ed carpenter or contractor. He congenitally dislikes old
buildings and will point out all defects with ominous head shakings
and subtle suggestions for new building. In this way the prospective
buyer will know the worst, painted at its blackest. Somewhere between
it and the rosy view of the real estate agent will lie the truth.
Therefore, it is well to do some inspecting independently. Knowledge
of what are the weak spots in old houses and where to look for them
will save much time and effort in the initial stages of house hunting.

The skeleton of an old house is akin to that of a modern steel
structure. Hand-hewn timbers, morticed and pinned together, take the
place of riveted steel beams. Since a timber frame is subject to rot,
either dry or damp, one of the first places to look for unsoundness is
the sills (the beams which rest on the foundation and into which are
set floor joists, corner posts, and other main uprights). It is a
simple matter to give them the jack-knife test at intervals of two or
three feet. Stick the blade in as far as possible. Then try to turn it
around. With a sound beam this cannot be done. If there is dry rot,
the beam will often crumble under a slight pressure of the fingers.

Go over the sills on the north side of the building first. Here there
is less sunlight and snow remains longer. Consequently decay from
excessive moisture is not unusual. Roof rafters and plate beams (the
long timbers on which the lower ends of the rafters rest) should also
be knife-tested since long neglected leaking roofs eventually result
in their decay. Unsound corner posts and other uprights connecting
sills and plate beams are harder to detect since they are concealed
between the outside boarding and interior plaster. Note the walls
themselves and the corner boards extending vertically from foundation
to eaves. If a corner of the house is enough out of plumb to be
visible to the eye, or if the corner boards are loose, examine further
as it may indicate decay beneath.

With brick or stone houses, the walls themselves carry the weight of
the roof and so have no vertical timbers. If the walls are out of
plumb it means that the foundations are either gone or are in need of
major repair. Whether a house is of brick, stone or wood, there is one
further place for knife testing--the ground floor joists. Cellar
dampness may have taken its toll.

The fact that a sill, joist or other timber is unsound does not mean
that