When was my home built? Experts?
 

Well, I figure it's worth a shot...

When we bought our home a year ago, we were told it was built around 1925. Upon further investingation, I've found that the lot was first registered in '25, but back then this was cottage country, so it may have been built before that without having been on "titled" land.

From the get-go, I've thought the house was older than that, because the joists in the basement are hand-hewn. Then again, it may have been built using materials from an old barn. I also found that the space between the joists is filled in with large cedar planks, above which sawdust and plaster was poured. I assume this was a form of insulation.

Then this weekend, I was digging around down there, and noticed that the 2x4s that are nailed to the joists (holding up the cedar planks) are fastened with square nails. Are there any experts here that can help me date my home with these details? My understanding is that square nails were used until around the1890's.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1107750017.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1107750032.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1107750044.jpg

Wire nails started to take over around 1910, so it would be unusual for a 1925 house to be built w/ square nails.

One common way to get a ballpark on newer homes is to look at the date stamp inside the toilet tank. I'm guessing that's not going to help you out.

I think your 'late 1800s' guess is as good as any. If the framing timbers in the house had come from an older structure, chances are you would see mortices where earlier joints had been.
You say "cottage country". Where is that? I remember clearing land for blueberry production in the early 70s near Parrsboro NS, and realizing there were signs the land we were 'opening up' had been ploughed at least 80 years before. There were lots of houses built on small farms around the Maritimes and then abandoned for one reason or another. Some survived. Is it possible there was a small farm there before the area became "cottage country"?

They could have just had an old box of nails laying around and used them up on the insualtion job which could well have been added at some later point.

Reg,
From the diagram, the sawdust & plaster would have had to be put in place before the subfloor went down.
It would be interesting to poke around in the walls, to see what (if anything) was used for insulation there. Sawdust, birchbark, newspapers? One old house in the western Annapolis Valley had hides stretched between the studs to keep the wind out.
Keep us posted.
Les

Looks interesting.

Here is a short story, kind of food for thought.

A builder I know knocked down a small cottage on a lake. The foundation and crawl space used several large beams, some of them charred.

A history search revealed that at one time a lodge across the lake from the 1880's burned down ( in 1920-ish). The locals dragged timber across the ice and reused the wood for new construction.

He re-used this same wood to make a "post and beam style" surround on his fireplace. It also served as trim, stair ballesters and guard rails in the loft of the new house.

He has old photos of the lodge all the around the house. People used to get there by trolly from Jackson Michigan. One would think that a little history will add value to the house.

Recycle - reuse.:)

Sounds to me like Viking construction techniques.. Look at the adze markings. Dark ages multi-purpose tool. Slaying of coastal peasants or squaring off trees.. Global cooling pushed them back to Greenland/Iceland many years ago..

global cooling? even without our evil industrialization? You've got to be kidding me. Everyone knows that capitalism and industrialization is the root of all evil and global destruction! :D

The evidence of Vikings in Atlantic Canada is really quite compelling. Interesting histories. As for the weather - the Romans grew grapes in England and centuries later the Brits ice skated on the Thames every year. But lets not change the subject..

NS and NB are a great part of this world. Great folks up there..

It's tough to tell from what's here. The type of hand work on the joists suggests early work, as do the nails. But, there's no way to really tell for certain if these are parts that might have been salvaged and reused, or if they're from the original construction.

What's the foundation? Have you looked inside any of the walls? Whats it look like there? What does teh rest of the lumber look like? Hand hewn or sawn?

A lot of it can also depend on where you live and the type of neighborhood/houses that yours was when it was first built. Higher end houses used higher end tchnology, same as today. You never know, could have been the builder/owner got a deal on some logs and saved some bucks by hand-hewing the bigger more expensive pieces. Interesting story though. Don't know what to make of the insulation thing.

We found old newspapers in the walls from 1936, but they all crumbled. BTW, a page of ads from 1936 had a car battery for $.35, a set of 8 sparkplugs for .19c and a two-year old Ford was $500

Wow, posted this last night and certainly didn't expect this much interest... thanks a lot folks.

Icemaster: The house was gutted about 15 years ago, reinsulated, new windows, wiring & plumbing. Plaster walls were replaced with gyproc. Unfortunately, the house also lost beautiful coffered ceilings, douglas fir panelling in the sunporch, wainscotting etc..

oldE: The house is in Rothesay NB. The story, when we bought the house, was that it was build at the same time as the house next door by two brothers. However, theneighbor's house does not have the same features discussed here (hand-hewn beams, square nails etc..) Nor is it of the same design... my house is typical of farmhouses built in lower NB.

A couple more interesting pics:

well in the basement
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1107821185.jpg

Foundation wall towards back of house:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1107821062.jpg

An update for those who chimed in...

Found a spot behind the bathroom that has original pine floors face-nailed with square nails. I can also see the subfloor... seems to be 20" planks.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1109476090.jpg
I also found some more old square nails sweept into a corner... these ones are much smaller than the ones I found downstairs.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1109476107.jpg

Here's what I know:

You're looking at cut nails that started to come into the market (replacing simple spikes) around mid-1700's. Hand forged cut nails were the norm (and expensive), and really didn't come to own teh market until about 100 years later. You had two types, hand forged and machine made. Both were common around the same time. The hand forged were tapered on all 4 sides, while the machine made were tapered on only 2. It looks like you definitely have machine made, but can't really tell if you have any hand forged or not from the pictures.

These were used up until about the 1900-1920 range when wire nails started to take over rapidly.

So, simple clues would make me guess this:

IF you were in my part of the world, I'd be taking into consideration the rubble stone fondation, combined with the cut nails, coffers you mentioned, paneling, and the timbers would make me guess that you're looking mid-late 1800's rather than 1920's. Techniques/materials were noticibly different between those eras. however, I can only really comment on the midwest US, timeline might be different in your part of the world...

What would have been seriously cool would have been to be there when the place was being gutted and see what was under the skin. That's the best time to play house detective.

Thats still some seriously cool stuff. Have fun, enjoy.

When I was in Baltimore I had a row home that was built in 1886. They used square nails as pictured, and newspaper in the attic for insulation. If your walls are plaster and lathe it would be pretty difficult to retrofit newspaper into them without one access hole per stud cavity. Any signs of patches like that?

Early explorers in the south pacific exchanged early square nails (just like the ones pictured actually) for sex with the island girls. Nails were worn by the girls, with pride, in the form of a necklance. Unfortunately we are paying a bit more these days.

Holy Crap MAN!
You have a well under your floor!???

Have you never seen The Ring?? Get out! Get out as soon as you can... if my cell phone rings after I've looked at this thread, I'm gonna freak~!

LOL... I haven't seen it, but everyone else seems to have. My fiancee won't go in the basement because of that movie. It's pretty freaky, and I didn't know it was there until a couple weeks after I bought the place.

FWIW... turns out the well used to be OUTSIDE. It's directly under the sunporch, which was apparently a later addition. The years after the sunporch was added, the concrete foundation was poured. So, originally the well would have been just to the left of the front door.

They all seem to be machine-cut... tapered on two sides instaed of four.

I recently read that the first wire nails in Canada were made a few miles away starting in 1891. My understanding is that once wire nails became available in a given area, square nails became obsolete very quickly. Does that make sense?

Also, a lumberyard was established 5 miles away around 1870... I wonder if someone would have used hand-hewn beams if cut lumber was so accessible?