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My wife and I are looking to buy a new house in the Westchester NY area. It's about 90 years old and has a slate roof. The inspector looked at the roof with a drone, but did not "walk the roof." He and our broker said that this is standard practice.
Just curious what you all think? Should we get a full inspection of the slate roof?
We were told that we'll need to have maintenance done on a yearly basis to fix/replace slates.
Also, the house originally had knob & tube wiring. The inspector said it's no longer connected, but that there's no way for him to tell what the wiring is like inside the walls. His assumption is that the wiring was replace -- is this something we need to investigate further?
Thanks in advance.
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(08-01-2021, 07:27 PM)David Stone Wrote: My wife and I are looking to buy a new house in the Westchester NY area. It's about 90 years old and has a slate roof. The inspector looked at the roof with a drone, but did not "walk the roof." He and our broker said that this is standard practice.
Just curious what you all think? Should we get a full inspection of the slate roof?
We were told that we'll need to have maintenance done on a yearly basis to fix/replace slates.
Also, the house originally had knob & tube wiring. The inspector said it's no longer connected, but that there's no way for him to tell what the wiring is like inside the walls. His assumption is that the wiring was replace -- is this something we need to investigate further?
Thanks in advance.
If it's visibly disconnected, wouldn't it be safe to assume it was replaced in the walls? Seems like you'd see a junction somewere it was wasn't. Also seems like you could pull an outlet and take a look...
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Interesting...I brought an electrician in years ago as I was considering replacing the K&T wiring in my home...He used the old adage, if ain't broke, don't fix it, with respect to K&T.
That was some time ago, not sure how it is viewed these days
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An anecdotal story.
My electrician said he went to work on a house that was built in the 1970s. All the outlets had copper wire. But when he delved further into the wiring he found that only the final 6" of the wire was copper. The copper was spliced onto the aluminum wiring. The house inspector missed that.
House inspectors are generalists. I would hire an electrician to examine the wiring if you find it suspect. A good electrician will see problems that a house inspector might not. You would have to pay by the hour for this work.
I don't know if the electrician will be able to see into the walls any better than the inspector, but I would call that "due diligence".
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The k&t in my mom's house was not disconnected in the attic. I'm pretty sure that everything in the walls was romex. The fact there was no insulation in the walls made running wire a lot easier. I hate to think about what was done over the years. Glad it's not my problem any more. Not sure why the house inspector didn't call it out.
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House I bought in 1985 had k&t wiring mixed with romex. The romex was all at the box and used for new kitchen circuits. Some romex was also run to first floor outlets.
All the rest was k&t with some taped splices buried in the walls. I also found closet lights that used lamp cord spliced to the k&t!
I removed ALL the wiring and ran new romex.
VH07V
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Splices are a real problem with K&T. If I were buying a house that has had it sometime in its history, I think I would pay to have someone check to make sure it really has been replaced, or price a rewire job into the house price.
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(08-03-2021, 08:19 AM)EricU Wrote: Splices are a real problem with K&T. If I were buying a house that has had it sometime in its history, I think I would pay to have someone check to make sure it really has been replaced, or price a rewire job into the house price.
A lot of the old knob and tube splices were soldered which is good as far as a splice goes. The rest of the system leaves a lot to be desired with modern wiring. Roly
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My parents' home is 94 years old, about the same as the one you're looking at. It, too, has a slate roof. They have had a few slate replaced/repaired over the years but it has never needed yearly maintenance. I would look closely at the drone footage to see if there are any cocked, broken, or sagging slate. If there are, those will need to be addressed, otherwise, it should be fine for many years. Also look closely at the ridge cap or at the flat roof on top to see if they need attention.
John
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(08-03-2021, 10:51 AM)Roly Wrote: A lot of the old knob and tube splices were soldered which is good as far as a splice goes. The rest of the system leaves a lot to be desired with modern wiring. Roly
I was thinking more where someone broke the tube and wrapped some wire around the inner wire to make a splice. They probably put some tape on it, but the tape let loose and it's sitting on the ground nearby. There was at least one of those in my mom's attic
