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It wasn't all that long ago where they were some of the least expensive real estate in the city being mostly older neighborhoods and seen as past their prime... even as late as the mid 1980's...
Unlike many areas of San Francisco... much of Oakland was developed after the Victorian age... the adjacent city of Alameda has many classic Victorians... some really beautuful and exemplary styles due to the large group of skilled ship builders that transitioned from wooden ship building to homes with lots of curved surfaces...
Just one more picture of Story Book in Oakland... it is of the Oakland Fire Station in Oakland's Montclaire nieghborhood.
I think part of the decline in quality of construction came from the change in construction practices , when they changed from union workers to building by "piecework".
Carpenters, for example, joined the union and worked as "apprentice" while they also took classes/tests. They "learned" their trade. They understood why they were doing something, instead of "well, that's the way my Daddy always did it".
Now days, any yahoo with a hammer and skill saw can call themselves a carpenter and get a job framing a house. If fact, they can stop off at Home Depot on the way to the job site and pick up what they need, having never worked in construction before.
Of course, on the other hand, there have been terrific advances in heating and air conditioning systems, plumbing and electrical materials and systems. There are many parts of a house that are so much better now than they ever were in "the good old days".
Sorry. I actually forgot that old stucco is different.
New stucco is not waterproof, maybe older stucco is, I do not know. New stucco relies on the paper backing for waterproofing. It is absoluely awful. In 20 plus lawsuits for construciton defects, every stucco house involved leaked throgh the walls. 100%. usually this was because the window flashing was lapped backwards or missing altogether. Without the paper behind the stucco, water woudl come right through. Stucco also cracks very easily and is difficult to repair. It is not a great option in earthquake country. IMO. It does not flex at all. (Tile roofs also seem pretty stupid in earthquake country, but they are massively popular.
I have only had anything to do with one older stucco home. I did not work on in, but i have lived there for a few days. It was a really really neat home (built around 1928 I think). That stucco was different, not coarse, more dense. Kind of like plaster. The stucco we had on a rental house built in 1969 was horrible. It would not withstand a hammer blow, the dog could (and did) scrape it away.
IF you are getting 3-5 years from a paint job, something is wrong. I woudl be ticked if I got less than 15 years out of a paint job. The lowest quote to prep prime and pain our existing house was $50,000. If I had to do that every three years I would be bankrupt. Our painter told us that with touch up as necessary in specific locations, it can easily last 20-30 years. If you are just having it powerwashed and then sprayed with a couple of coats of paint, I can see the short lifespan.
Ouch... you must have some huge mansion. I had to grind (it had mill glaze) all the paint off, prime, prep, and brush paint my 12K ft^2 house and it was only $15K. Took the guys a month to do it. (This was smooth-side-out clear cedar clapboards).
I am really starting to like my brick house more and more every day... yes, occasional re-pointing, but the bricks are 136 years old, and are holding up perfectly. (Not in my case, but there is a place in h*ll for those who paint brick walls, just like those who paint decks, and not stain them ).
Ouch... you must have some huge mansion. I had to grind (it had mill glaze) all the paint off, prime, prep, and brush paint my 12K ft^2 house and it was only $15K. Took the guys a month to do it. (This was smooth-side-out clear cedar clapboards).
I am really starting to like my brick house more and more every day... yes, occasional re-pointing, but the bricks are 136 years old, and are holding up perfectly. (Not in my case, but there is a place in h*ll for those who paint brick walls, just like those who paint decks, and not stain them ).
No not huge. Pretty big (3900 s.f.) Clapboard siding and some molding, trim, posts, but not like a stick house. 4 colors. The qoutes shocked me too. We had our old house done for $12,000, but that was sprayed. We need lots of prep. All of th e painters also agreed that it should be brushed on (I already knew that spraying is a bad idea - I never thoguht about whether there were alternatives to hand brushing.). We saved some money by inttroducing our painter to the paint shaver (none of them had heard of it - now our guy has several of them).
Ouch... you must have some huge mansion. I had to grind (it had mill glaze) all the paint off, prime, prep, and brush paint my 12K ft^2 house and it was only $15K. Took the guys a month to do it. (This was smooth-side-out clear cedar clapboards).
I am really starting to like my brick house more and more every day... yes, occasional re-pointing, but the bricks are 136 years old, and are holding up perfectly. (Not in my case, but there is a place in h*ll for those who paint brick walls, just like those who paint decks, and not stain them ).
Not huge. 3900 s.f. (plus the carriage house). Cedar lap siding. Needs a lot of prep. All of the painters agreed that spraying is a bad idea. I was suprised because our former house cost about $12,000 to repaint, but they only scraped failng areas and then powerwashed the rest and sprayed it. They also only did one of the colors and did not repaint the trim. Our current house will need 4 colors, It does nto have a ton of trim, but some.
We managed to reduce the costs by introducing out painter to the paint shaver. He had not heard of them (nor had the other painters). Now he has several. We only had it scraped and primed for now (and we only did the frot fascia of the carriage house).
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