Three Common Mistakes to Avoid When Restoring a Historic Home

Restoring a historic home can be tricky. Unlike a modern renovation, there are usually unique architectural concerns, outdated systems that can complicate the process and historic features to preserve. To avoid making mistakes with this intricate process, use the following historic home restoration tips in Birmingham, AL.

Don’t piecemeal

Too often, homeowners throw a room together with a lot of pieces that don’t really mesh well. The contractor goes to the hardware store and returns with a lot of materials and tries to put together a room with these random products.

The result is a lack of cohesion. For historic homes, it’s important for the character of each room to match the time period and tell a story. Use details to ensure the space feels like a natural extension of the rest of the home.

Don’t get overly year-specific

An attempt at historical accuracy is good, but homeowners often get off base with these efforts. For example, if your home was built in 1878, don’t try to fill the entire home with items from 1878. A few things from that year might be nice, but keep in mind that this is the year the home was built. It would not have been filled with items also made that year.

Go for a bit of variety. Look for items that are from that general era. Remember that people kept things like furniture for longer periods of time than many modern items are kept. Anything from the hundred years prior to the construction date would be appropriate. Items from the next couple of decades after the build date would also be fitting, as these would have been added to the home over time.

This is one of the best historic home restoration tips in Birmingham, AL to make the house feel like a home. When you fill the historic home in this manner, it will feel more authentic and less like a museum.

Don’t make hasty replacements

Many parts of historic homes were built specifically for that structure. Unlike modern buildings, many features were not mass-produced. That means the products available today might not work well with your structure. Because of this, a good historic home restoration tip in Birmingham, AL is to restore rather than replace.

If at all possible, do the work to restore original features rather than replace them. Wooden windows top this list. However, this is often one of the first things homeowners try to replace with modern solutions. They might work, but they aren’t really designed for your home, and they will detract from the historic appeal of the building.

Get more tips

For more historic home restoration tips in Birmingham, AL, contact the experts at Metro Contractors Inc. Family owned and operated, we specialize in everything you need for your historic home renovation. Our team can build room additions and provide roofing, siding, painting, flooring, fencing, masonry services and so much more. We highly value customer satisfaction and work very closely with our clients to ensure their expectations are exceeded. Stop by or call Metro Contractors Inc. today for a free estimate.

Categorised in: Home Renovation

This post was written by Writer