Practical care for the pre-war row houses, Victorians, foursquares and Tudors that fill Pittsburgh and its first suburbs, with the lead paint precautions the EPA recommends for any home built before 1978.
Few American cities live in houses as old as Pittsburgh's. Census estimates place about 46.6 percent of the city's housing in the built 1939 or earlier category, and the first suburbs, built along the streetcar lines, are close behind. These houses were built to last, and most have, but their finishes need a different approach than new construction.
This guide covers what to expect in each common local house type, how to clean original materials without harming them, and the safety points around old paint.
Inside the city, attached single family homes such as brick row houses account for about 14 percent of housing units, and detached houses for about 43 percent. Squirrel Hill alone runs from brick rows on the cross streets off Murray Avenue to large mansions near Fifth Avenue and Woodland Road, with blocks of houses built after the trolley reached the neighborhood in 1893. Shadyside mixes Victorian mansions with modern apartments and condos, and most of its houses have no garage.
Just south, the Mt. Lebanon Historic District was listed on the National Register in 2014 and covers about 1,306 acres with 3,341 contributing buildings built between 1874 and 1945. Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, American Foursquare, Craftsman bungalow and Queen Anne houses all appear there.
The U.S. EPA says homes built before 1978 are more likely to have lead-based paint, and that settled lead dust can re-enter the air when the home is vacuumed or swept. Where paint is chipping or peeling, the EPA advises using only vacuums with HEPA filters and not dry sweeping.
That shapes how an older home should be cleaned:
Plaster walls take light spot cleaning with a barely damp cloth. Scrubbing hard can lift old paint or soften patched areas. Original woodwork, such as the built-ins and staircases common in foursquares and Tudors, gets a gentle wipe with a mild cleaner and a dry cloth after, never a soaking.
Radiators collect dust in every fin. A long, narrow brush and a vacuum pass, done while the heat is off, get most of it. Hex and subway tile in old bathrooms often has decades of grout repairs, so a soft brush and mild product protect it better than an acid cleaner.
Pittsburgh's history as the Smoky City, with smog thick enough that streetlights burned at midday until smoke control enforcement began in 1946, is a reminder of what these houses have lived through. Soot-darkened surfaces such as old basement brick can be wiped gently; restoring them is a job for a specialist.
Older homes often still have older plumbing. Pittsburgh Water crews replaced more than 1,800 public and close to 1,800 private lead service lines in 2025, and the utility adds orthophosphate to limit lead from pipes. If your house has not had its line checked, the utility is the place to ask.
For cleaning, the bigger day-to-day issue is sediment. The utility notes that hydrant flushing and main repairs can stir up mineral sediment and discolor tap water for a while. Old faucet aerators and porcelain sinks show that residue as brown or orange rings. A gentle cleaner and a soft brush lift fresh marks without dulling the glaze.
The city's sewer system is old too. Its first lines date to 1840 in what is now Shadyside and Oakland, and by 1908 more than 390 miles formed the combined system still in use. A basement floor drain that smells after heavy rain is a plumbing question, not a cleaning one.
A One-Time Deep Clean is usually the right first visit in a pre-war house. It hand washes the tall original baseboards, wet-wipes blinds, cleans window tracks and wipes ceiling fixtures and vents in place. After that, a Recurring House Clean keeps dust from building back up in trim and radiators. See the deep cleaning guide for the full list.
The questions Pittsburgh homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Pittsburgh 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.
