How to look after an Asheville house from before 1970: gentle methods for old finishes, paint caution, damp basements, and what historic district rules cover.
Asheville was incorporated in 1797, and Buncombe County goes back to 1791, so the idea of an old house means something here. Today about 19 percent of the city's housing units date to 1939 or earlier, and about 41 percent were built before 1970. A home like that can be clean and still look its age. The goal of cleaning it is to take dirt away while leaving the old finishes intact, and that calls for a lighter hand than a new build does.
Census estimates set the median year built at 1984, which actually hides the spread. Around a fifth of the housing goes back to 1939 or earlier, and about 22 percent has been built in 2010 or later. The two ends of that range need quite different handling.
Montford has a city historic district with its own design standards, overseen with the Historic Resources Commission. In Hendersonville, owners in locally designated historic districts need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Commission before exterior work. Rules like these are about what happens to a building's outside, so ordinary indoor cleaning is usually not affected. Still, if you are planning anything to the exterior, such as power washing a painted porch, check first.
Paint in homes built before 1978 can contain lead, and that covers a great many Asheville houses. Lead becomes a concern mainly when paint is chipped, sanded or scraped, or when old sills and door edges rub and create fine dust. Any cleaner should avoid sanding, scraping or stripping paint. If you see paint peeling, point it out before the visit, and ask a specialist how to deal with it. Wet wiping is generally better than dry dusting near worn paint, and a vacuum with a good filter is preferable to a broom.
If small children or a pregnant person live in the house and the paint is in poor shape, speak with your doctor and consider having it tested. Cleaning can help reduce dust, but it does not make a paint problem go away.
Older finishes prefer mild products and soft tools. The following habits apply to most homes of this kind, whatever their exact age.
A crawlspace or a basement in an older house can feel the effects of a wet climate. Normal precipitation at the airport is 49.59 inches a year. NC State Extension says camel crickets invade crawlspaces, basements, garages and damp rooms such as bathrooms and laundry rooms, leaving dark fecal smears. These smears generally wipe off, and a fan or a dehumidifier helps with the dampness that attracted the crickets in the first place.
Drafty windows can also let in stink bugs from mid September through October, per NC State Extension, and lady beetles often gather on sunny walls in fall. Keep them out of old fabric curtains, since squashed lady beetles can stain, and vacuum the window tracks often through those weeks. If you see active mold or water damage, that goes to a specialist, as a house cleaning is not mold or water damage remediation.
A first visit in an older home is usually a One-Time Deep Clean, with its hand washed baseboards, wet-wiped blinds and window tracks, or an Initial Deep Clean if a plan is to follow. Show the cleaner around first. Point out any repairs, loose trim, fragile pieces and rooms you prefer left alone. After that, a Recurring House Clean keeps dust from building up on the woodwork, which is gentler on old finishes than occasional heavy scrubbing.
The questions Asheville homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
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