A care guide for the older houses of Brookfield, Wauwatosa, West Allis and Waukesha: postwar ranches, cream brick homes from before 1940, original wood floors, plaster walls and tile that needs a gentle hand.
The west Milwaukee suburbs grew in waves, and each wave left its own kind of house. Wauwatosa and West Allis filled in early, much of it before 1960, and West Allis grew around a single giant factory. Brookfield came later, turning from farmland into postwar subdivisions in the 1950s and 1960s. The result is an area where a large share of homes are fifty, seventy or a hundred years old.
Older homes clean beautifully when they are treated with care, and they can be damaged quickly by the wrong product. This guide covers what is typical in each town and how to clean it safely.
Census estimates give a clear picture. In Brookfield, about 43 percent of housing units were built before 1970, and the 1950s alone account for about 20 percent. In Wauwatosa, about 63 percent predate 1960 and about 29 percent predate 1940. West Allis is similar, with about 59 percent built before 1960 and fewer than 5 percent added since 2000. Even in Menomonee Falls, which has grown a great deal recently, about 41 percent of homes were built before 1970.
Those numbers translate into specific surfaces: oak and maple floors under old carpet, plaster walls with decades of paint, small tiled bathrooms, wood windows and storm windows, and built-in cabinets with original hardware.
Wauwatosa's older homes owe much of their look to local materials. Nearby quarries supplied the cream colored brick and limestone used in many of its houses. The Washington Highlands neighborhood was laid out in 1916 by planner Werner Hegemann and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Inside homes of that era, expect hardwood with original finishes, plaster that has been patched many times, older tiled bathrooms, and original glass in some windows. Each one wants a mild cleaner and a soft cloth. Masonry fireplaces and exposed brick shed fine dust, so dust them gently and avoid wet scrubbing on porous brick.
West Allis grew around the Allis-Chalmers plant built in 1902, became a city in 1906 and was the largest Milwaukee suburb in the early 1900s. Much of its housing went up for the workers and families of that era, and two-unit buildings still make up about 15 percent of its homes.
Upper and lower flats share basement stairs, and the stairs and landings are often original wood. Older kitchens may have painted cabinets and linoleum or vintage tile floors. Wipe painted cabinet fronts with a damp cloth rather than a degreaser strong enough to lift the paint, and clean vintage floors with plain warm water and a pH neutral cleaner.
Brookfield was mostly farmland until suburban growth sped up after World War II, and its population roughly doubled between 1960 and 2020. Many homes from that boom are single story ranches and split levels, often with basements.
These houses are sturdy, but sixty or seventy years of cleaning leave their mark. Tub tile grout has been scrubbed thin. Hardwood finishes are worn near doorways. Storm windows hold decades of grime in the tracks. A deep clean that works through the tracks, baseboards and vents gives a 1950s house a real reset, and gentle products keep worn finishes from getting worse.
A few rules apply across all of these towns, whatever the age of the house.
The Village of Lannon gave its name to Lannon stone, a quarried limestone that became a major building stone in Wisconsin cities and in Chicago. Stone of that kind turns up on fireplaces, steps and foundations across the area, and acidic cleaners can etch it. Waukesha has its own long history as a mineral springs resort, once called the Spring City, and about 11 percent of its homes were built before 1940.
For what a first deep visit covers in an older home, see the deep cleaning guide. For the full list of towns, see the Brookfield area overview.
The questions Brookfield homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Brookfield 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.
