Kenmore Undressed

How Long Should a House Last?

Europe is a continent of homes and buildings that are (or seem to be) ancient by American standards. It’s what makes visiting countries such as Italy and Spain so fascinating. Not many homes in the US are more than a century old. In the Seattle area, the oldest structures date back to the 1880’s and, frankly, many older homes in this area don’t hold up that well. Let me be bold and suggest that most homes in the Seattle area are destined to look like this beauty in Kenmore:

Of course, the longevity of a structure is a function of the materials used to build it and the care and maintenance it receives. An engineer once told me that homes are constructed with the materials available in a give area. In some places, they’re built with brick, some places use rock and here in the Northwest we use a lot of wood. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that the 300 year-old Rustico below was destined to last a lot longer than the average new construction house in Seattle.

By the way, this home is called Il Mulino di Torrigiani and is currently a rental villa in the hills above Lucca, Italy. My wife and I know the owners who recently did some remodeling to the interior. I was amazed by the fact that many of the key beams and other infrastructural features  of the rustico are original. This home was built to last.

There are a couple of other homes in my neighborhood that raise the question of how long a house should last. Take for example this house which was clobbered by a tree last year in a wind storm. The owners have chosen to keep part of the original home which is brick, and add on using modern building products: 

This house will probably look really nice when the renovation is completed. Then there’s this house which is will have eight new neighbors in the next year. A builder is reconfiguring the land around the house and the poor little thing looks as if it’s going to plummet into an abyss:

So consider this: will this home (built in the 1960’s) last longer than the new homes that will soon surround it? I did some poking around on the internet and spoke with a couple of builders who point out that an average home should last around 70 years. If one breaks the home down into its component parts, some will naturally wear out more quickly than others. One of the best sites I found that addresses this topic is This Old House.  The article is entitled: “How long things last.” It’s a great reference guide for any homeowner who ever wondered when the hot water tank should be replaced or how long the furnace should last.