A house has "good bones"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think of it as an older house (think 90-100 year old DC row houses)>>they are solid brick on four sides, I think they could withstand any natural disaster...so very good bones. But don't get started on the plumbing!

Uh, masonry is terrible in an earthquake.
http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/EQTips/EQTip12.pdf

Just marketing speak, as if solid timber rather than fire resistant engineer lumber makes up for the lead paint, asbestos, inadequate plumbing, out of code electrical, and draft house. But bones are good: people we are buying a house not a med school skeleton.

This should go in that MRID ridiculousness thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think of it as an older house (think 90-100 year old DC row houses)>>they are solid brick on four sides, I think they could withstand any natural disaster...so very good bones. But don't get started on the plumbing!

Uh, masonry is terrible in an earthquake.
http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/EQTips/EQTip12.pdf

Just marketing speak, as if solid timber rather than fire resistant engineer lumber makes up for the lead paint, asbestos, inadequate plumbing, out of code electrical, and draft house. But bones are good: people we are buying a house not a med school skeleton.

This should go in that MRID ridiculousness thread.

It was a good and reaonsalby inforamtive thread until you came along.

But there are idiots everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think of it as an older house (think 90-100 year old DC row houses)>>they are solid brick on four sides, I think they could withstand any natural disaster...so very good bones. But don't get started on the plumbing!

Uh, masonry is terrible in an earthquake.
http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/EQTips/EQTip12.pdf

Just marketing speak, as if solid timber rather than fire resistant engineer lumber makes up for the lead paint, asbestos, inadequate plumbing, out of code electrical, and draft house. But bones are good: people we are buying a house not a med school skeleton.

This should go in that MRID ridiculousness thread.

It was a good and reaonsalby inforamtive thread until you came along.

But there are idiots everywhere.

Hi Realtor, nice comeback!

[Anonymous]

Wow. To me it means a home that has a layout that is a good set up for an addition without a need to tear down the current house. When we bought our house 13 years ago we bought it because it has "good bones". The house was solidly built. No structrual issues. In decent shape but dates finishes. More importantly the layout of the house is such that we could add on to the back of the house without creating a "frankenhouse".

[Anonymous]

How would a realtor know if the house is built solidly, sounds like typical bullshit when the house sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would a realtor know if the house is built solidly, sounds like typical bullshit when the house sucks.

Pretty sure unless you tear down drywall do real thorough inspection, there is no way to really know how the 'bones' are. Most home inspections don't test for presence of mold or mildew (which might help identify water damaged lumber), so even if the home has is brick, that only tells you about the four walls, no the load bearing walls and framing inside the house.

I just take it as marketing, that you have a shell without obvious defect that you can pour money into make decent.

[Anonymous]

"Good bones" for a house is like "good bone structure" for a person: any improvements would be cosmetic, not structural.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Good bones" for a house is like "good bone structure" for a person: any improvements would be cosmetic, not structural.

I like this one.

And comsetics get into and out of fashion.

[Anonymous]

Pretty sure unless you tear down drywall do real thorough inspection, there is no way to really know how the 'bones' are.

Pretty sure that houses described as having "good bones" have plaster, not drywall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Pretty sure unless you tear down drywall do real thorough inspection, there is no way to really know how the 'bones' are.

Pretty sure that houses described as having "good bones" have plaster, not drywall.

haha, true, so there is no good way to inspect the bones other than literally tearing down the walls.