Abandoned house

Serious spiders webs!
Hugely overgrown garden to the point where it might obscure the house

Hi PastMidnight - I'd downplay stuff coming in through the chimney - there are flues in chimneys so there shouldn't be much more coming in in an abandoned house than in an occupied house. Yes, the roof might be leaking but it's not a surety.

Part of the problems a house could develop would depend a bit on where it house is physically. I'm in the midwestern US. It would be most likely here that groundhogs (woodchucks) would have found a way in under any porches or even in through the foundation depending on what it was made of. Snakes are another possibility in the lower portion of the house. Raccoons and squirrels (and birds and bats) figure out how to get in through the attics and can make quite a mess. There would be wasp nests attached to window frames and ceilings near places they were able to get in. Honeybees might even have made nests in the walls.

Climate is also a factor - if it's a fairly damp, northern climate there might be rusty hinges, warped wood, mold especially in the kitchen, bath, and basement areas (and posssibly water in the basement). If it's an old, old house with plaster walls, some of the plaster would probably have fallen. And, if there are trees in the yard outside, there would be debris from fallen limbs on or near the house, possibly even a broken window if a good sized limb fell and hit it (which might also have hit the roof and caused a leak). Good luck putting your scenario together. Puma

I'm pretty sure that eveything that was growing there would still be growing there only wild. The strawberries would def be going still if the climate was right.

PastMidnight said:

Oh, thanks! I can't believe I didn't think of the spider webs, waylander! And the overgrown garden is definitely a detail that I can work in.

Regarding the garden: is there anything that still might be growing there that was originally planted? It used to be a vegetable garden, with some flowers around the edge, outside of the fence. Also strawberries. She had a lot of root vegetables in the garden (potatoes, beetroot, swedes, etc).

Puma, it is a damp climate, so I can well imagine the rust and mold. I'm sure there will also be mildew on things like mattresses and cushions. I don't think that there are any trees near to the house, but I suppose during a storm, a section of the fence could break off and hit the window. And then a broken window allows more water and debris to blow in. Thanks for those suggestions!

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Strawberries after twenty years would be very possible; the subdivision where I bought a house last spring was a fruit farm (strawberries, apples and peaches) before being divided up into tracts of land and we have volunteer strawberries in several different spots including the lawn that date to the days of the fruit farm. Since the subdivision was platted beginning in 1956, twenty years for strawberries is still possible.

In the process of moving, we cleaned out an old house on our other rural property, one we had not lived in for about ten years but used for storage. We found the remains - just fur and bones - of a couple small animals that had gone in but could not get out. Spider webs, dirt, general deterioriation can all be expected.

Pumpkins also reseed like mad if you leave them to rot on the ground.

If your house is in the south it's going to be utterly crawling with roaches and ants. Also in a damp climate you're going to have significant rot on exterior (and possibly interior) wood. Roaches eat paper, so wallpaper would be significantly eaten away. Also in a damp climate there would be mold all over.

Remember, most fruits and veggies would be eaten by the critters; it wouldn't resemble a vegetable garden, and remainders would be hidden by overgrowth. I know old roses will last for ages but not, I believe, the modern hybrids. Everything would be growing up through weeds, tons of weeds, weeds coming out of your ying-yang... Oh, wait, that's my garden.

There would be tree saplings/seedlings where there's sun, if you have trees around. Rodent nests and snakes. Spiders outside, also. Deer walking up the cracked and weed-ridden driveway, nibbling whatever's available. Inside and outside the house, rotten wood from termites; the rotten board scenario if you have wood steps/porch. Cold weather, tons of spiders inside. Hot weather, flies and gnats, although much less if the inside is sere; they need water. Also around any rotting vegs outside. Lots of birds, with the attendant droppings. Vines and ivies, depending on area.

Why do I have a sudden urge to run home and clean house? I hate cleaning house.

You added your note about brand new while I was typing. Hm. Did they plant a garden? If not, just weeds and critters running amok. I'm assuming (with unbroken windows) the house is isolated. If so, many birds and animals.

southwest

old roses like harrison's yellow, lilacs and daylillies would still bloom. in the southwestern usa there would be tumbleweeds clogging the property. we have an invasive weed called bindweed, very pretty like a mini morning glory--that can cover a tractor in a summer. sunflowers would take over the whole property--not as pretty as their pictures--prickly and buggy. there would be rusted out farm implements, a harrow, a tractor. mud swallows would build under the eaves until the porch and windows were covered in their litter. --they even nest when we are at home. there would be a broken window--kids and raccoons will break them out. field mice would be in the house so cover your mouth with a bandana--hanta virus is very real out here--s6

Along with the other fine observations -- you'll have settling. Some doors, windows, drawers that are stuck. Some of the chimney flues are likely to rusted shut. cracks in the walls and ceilings (especially if it was done in plaster)

If the area has snowy winters some of the pipes may freeze and break. If it's in the right area for them, the house might be riddled with termites.

Depending upon the quality of the construction and the area of the country, you'd have shingles coming off. This means water will be pouring down the inside walls, causing a lot of structural damage. Sagging walls, bowed walls, ceilings falling down would all be there. Probably some of the windows would have blown out, both the glass and depending upon design, the wood supporting the glass.

The paint on the exterior would be gone, and the clapboards (or other siding) would begin suffering from the drying/wetting process. This causes the wood to expand and contract, which will cause the clapboards to dislodge and fall off, again allowing water to enter.

Think of all the maintenance you do every year. Then envision it going on for 20 years!

Significant possibility of roof sags, collapsed porches. Depending upon what part of the country, you can see that this building is going to completely collapse in the foreseeable future.

best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

jclarkdawe said:

Significant possibility of roof sags, collapsed porches. Depending upon what part of the country, you can see that this building is going to completely collapse in the foreseeable future.

best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

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Depending - which provides many variables - on how well the house was constructed, an old, abandoned house may stand for much more than twenty years. May is, of course, the key word.

Near our rural property - in the next hollow - there is an old house that is at least eight years old, likely more. It has deteriorated a great deal in the thirteen years since I first saw it but it has not been lived in since the late 1950's or early 1960's. It is still standing. When I was first married - thirteen years ago - my husband went inside. At that time, the floors were mostly still solid, same for the porch but the stairs were rotting. Same for an old house that used to be part of state access land in Northern Missouri. After much more than twenty years, the basic structure was sound enough that people went inside.

It's going to vary a lot if the house in question is in a valley, sheltered by trees, etc.

That's the great thing about literary license - within certain parameters, you can make it the way you envision and still be realistic!!