Handyman services in Durham, NC

An older housing stock than anywhere else on this site

Durham’s building history sets it apart from the Wake County towns. The neighborhoods that ring the center — Trinity Park, Old West Durham, Watts-Hillandale, Forest Hills, Lakewood and the streets around them — were largely built between the 1910s and the 1940s, and they are full of bungalows, four-squares and mill houses that predate almost every material a modern house is made from.

That changes the work in specific ways. These houses have plaster over wood lath rather than gypsum board. They have wood double-hung sash windows on cords and weights rather than sealed vinyl units. They sit on brick piers over a crawlspace rather than on a slab. Their framing is true-dimension lumber that is denser and harder to fasten into than modern stock. Their trim was milled in profiles nobody carries.

South Durham is the counterweight. The 27713 area around Southpoint and the newer developments east toward 27703 are much more recent, and houses there have far more in common with the newer parts of Apex and Cary than with Trinity Park.

Plaster, and why it is not drywall

The most common surprise for someone new to an older Durham house is that the walls do not behave the way they expect. Plaster was applied in coats over thin wood lath, and it holds on by squeezing through the gaps between the laths and forming keys on the far side. Over decades, vibration and movement break those keys, and the plaster loses its grip on the wall while still looking intact.

That is why plaster cracks come back. Filling the crack does nothing about the loose field around it. A proper repair re-secures the plaster to the lath — usually with washered screws that pull it back tight — before the crack is bridged and skimmed.

Where a section is beyond saving, it gets cut back to sound material and replaced with board shimmed out to plaster thickness, since plaster walls are noticeably thicker than half-inch drywall and a flush patch would leave a visible step. Done properly the wall reads as one surface.

The related consideration is paint. Anything built before 1978 may have lead-based layers under the newer ones, and in these neighborhoods that is likely rather than possible. Work that disturbs those surfaces is federally regulated and needs certified lead-safe practices.

Windows worth keeping

Original sash windows are one of the better features of these houses and they are the thing most often needlessly replaced. A window that will not stay open has a broken cord, and re-roping it restores full operation. A window that will not open at all has usually been painted shut, and it can be cut free without damage. Loose panes and cracked glazing putty are renewable.

Old-growth heart pine sashes have already outlasted several generations of replacement window. Restoring them and adding a good storm window closes most of the performance gap at a fraction of the cost, and it keeps the appearance that the house — and, in a historic district, the guidelines — depend on.

Crawlspaces, water and settlement

Piedmont clay does not drain, and houses built low over crawlspaces feel that more than anything on a slab. Damp crawlspaces are close to endemic in these neighborhoods and they explain a surprising amount of what happens above: cupped floorboards, doors that stick in summer and swing free in winter, musty smells that come and go with the weather, and insulation that has fallen out of the joist bays because it absorbed moisture and got heavy.

Much of the fix is straightforward — repairing or replacing the vapor barrier over the soil, re-securing fallen insulation, extending downspouts well clear of the foundation, and correcting grade that slopes toward the house. Anything involving standing water or active fungal growth belongs with a waterproofing specialist rather than being covered over.

Settlement is the related theme. A century-old house on clay has moved, and it has usually finished moving. Doors and windows that are slightly out of square are typically adjusted at the hinge and strike rather than rebuilt, and floors that slope gently are a characteristic rather than a defect — but a floor that has changed recently is worth having looked at properly.

Coverage continues south-east to Morrisville and Cary, and to Apex at the far side of the coverage area.