From 1920s Garden Hills houses to 1970s Dunwoody family homes, older Atlanta East houses carry finishes that reward a gentle hand. This guide covers the materials, the cautions and the routine that suits them.
Atlanta is often described as a new city, but its housing says otherwise. A third of the city's homes were built before 1970, and Buckhead holds neighborhoods laid out a century ago. The suburbs to the north add a large layer of houses from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that are now forty to sixty years old.
Older homes clean differently. Their wood, plaster, tile and paint have been finished and refinished over decades, and the wrong product or tool can do lasting harm. This guide explains what to expect and how to protect those surfaces.
Census figures show about 35 percent of City of Atlanta housing units were built before 1970 and about 12 percent in 1939 or earlier. Some of the oldest stock is in Buckhead itself. Garden Hills, between Peachtree and Piedmont Roads, was developed starting in 1925 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Historic Brookhaven grew around a golf course that opened to play in 1912, later the Capital City Country Club, and joined the National Register in 1986.
The suburbs are younger but not new. About 42 percent of Dunwoody's housing was built in the 1960s and 1970s, with the 1970s alone accounting for 28 percent. In Sandy Springs the biggest building decade was the 1980s, at about a quarter of all units. In Brookhaven, about 27 percent of homes date from 1950 through 1979.
The houses of the 1920s and 1930s and the family homes of the 1960s and 1970s share one thing: finishes that are thinner and more worn than they look.
Paint applied before 1978 may contain lead, and a large share of Atlanta East homes are that old. Intact paint is not the hazard; dust from sanding, scraping or heavy abrasion is. Any cleaning in these homes should wipe painted surfaces with a damp cloth and mild cleaner and never sand, scrape, strip or use abrasive pads on old paint.
If paint is chipping, peeling or chalking, especially on windowsills, porches or stair rails, leave it alone and talk to a qualified professional about testing and repair. That is renovation work, not cleaning.
Age interacts with climate here. Atlanta dew points sit near 68 degrees in July and August, and older bathrooms with small or original fans dry slowly, so grout and caulk need steady attention. Buckhead's west and north sides are mostly single family homes on wooded lots, which means tall trees, pollen in spring and leaf litter tracked across old floors in every season.
Mats inside and outside every door, felt pads under furniture and shoes off indoors do more to protect a century-old floor than any cleaner.
A One-Time Deep Clean is a good first step in an older home. Hand washed baseboards, wet-wiped blinds, window tracks, vents and light fixtures wiped in place and degreased cabinet fronts reach the detail that older houses have plenty of. After that, a bi-weekly Recurring House Clean keeps dust and grit from wearing on old finishes.
Tell the cleaning company about any surface you are worried about: a fragile floor, a hand-painted tile or an antique piece. Ask that new products be tested on a hidden spot first. See the deep cleaning guide for the full scope and the hiring guide for questions to ask.
The questions Buckhead homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Buckhead and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
