How long would it take for your house to completely fall apart?

Key Takeaways

Your home shields you from wind, rain, snow, and even harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. However, without proper upkeep, those same elements can become disastrous for a house.

Cleaning gutters, resealing windows, and replacing roof shingles may seem dull, but they are essential for protecting your home from the wear and tear of time and weather. But what would happen if you simply stopped maintaining your house? How long would it take for your home to completely collapse if left unattended?

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The time it takes for your home to fall apart depends on several factors. These include the quality of your home's construction, the climate in which you live, its current condition, and the materials used in its construction. However, there is a general process that a house follows once it is left to be overtaken by nature. Alan Weisman describes this process in his book, "The World Without Us," where he explores how long it would take for Earth to return to its pre-human state if humans were no longer around. Additionally, an animated video on his website demonstrates a house deteriorating over time.

What causes the most severe damage? It turns out, water is your home's greatest adversary. It sets off a chain reaction that leads to your house's eventual downfall, starting with the roof. Water typically enters through the roof, which is supported by trusses—triangular structures that secure your roof. The roof, usually made of plywood, is nailed to these trusses and covered with shingles.

Shingles are generally designed to last for 20 to 30 years. As they start to deteriorate, they will either crumble or detach from the nails that hold them in place. Once exposed, the plywood beneath is vulnerable to rain, which will eventually rot it. The water will then seep through your leaky roof and enter the interior of the house, where it begins to damage wallpaper, paint, and drywall.

Water can also seep into your home's envelope — the outer layers, including the exterior walls, window sashes, and door frames just beneath your house’s outer shell. If this occurs, it could spell disaster for your home. The damage starts small, but if ignored or left unchecked, it will escalate into a serious issue over time. For instance, your gutters will collect leaves and debris. As this debris builds up, water will overflow onto your roof, leading to rot along the roofline. That’s when the real problems begin.

Continue reading to discover how your house will deteriorate and how long it might take.

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Water Damage

By this point, you now have a significant hole in your leaky roof. Water is seeping in, and even worse, it’s spreading. On dry days, especially when it’s cold outside, the hole will allow frigid, dry air to enter. Meanwhile, your cellar, basement, or crawlspace will retain warmth and moisture. When these two meet, condensation forms, creating a small-scale weather front. This moisture will cause the paint and wallpaper to peel, but this is only the beginning of your troubles.

The roof isn’t the only entry point for water. The caulk your builder used to seal your windows has a lifespan similar to that of your roof shingles, usually about 25 years. Over time, this seal will crack and deteriorate, allowing rain, snow, and frost to penetrate. This leads to the rotting of the wall around the window and further allows moisture to seep into your home’s envelope, causing more decay and eventual collapse.

Interestingly, brick homes won’t fare much better. According to home restoration expert Les Fossel, wood and brick homes deteriorate at roughly the same rate. If your home is made of brick, moisture can seep into the inner layer of the brick exterior. In homes with multiple layers of brick, moisture finds its way into the gap between the brick walls, where it will freeze and contract depending on the climate. Eventually, repeated freeze-thaw cycles will cause the brick walls to crumble. Even in warmer climates, the mortar holding the bricks together will eventually weaken, leading to the collapse of the structure. However, this process would take much longer than the freeze-induced compression in colder areas.

If water continues to flow into your house, it will escape through cracks in deteriorating gaskets. This will introduce more water inside your home, accelerating the rotting process. If your plumbing and gas pipes are drained before you neglect your house, however, they will remain as some of the last remnants of your home, long after the structure itself has collapsed.

Water also acts as a trigger for various other processes. Beyond causing the wood supporting your house to rot, it also attracts a variety of pests. Termites, which are more commonly found in warmer regions, feast on wood, using bacteria in their stomachs to break it down into cellulose. However, colder climates aren’t exempt. In those areas, carpenter ants do similar damage, boring holes into the wood to create their nests. Additionally, many other insect species thrive in the wood used to build your home, and all of them thrive in moist conditions.

At this point, you’re dealing with peeling paint, significant holes in your roof, ruined drywall, and rainwater leaking through the gap between your windows and walls. Are you ready to abandon your resistance and begin maintaining your house again? No? Alright, keep reading to discover what’s in store during the final years of your home’s existence.

The Demise of Your Poor Home

Consider yourself lucky that there are no regulations against neglecting a home, because you’d likely face severe consequences by now. By the time your house has completely fallen apart, you might have already perished from the dampness inside or simply due to old age. If your house was in decent condition when you stopped caring for it, and your roof was relatively new, it could take decades or even centuries before the inevitable destruction occurs. And it certainly won’t be a graceful decline.

On the surface, your house is a disaster, with a leaking roof full of holes, peeling paint, crumbling drywall, and loose wallpaper. It's likely that vandals have taken advantage of the abandoned state of your home, accelerating its downfall. Structurally, things are much worse. Moisture has decayed the wood, and pests have done their part to further the destruction. The weight of the roof may no longer be supported, and it may have caved in where the support beams have rotted. Alternatively, if the nails securing the trusses have lost their hold, the roof could have collapsed in sections.

There will probably be gaps in the floors under the largest holes in the roof. Navigating through the house has become perilous, as it could collapse at any given moment.

Vegetation surrounding your house presents a twofold risk. Grass left uncut can dry out during dry spells or winter, and if this tall, dry grass catches fire, your already neglected house might go up in flames. However, vegetation can also contribute to a slower, yet equally destructive, breakdown of your home.

Normally, you would clear saplings and trim large trees around your house to prevent their roots from damaging the foundation. But since you’ve stopped maintaining your house, a tree next to it will bring about significant damage. When your house was built, the ground beneath it was solid enough to bear the structure. The foundation was laid on top of this soil, and your house was then constructed on top of that.

The roots of a tree near your house will loosen the soil supporting its foundation, allowing water to seep into the ground and weaken it further. After years of this, the footing can no longer sustain the house, causing the foundation to shift and crack. This shifting compromises the structure, causing walls to collapse, whether they are made of wood or brick. A significant shift in the home's structure could even cause a brick chimney — which would typically be the last remaining structure in your deteriorating house — to fall apart as well.

As time passes, the shifting of your home's foundation could eventually lead to the formation of a sinkhole — a large and deep cavity in the ground beneath your home. If the sinkhole grows deep enough, your house could be completely consumed by the Earth.

So, how long would it take for your home to fall apart if you neglected it? The answer depends on where you live. In warmer climates, the humidity would speed up the decay process, causing the structure to deteriorate more rapidly. In colder climates, freezing winters could cause frost to build up in your home's foundation, leading to cracks and a loss of structural integrity.

Don’t forget that the quality of your home’s construction also plays a role. Home inspector John Badger recalls a story about a house that was a "goner" after only a few years. However, home restoration expert Les Fossel has seen a house left neglected for 40 years that was still able to be saved.

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