I’ve walked more South Hills basements than I can count, and the story usually starts the same way. A couple falls hard for a 1920s brick colonial in Mt. Lebanon, or a sturdy Dormont four-square with great bones. Then the inspection report lands, and the dream shows up wearing a to-do list. Buying an older home in the South Hills is one of the smartest moves you can make in this market. But the exterior is where the surprises like to hide.

This corner of Pittsburgh is beautiful and stubborn. The hills that hand you those sweeping views also send water rushing straight at your foundation, and homes built decades ago carry materials we’d never touch today. Before you swing a hammer or hire anyone for home renovation, walk the outside of the property with clear eyes. Here’s what I tell every homeowner to check first.

Water Is the Enemy of Every Old House on a Hill

If I could inspect only one thing, it would be water. On sloped South Hills lots, gravity is not your friend. Water finds the low point, and too often that low point is your basement wall. So before anything cosmetic, I look at how the ground meets the house and where the roof sends its runoff.

Grading and Drainage

The soil around your foundation should slope away from the house — dropping at least six inches over the first ten feet. Sounds minor. It isn’t. I once met a homeowner in Castle Shannon who’d repainted, replaced windows, and landscaped beautifully, then spent the whole next spring bailing out a flooded basement because the yard quietly tilted toward the house. Fix the grade first. Everything else is decoration if the water keeps winning.

Gutters, Downspouts, and the Roofline

Old, sagging gutters are a slow-motion disaster. When they fail, water sheets down the siding, rots support posts, and pools right at the base of the foundation. I push hard for seamless gutters and downspouts that discharge at least five or six feet from the house. And if the roof is near the end of its life, tackle it before the pretty stuff — a good roofing contractor will give you a straight answer about how many winters your shingles have left. If a replacement is on the horizon, read How to Prepare Your Home for a Roof Replacement Project so nothing catches you off guard.

What’s Hiding in Old Siding, Paint, and Shingles

Here’s the part nobody enjoys. Homes built before 1978 often hide materials that are cheap to ignore and expensive to disturb. Lead paint is the big one. The second you scrape or sand old exterior paint, you release toxic dust — which is exactly why federal rules require certified, lead-safe work for the job. You can read the specifics straight from the EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting Program.

Asbestos is the other ghost in these walls. It turns up in old siding shingles, roofing felt, and pipe insulation far more than people expect. I’ve had homeowners swear a chalky gray siding was just “old” — until the lab said otherwise. Never guess on this. A quick test costs a fraction of what improper removal runs, and it keeps your family safe. This is the exact spot where cutting a corner turns a weekend project into a genuine health hazard.

Every South Hills Borough Plays by Different Rules

Something that catches newcomers off guard: the South Hills isn’t one place with one rulebook. Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, Upper St. Clair, and the City of Pittsburgh each set their own rules for exterior changes. What flies in one municipality earns a stop-work order in the next. So I always tell clients to call the local planning or zoning office before they finalize a single exterior plan.

If your home sits in or near a designated historic district, the stakes climb. You may need a Certificate of Appropriateness before you swap window styles, roof materials, or even the front door. It can feel like red tape, and honestly, sometimes it is. But those guidelines also protect the character that made you fall for the house in the first place. Smart exterior remodeling works with the rules, not against them.

Brick, Mortar, and the Art of Not Making Things Worse

So many South Hills homes wear gorgeous old brick, and that brick needs a careful eye. Look for spalling — when the face of the brick flakes or crumbles because trapped moisture froze and expanded. Check the mortar joints, too. If you can rake a key across them and they crumble like sand, they need attention now, not next year.

Here’s where experience earns its keep. Old brick was built to breathe, using a soft, lime-based mortar. Patch it with modern hard mortar and you trap moisture inside the brick, which causes even more spalling down the road. I’ve watched well-meaning repairs do more damage than decades of weather ever did. Tuckpointing with a historically appropriate mix isn’t fussiness — it’s the line between a repair that lasts and one that quietly eats your facade.

Buying an Older Home in the South Hills? Here’s What to Check Before Renovating the Exterior

Let’s pull it together. When you’re buying an older home in the South Hills, the exterior tells you almost everything about the road ahead. Water first. Hazards second. Paperwork third. Craftsmanship woven through all of it. Here’s the quick checklist I hand to homeowners:

None of this is meant to scare you off. Older South Hills homes are built better than most of what goes up today. You just have to respect them for what they are.

Why Homeowners Call Alan Construction

I’ll be straight with you. Plenty of contractors can hang a gutter. Far fewer understand why a 1930s Mt. Lebanon home floods differently than a new build, or why the wrong mortar can wreck a century-old facade in a few winters. That understanding is what we bring at Alan Construction. We’ve spent years on these exact streets, solving these exact problems, and we treat your house like it’s our own.

When you’re ready to move from checklist to real work, we’ll walk the property with you, flag what genuinely needs attention, and skip the upsell on what doesn’t. From drainage fixes to full exterior work, we do it right the first time — because in the South Hills, doing it twice gets expensive fast. Your older home deserves that kind of care. So does your budget.