HOW OLD IS YOUR HOME?

It can often be helpful (and interesting) to establish the age of your home, especially if you are thinking about undertaking any improvements.  Here are some of the pro tips used to establish the age of a home;

• Often a power boxes will state the date it was installed, as long as no work has been done to the box, and power was connected when the house was first build this can be a good guide.
• Your local council can generally tell you when the building was approved (assuming the home was built after building approvals were introduced.)
• Have you found any artefacts around the property to indicate the age.  The above photo was a piece of timber found in a home being removed by @ Real Estate owners Natalie and Troy, which was off a box used to transport explosives to the Mount Morgan Mine.
• The architectural style and materials used will provide some good insights.  Remember building materials and styles vary from one region to another, often as a reflection of regional climates, economic prosperity at varying time periods as well as availability of materials.  It can be helpful to have an understanding of the history of the area you are working in.
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• The below table provides some examples and a very basic guide to establishing when a home (or even an extension / add on) was built using architectural styles and materials, as you view more homes and learn more about the history of the area, you will get a feel for it;

   

  Characteristic	Approximate era
  Tong and grove interior walls	Mainly used before 1930’s
  Cheaper construction methods such as fibro, often smaller homes	Post world war 2
  Builder and architects started to experiment with funky roof lines and different building materials, often smaller homes	1950’s and 1960’s
  Painted timber kitchen with marble laminate bench top, often has lower benches and lower overhead cupboards	Was used until the 1960’s
  High Ceilings	Gradually ceilings have become lower and lower over time, so often the older the home the higher the ceiling (unless you are looking at more architectural homes), in the early 70’s the current 2.4m become common place
  Floor Boards	Older homes will generally have wider floor boards, however by the 1960’s narrower boards become more common
  Different bricks have been used during certain eras	Very old bricks where often stamped by the manufacturer
  Orange bricks	Common until late 1970’s, larger brick homes were common in the 70’s
  Brown Bricks	1980’s
  Light Bricks	Very common in 1990’s have been used since
  Aluminium window frames -  clear anodised / silver	1970’s
  Aluminium windows frames – brown	1980’s, they are still available today along with a wide range of other colours (since the 1990’s)