix first in an old house, and why the order matters

Why fix things in this order?

An old house is a chain of problems, and the first link is usually water. Fix the stained ceiling before the roof leak and you've spent money to watch the stain come back. Lay new flooring over a damp subfloor and you've paid to hide the evidence.

So put three questions to every item. Could it hurt someone? Is it getting worse on its own? Would fixing something else undo it? A yes on the first question goes to the front. The second sorts what's left, and water tops that group. A yes to the third waits for whatever would undo it. Whatever can sit unchanged waits for the end.

First, anything that could hurt someone

Start with what people stand on or hold: a handrail that moves, a stair tread that rocks, a deck that sways or has started to pull away from the house. How to tell if a deck is safe takes an afternoon and a flashlight. Check the date stamped on the back of each smoke alarm too, and replace the old ones.

If the house was built before 1978, treat every painted surface as if it might hold lead until a test kit says otherwise. It changes how you sand, scrape and pull trim, and how to prep old paint safely covers the rest.

Anything behind a cover plate, any gas line and the pipework inside a wall are their own trades and not part of this work, and which jobs need a licensed trade sorts a mixed list.

Second, the water coming at the house

Water starts more of those chains than anything else, and getting roof water away from the walls is the smallest job on this list. Start outside: gutters running, downspouts carrying water well past the wall, ground that falls away from the foundation. Why gutters overflow when they look clear covers the four causes.

If the house sits on a crawlspace, what's under the floor tells you whether the outside water is winning. Damp down there, a musty closet and rust on the hangers all point the same way, and the crawlspace guide sorts the three kinds of wet. A roof that leaks belongs to a roofer, and a yard that needs regrading belongs to excavation.

Third, what the water already got to

Once the water is stopped, find out what it touched. A soft spot by a tub or an exterior door, a board gone dark at the foot of a door casing, a soffit that sags: each one is wood to probe before anybody paints over it. Stop the source, cut back to sound wood, then finish. Where repair ends and replacement starts explains the call, and soft spots in floors covers the one that matters most indoors.

Fourth, anything that moves

Cracks, doors that stick and trim opening at the corners say the house is shifting, and the useful question is whether it still is. Date each one in pencil and watch it through a humid summer and a wet winter before you decide anything. A step you can feel across a crack, or several doors going out together, skips the wait and goes to the front. In plaster the visible crack is only part of the story, and which wall cracks matter explains the rest.

A door that sticks by itself is usually a top hinge letting go. Several openings tightening together on one side of the house is a different report, and it goes to an engineer, not to a patch.

Last, the surfaces and the trim

Paint, trim, flooring and fixtures come last because they sit on top of everything above and take the blame for it. Exterior paint goes first, since it keeps weather off the wood, and why paint fails early here says what to look for. Interior paint, doors, trim and flooring follow, once the walls have stopped moving and the damp is gone, and what baseboard and an interior door usually run is worth knowing before that round gets quoted.

If yours is a mill village house, or one of a row cut to the same plan, ask a neighbor what their repairs turned out to be. The seller's guide explains why identical houses fail the same way.

What you can do yourself before you hire anyone

Most of the first round is looking, and looking is free. Walk the outside in a hard rain and watch where every downspout empties. Go under the house with a light if it has a crawlspace, push a screwdriver into any wood that looks dark, and photograph what you find with the date on it. Find the main water shutoff before you need it. Write everything down in that order: safety, water, rot, movement, finishes.

Clearing gutters at a single-story eave, extending downspouts, pulling mulch off the siding, changing smoke alarm batteries and recaulking a tub are all homeowner jobs, and the small-jobs guide covers the screwdriver-level ones.

Stop at anything behind a cover plate, at wood that gives under the screwdriver, at a ladder on a second story and at any wall you'd have to open. Those go on a list for the right trade.

What to leave alone until you've lived through a wet season

Past the safety items, spend first on water outside the house, then on wood it has already ruined. Everything else gets better information if you wait.

Hold off on gutting a kitchen or bath, replacing flooring, repainting inside and tearing out plaster. A house shows you what it does in a hard rain and in a humid August, and new finishes laid over an unsolved problem spoil first.

Hold off on anything that closes up evidence, too: sealing a crawlspace, filling a crack you haven't dated, painting a stain you haven't traced. Each one hides what you needed to know.

That leaves a short list for now: safety items, outside water, and wood the water already ruined. If yours is longer, send it over. Home repair is the place to start, and quotes are free.

Questions that come with this one