Submitted by taqtotheback t3_11dpzu1 in baltimore
Considering getting a mortgage for a Row Home in the Fed Hill/ Locust Point/ Riverside Area or near Patterson Park / Canton. Have lived in Baltimore for approximately 2 years now and I love Row Homes but I know nothing about them.
I would love tips on their maintenance, aspects to look out for during the search, and other topics or situations I should consider. Would appreciate any advice on the areas and land as well!
To add, even if it has been renovated in the last 30 years, be diligent about whether the work was DIY, professional but not to code (or just weird generally), or high quality professional. My house is actually kind of a mix, so it's not always the same throughout.
Yeah even with some of the "professional" jobs you have to keep an eye out for cover ups.
My old house was a full gut rehab by charm city builders back when they had a different name (I think t and d development maybe). They did a good job overall but we had a framing inspection scheduled before sheetrock was up where we found a few shortcuts on floor joists not being set properly in the brick. They likely would have been fine as they were structurally sound vertically they just left an inch of wiggle room around them that needed to be mortared in. I also got in to wire speakers while they were still building and saw a guy split a 100 year old beam with a carriage bolt because he didn't pre drill a hole for it. Told the builder to fix it and they sent me a photo of the area sheetrocked in. I had to insist they remove the sheetrock and show me the repair which ended up being a bunch of 2x4s bolted all around the split beam.
Thing is even the best companies employ contractors and they can't keep an eye on every person in the house all day.
And don't go with the home inspector your real estate agent recommends. Sometimes that inspector is basically in cahoots with the realtor to close the sale, so they won't tell you about problems that, a month after you move in, end up costing thousands of dollars to repair or replace.
Just bought in LP last year. Get a good inspector. Like any other home, evaluate the age of roof, windows, and appliances.
Observe the adjacent units. Talk to people on the block - you want to get a feel for whether you'll be able to stand the neighbors. Visit and evaluate the noise levels at morning, midday and night. If it has a skylight, pay close attention to how well it was installed - they're almost always the first thing to leak. Check for water infiltration along the edges of the top floor and the basement/crawlspace. Check the alley if you have one - will it be easy to navigate and/or bring your trash out? Does it seem like a popular cut-through or loitering spot? Check around commute times to see the parking/traffic situation.
Take a look at the brick if that's part of the structure - it should be pretty obvious if it's deteriorating. If the brick is bowing out or looks swollen, run away. run all the sinks, flush the toilets, make sure that the water pressure and drainage is good and doesn't knock or anything. Look for any signs of vermin, especially if there is a restaurant on your block.
This is a list!
second this x 10000. Have had to deal with bed bugs from a neighbor who refused to treat. The block ended up spending like 2 years treating and sending those bugs one way or another, getting them to go away, only to come back again. Finally moved out. Luckily I was renting the bed bug house but if i was trapped in a 30 year mortgage in that situation idk what I would have done I haven't found noise to be an issue I never hear my neighbors and they never hear us. I think the brick insulates pretty well but critters don't care about walls lol.
Depends on how thick the brick is... Sometimes it's only one brick thick because both sides had plaster on the walls. When that was taken off, it went back to being one porous brick thick.
It can be difficult to get large pieces of furniture up some of those narrow stairs. Just something to think about before buying any new furniture.
Also the front doors. I had a friend who couldn’t get their new washer and dryer into the house :/
live in my house long enough that both sofas I've bought were delivered through the front window. I'm lucky to have newer windows that are easy to pop out.
Just bought 2nd washer dryer and luckily delivered through a rear bulkhead into the basement and the Home Depot guys doing the delivery didn't bat an eye at doing this.
Actually the big front windows in most row homes were always designed to be the way to get big things in and out. Then people started remodeling and put in different windows not knowing they were opting out of an intentional design convenience.
I am very pleased with my wide front window for this reason. It has definitely come in handy.
Or basement
We bought a new sofa last year from Sofas etc. and they had someone from the delivery company come out and measure the doorways themselves and guarantee it would fit before we ordered. IIRC we had to pay a small fee but it could be applied to any of their furniture-- definitely worth the peace of mind.
Check if there is insulation. Our house has none, it can be very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer.
And getting insulation installed can be a pain too. We found out that our whole house had the original knob and tube wiring and that it was really brittle. We ended up having to spend $25k to get the house rewired just so that we could insulate our roof lines.
Yep
Consider that despite having brick walls you will probably still hear your neighbors every now and then.
This will vary greatly from house to house.
Some townhouses share a lot of wall space with their neighbors, while others will only share a room’s worth of length. My current rowhouse only has about 30 feet of shared wall on either side. I’ve never heard any neighbors through my walls.
Hearing them on their decks out back is a very different thing though…
I agree. I’ve never heard my neighbors except when they’re outside.
Mortar is not air-tight, so you may or may not want to move in next to someone with a smoking habit.
Check when/if it was last rehab'd as that's when the clock is likely ticking down on bigger ticket repairs (e.g., hvac, windows, roof, repointing, etc).
Rowhomes roofs are flat which typically are more costly to maintain. May need to at least be resurfaced every 10 years. Check for any evidence of water as indication of needing maintenance.
Rowhomes on ends are great, but do get a brunt of trash cans, illegal dumping, attention from artists, etc., and electricity bill will be a lot more (maybe double) due to no insulating neighbor.
Expect a usable parking pad to increase value/cost $50-75k.
Look at the back yard of the neighboring houses. They tell a lot about the neatness of the owner.
Many rush to hire Mr. Cheapy Repair to do brick work. Most pre 1900 row houses have lime mortar. It has a life span of about 130 yrs then starts crumbling. Not a problem but the mortar joints need to be re-pointed using lime mortar. Most quicky contractors use Portland cement mortar which is very hard and prevents moisture from passing through. Soft old bricks will then hold moisture and with winter freeze and thaw, the bricks will decay.
Insulate the attic first before windows. It is cheapest and the most important, then the under side of the first floor.
Parking is a problem esp for those not used to city living. No, the space in front of your house is not yours.
Seconding the mortar warning, do not cheap out on repointing! One of our neighbors had a random handyman do some repointing, and it not only looked like crap, it leaked worse than before.
You don't by any chance have a recommendation for a contractor that does repointing, do you? We are just starting to reach the crumbly stage with our mortar and want to find someone who will do it right
Sorry, no. I have been doing it myself. I have read a lot and practice on the basement walls. Its relaxing and I only do about a 36"square at a time.
Yes, parking is an issue if you don’t have a parking pad. Don’t expect to park in front of your house unless you’re willing to invest a lot of time into strategizing when you come and go. If you have more than one car in the family that’s a bigger thing.
Exposed brick is cute in theory, but in practice, most of the internal brick walls are built with softer, shittier bricks than the facade of the house. They are difficult to seal adequately, so often brick dust starts crumbling off of them and getting everywhere. Cleaning them is next to impossible. Plus removing the plaster wall to expose the brick is also removing everything that insulates you from cold, from neighbor's sounds, from neighbor's smells, etc. If you look at threads in this sub in the past, there are a lot of people complaining about their neighbors smoking, or making stinky food, or just the normal everyday sounds that we all make, and their exposed brick wall just letting it all through. There's nothing you can do to stop your neighbor from doing any of that, and it goes both ways, so even if the house you're looking at doesn't have exposed brick, if one of the neighbors has exposed the shared wall in their house, you'll get all the drawbacks.
Yes. EVen though I am not a fan on exposing he brick, I noticed that from the floor up, the plaster has been disintegrating in my basement. Where ever the plaster has turned to sand, so has the mortar. When I chipped off the remaining plaster, to re-point, I found the mortar good and hard. When I repointed the lower section, the upper old mortar stays good.
A lot (most? all?) of the more recently renovated houses have sealed brick, and I haven't heard of too much trouble in that case (although unsealed obviously is not an option).
Also, how much insulation does plaster actually provide? And I haven't heard anyone, in any of the historic homes, complain about sounds or smells. Maybe the newish ones.
Hire a structural engineer to make sure your walls are structurally sound, check the windows and door frames as stated elsewhere in this thread, and make sure the roof and deck, if there is one, are in good condition and not in need of replacing or repair. Have the joists in the roof checked also. A regular home inspector will not be able to give guidance on structural issues for the most part, and for a couple hundred more, you can have it done by a licensed structural engineer. The extra money spent is worth it considering you could end up paying thousands in repairs.
100% on the structural engineer. Especially if there are any concerns about the foundation.
I agree with everything here but also want to emphasize talking to other residents on the block, and observing the block at different times of the day (if you can). Our block is great and we have a nicely knit community- except for the house directly next to mine. Had I spent time checking out the neighborhood I might have seen the residents nodding out on their porch, dumping huge amounts of trash out of their cars into the street, having stoop parties and doing drugs openly. These neighbors had a busted pipe in their home that flooded my basement for a week until the city finally intervened. I get roaches, from these neighbors. They are the bane of my existence.
Also, make sure to check around the transome. Ours wasn’t sealed correctly and now the entire door frame needs to be replaced because of water damage.
Good luck!!
Check roof and skylights. Check basement for signs of water.
I suggest hiring a plumber to camera the sewer line during the inspection. Baltimore city has a big issue with sewer back ups. If your pipes are clay, you’re going to run into issues with backups.
I’ve rented a row home and can attest to this. There is CONSTANT maintenance to our sewer - and even though my landlord keeps up on it we ended up with 3 feet of sewage in our basement suddenly because the city doesn’t keep up on it.
I can also attest to the soft crumbling brick inside my apartment.
Get a roof warranty from the seller, then hire pest control.
Lots of rowhouses have decks. Lots of them are unpermitted and lots of them are not well built or in good repair. If you need roof work done under one, you’ll have to have it removed.
Best part about a row home is how quirky and full of personality they are. In my former home, I had to level everything to the eye and not necessarily to the level. Although an obnoxious practice, it saved me years of going "I swear this is level." The biggest hangup, like someone said here, the homes are 100+ yrs old, so when things go wrong, they are just a little more complicated to fix.
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When it snows you will need a lawn chair to hold the parking spot you spent hours shoveling.
When your neighbor has rodents, so do you! If that neighbor uses a rodenticide you (or your pets) you may find dead rodents in your space.
jabbadarth t1_jaa58ws wrote
Get a home inspector before you buy anything.
Big failure points are the roof and around windows and doors. The brick can also be a problem but that's more rare and usually more obvious. Most rowhomes are over 100 year old at this point and the structure is generally fine as long as the brick isnt bowing out and you don't see visible mortar or brick crumbling.
If it's renovated in the last decade or so just check window frames, door frames, and the roof (if possible). Otherwise things should he fine.
If it hasn't been renovated since pre 90s, give or take, then you need to start worrying about things like wiring, power and hvac.