How to clean Louisville's older houses without harming them: Victorian brick and stained glass in Old Louisville, 1890s shotguns in Germantown, Highlands streetcar homes, plaster, original floors and the pre-1978 paint rule.
Louisville kept a remarkable amount of its old housing. Whole neighborhoods of 19th and early 20th century homes are still lived in every day, with original floors, trim, glass and plaster. Those finishes have lasted a century because people treated them gently, and a cleaning routine should do the same.
This guide covers the main kinds of older Louisville homes, what each one asks of a cleaner, and the lines no cleaner should cross.
Census estimates for Jefferson County show about 36 percent of homes built before 1960 and about 60 percent before 1980. After the Great Flood of 1937, decades of residential growth went to the higher ground in the eastern part of the city, which is one reason the newer subdivisions and the older neighborhoods feel so different.
The result is a city where a single drive down Bardstown Road or through Old Louisville passes several eras of construction, each with its own materials and its own weak spots.
Old Louisville, just north of the University of Louisville campus, is the largest preservation district in the United States made up almost entirely of Victorian architecture. Its houses are mostly brick, built from the 1870s, and the neighborhood has the highest concentration of homes with stained glass windows in the country.
Stained glass is held together by soft lead came, and old panes can be loose in their frames. Dust it with a soft brush, wipe with a barely damp cloth and plain water, and dry it right away. Skip ammonia, vinegar on the leading, and anything abrasive. Tall carved trim and pocket doors gather dust in every groove; a soft brush attachment and a dry microfiber cloth reach it without wearing the finish.
Germantown was heavily developed in the 1890s, when the largest collection of shotgun houses in the city went up. A shotgun is one room wide, with rooms in a line from front to back. Every bit of grit that comes through the front door passes through the whole house, so a good mat and a floor routine that works from the back toward the front make a real difference.
In the Highlands, Deer Park was built mostly from 1890 through the 1920s as a streetcar suburb. These homes often have original oak or pine floors, built-in cabinets and small tiled baths. Old floors should be damp mopped, never soaked, and old tile and grout want a neutral cleaner rather than strong acid or bleach.
Older homes share a few materials that need a light hand, whatever the neighborhood.
Louisville Water notes that homes built before about 1950 may still have a lead or galvanized private service line, and it replaces those lines for free through its Find and Fix program. If your house is that old, a call to the utility is worth it.
Older homes are not only in the city. Middletown was first incorporated in 1797, and part of Anchorage is the Anchorage Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1982 to protect the town's rural character. In Crestwood, public water arrived in 1965, and Clorecrest was one of the first subdivisions connected to it. Each brings the same care for older finishes, scaled to the age of the house.
In an old house, a One-Time Deep Clean is often the right first visit. It reaches the baseboards by hand, wipes blinds, window tracks, ceiling fans and vents, and degreases cabinet fronts, all of which collect more in a house with deep trim and old hardware. Cleaners test products in a hidden spot first and use soft tools on old finishes. Read the deep cleaning guide for the full list.
The questions Louisville homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Louisville 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.
