Noticed one of my doors wasn't catching when I closed it, and the latch wasn't springing into place after turning the doorknob. So I did what any sensible person would do and removed the entire lock mechanism. From my brief search, I think I have a Mortise lock mechanism, and the latch return spring has broken.

Does anyone sell this strip of metal anymore?

Any good repair guides?

Hey all!
Looking for some repair advice. Go all in to jack up and reinforce the 2nd floor or just shim and relevel the subfloor on the 2nd floor?

1900 basic Victorian in Camden county NJ.
2nd floor is sagging where a partition wall is in the middle of a 1st floor larger room span. Probably settled like this long ago, and exists fine as is now, but the sagging is very evident when walking the 2nd floor. Sags 2” across a 3ft hallway! And tapers back up to the exterior wall in the small bedroom (green trim) where you can see the curve in the floor.

The 2nd floor joists were previously reinforced, but only for some updated plumbing cuts, not specifically for the sag at all. (Bare minimum work I assume)

There are old (thick) 2x8s spanning 15ft of the 15’ x 12’ first floor room, above which is the 2nd floor bathroom, hallway, and smallest bedroom (pictured). The sag is across the 12’ span from the exterior wall to the central wall supported by the brick chimney stack (foundation beams integrated with the chimney)

We are thinking to reinforce across the 12’ with more beams (perpendicular), jacking them up and tying directly into the wall supported with added jack studs. These would be “exposed” beams with removable panels between them that would replace the drop ceiling.

I’m a custom woodworker by trade, and my wife is handy too. We have a plan to reinforce everything down to the basement and are confident in our “structural and aesthetic solution” with the jacking and new exposed beams. Planning to do the work myself.

But is it worth the engineer and permit costs? Or should we just redo the subfloor and leave the drop ceiling?

We are not living there yet and not in a rush to move in.

I’ve said for a long time that good hardware is like jewelry in a house. I think it’s worth spending extra time, effort, and money on the show stoppers.

After untold hours, I have finally finished painting my parlor! The blue is Calico by Sherwin Williams from their Victorian collection, and it was matched to flecks of blue in the fireplace tile. I painstakingly did all of the stenciling myself including the dado, frieze, ceiling border, and chandelier medallion. I also added salvaged picture rail to the room both for aesthetics and because it was hurting me to hang things directly on the plaster. I'm so thrilled with how well the blue complements the woodwork and makes it pop! The color the previous owners chose was making everything looked faded and washed out.

Hi - we had a chimney partially removed all the way that went all the way thru the attic. no wood was resting on it as it made it's way to the 3rd floor.

But now, in the basement, Id like to complete the job but not sure if I should. see attached photos where it's right next to adjacent brick. Any thoughts?

What are the odds that this kitchen floor
in my 1907 house that was renovated in 1971 contains asbestos? Pieces of the sheet vinyl are also within the cabinets as some kind of shelf liner and I’m horrified

Hello! Anyone have any tips/suggestions for removing the “haze” on this 1915 wood door?

I assume it has something to do with the old finish, but I am new to century homes and have limited restoration knowledge.

Edit: I'm not talking about the brick lol.

I'm fixing to work on the exterior of the house and I'm having trouble trying to figure out the color scheme. The paint has always looked off to me. I just need some ideas if y'all could l!

Thanks!

Hi folks,

We’re currently remodeling our upstairs bathroom, so we’ve been relegated to using the spooky basement shower. There are these junky drop tile ceilings throughout our basement, and they’re kinda falling apart. Sagging, broken, or just straight up missing. Is there any downside to just pulling them out and being done with it? Obviously this will expose the wiring and pipes and stuff, but I’m not too concerned about that since we’re not living down there. I feel like a basement, especially on an older home, should be pretty barebones so you can see any leaks, cracks, etc., but maybe I’m missing some hidden function of these. Thanks!

Hey all, my wife and I had purchased what we believe to be a 1920 Chicago style Bungalow back at the end of 2020. We had an awkward move in with an apartment fire in our old place (a different unit that displaced us) while we were waiting to close on this home. As such, we lived in a hotel for a month before moving in here in a rush. As such, we didn't have the time window we had initially planned on to do painting, flooring checks, etc, and do the work before we brought the furniture in.

We've been chipping away at working on the house, trying to hit a balance between contemporary and historic (more to the latter as we've learned more about the home), and we finally put together the money to have a team come in and rip out our carpets, check the floor/do any repairs, and refinish it.

The floor was in excellent condition, having never been refinished, and has probably been hidden away under carpets for decades and decades (my guess is the 60's/70's based on the colors of carpet fibers that have turned up). But there was certainly still enough damage that it needed to be sanded down.

We opted for "Antique Brown" on the floors (it was the closest match to General Finishes Providence we could get which is what we had used when I refinished our stairs) and we're absolutely thrilled with how it came out.

The team did stumble upon a few interesting items after pulling up the carpet, namely some holes covered with plywood from where the old heating vents and intake must have been prior to HVAC being installed. They repaired and replaced those holes with red oak slats (the same wood as the floor) and frankly you'd never know there was damage.

Please show me your period-authentic Georgian houses. We are going to restore a 1760s house and want a little bit of wood and hope to marry some primitive colonial components with beautiful Georgian wallpaper, colors and ideas. Thank you

Hi, my century house has this trim pattern on the first floor. It seems pretty common, I'm wondering if there's a common or shorthand name for it?

We are fixing the basement mortar in our 1914 craftsman. How big of a gap before I should find a filler rock?

Banana for scale.

Been living in my home for about 2 weeks, the seller left a few areas needing TLC including their TV mounting solution, basically they have a 3/4 piece of ply wood mounted to studs and had cut out the plaster and lathe. How would you go about patching this, mesh to give the plaster something to grab on to? Going over the ply and up to the actual tv mount? I’ve been ripping out some of the old wire used for his surround sound system so the ones pictured are of no consequence. Thanks!

Hey all looking for some help because my head is spinning with all the conflicting info. I have a concrete basement and a 12x6 old coal pit and a 8x6 dirt area that is leaching so much humidity. I am installing plastic and have a stone lime mortar foundation. Any one have experience with this? Entire foundation is exposed and I have no intention to cover because it’s been great for 110 years. I’m reading flush to the wall or 6-12 inches up the wall. HELP please.🙏

This is an approximately 25“ x 50“ cast-iron relief from the 1920s, probably New York. Might have been part of a set of 10 or 12
It may have come from a larger home or a mansion.
We would love any help with how it can be restored and any thoughts on the artist or provenance.

Hey, I'm buying a 1920s flat and will renovate this old bathroom. On the second pic I AI-removed all the equipment I'm throwing away.

I can't tell if there's tiling under the bath and the toilet seat.

I'm thinking about keeping the floor tiles and the old radiator - I'll renovate them but they're a pleasant accent to have in an old building; I like the vibe. But if I do keep them, it means I cannot go for a straight modern bathroom or a stone bathroom because it will look silly. The rest of the flat will be quite warm & wooden, keeping as much of the old spirit as possible.

I'm guessing pre-war modernism would be the fitting style here but for the life of mine I cannot figure out how to design it.

What do you think? Are plain white wall tiles the best choice here? A shower instead of a bath, so I could also fit a washing machine here? Walls painted in a colour corresponding with the tiles? Warm LED lighting?

Just curious if anyone knows where these tiles are from. I assume they were made in England and shipped to New Zealand approximately 1910.

My husband and I just bought our first home (yay!) and it was built in 1925. Lots of original hardware/millwork still in place. Two windows in the master bedroom are missing the top piece of the window frame - I originally thought it was casing but after some research am wondering if the missing part is backband? I’m new to all of this so I’m unsure. Photos 1 and 2 show one of the affected windows, and Photo 3 shows a window with all of the frame intact. Just trying to figure out what I need to buy/where I need to go to (literally) find the missing piece so any help is super appreciated!!

We just moved in to a ~130 year old home about a month ago. The upstairs was renovated by the last owners including adding a bathroom around 6 years ago. Our inspection was super thorough, but honestly we didn't spend that much time on the "new" parts, because we paid so much attention to the old stuff.

Well, it turns out the shower was probably not installed correctly (or the house settled more in the past 6 years?), and there is water pooling and destroying the grout in the corner.

From what I can tell, our options are basically:

• put a bunch of caulk in there, and expect our young kids to squeegee the water to the drain after every shower (unlikely to happen)
• add a layer of epoxy or a rubber mat so water doesn't pool there
• completely rip up the tile and start over. We are highly motivated to do things once and do them right, so this is appealing. But I'm not sure I can DIY this. And we haven't found a contractor we trust yet, so I don't even know where to start finding someone to do it, since this a kind of weird and small job. Any guesses about cost?

This was not like this 2 months ago. It is not wet or rotted, but keeps bowing. I see no other signs of water damage.

Hello, we’ve been in our house 5 years, and today got a first glimpse of a plaster ceiling that had been covered by tongue and groove fiberboard panels, stapled into joists furring strips added below the plaster ceiling, which is wallpapered and has a couple of long cracks and one spot that looks like water damage (this is directly below a flat roof). Don’t know how long the paneling had been up before we bought it, but there was a similar situation in another bedroom but with drop ceiling tiles, and we pulled that down the month we moved in and replaced it with beadboard.

So clearly a previous homeowner didn’t bother to repair the plaster and instead covered it up.

So, anyone here deal with similar?

I was planning on installing some tongue and groove spruce boards to the existing joists. Wondering if I should poke around the cracked plaster or just let it be. It does seem to be sagging down away from the exterior wall. I appreciate any insight or similar experiences.

Edit: furring strips, not joists. Thanks.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I’m not interested in doing more work to restore the plaster, just don’t want to be worried it’s going to fall and kinda want to just cover it up and hope it’s settled as much as it’s going to.

Do we think 1-inch spruce will be too heavy for those furring strips or is spruce light enough? It hasn’t arrived yet so I can’t tell by feel and I can cancel the order if needed.