Lowell has a genuine historic downtown and a housing stock to match, with the Flat and Grand rivers meeting nearby. Older housing and river proximity are the two threads running through most inspections here.
Homes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are frequently excellent buildings that have simply outlived several of their systems. We look for knob and tube wiring surviving in walls and attics, sometimes buried under later insulation, which is both a safety and an insurability question. We look for galvanized supply piping, for drain lines of an age where the material itself is the problem, and for the accumulated effect of a century of small alterations: doorways moved, walls opened, joists notched by somebody running a pipe in 1974.
Foundations in homes of this age are often fieldstone or early block, and they behave differently from poured concrete. Movement, mortar loss and moisture penetration are normal to a degree and serious past a point, and knowing which is which is most of the job.
Lowell is in Kent County, EPA Radon Zone 2, predicted average indoor level between 2 and 4 pCi/L. Older foundations with less-than-sealed floors are a common pathway, so testing is worthwhile.
