Originally posted by gaweidert My brother refurbished 3 homes all built in the late 1800's early 1900's. All he would say is that he is glad that they don't build houses the way they did in "The good old days". No regular spacing between uprights. If a 4 x 4 was used it must have meant that you could skip one 2 x 4 on either side of it etc. He had to custom cut almost every piece of insulation etc. All his homes have been on the country so who knew who built them, The barns were all top notch though.
My parents house was built in 1957. For their 40th wedding anniversary us kids all chipped in and had their house sided. After the siding job was done, the contractor wanted to know who built the house. It was the squarest two story house he had ever worked. He told my father that he could have made one measurements at the base of each wall and done all his work based upon that.
you never knew
I dropped a string from the attic to the box sill in the basement and had one location installed in under thirty minutes
same house thirty feet away I hit two fire stops on one floor and another on the next
I never trusted a ruler in old houses...walls on top of walls, pocket doors...just general chaos
the one thing I did learn was to always have a sharp prybar to pull away moldings and long, very fine bits to drill holes for telltales
it really cut down on holes in the middle of someone's floor or piano legs...don't ask...it is a story of Rupert proportions, though one I didn't do, just witnessed
I worked on a house whose first level was insulated with brick
a friend had a job on a ranch where the man of the house said...son, that drill ain't near long enough!...a soddie sided outside, plastered inside
the point is, you absolutely never knew for sure what you would find in older homes until you found it