How old is an 'old kit'

[Silver]

I'm new to the whole concept of old vs new kits.... so I'm wondering why you all talk about an 'old' kit, how old is old? And what would you suggest you do different for an older kit vs a newer kit?

The reason I ask, and maybe someone will know what I need to do, is I have a Fairfield that was bought in the spring of 1997 - and I've been building it ever since. Would this be an 'old' kit? I don't know when they re-released the Fairfield, so I really don't know anything. All I do know is my instructions have a copyright year of 1983 on them (which could mean nothing!). I haven't built the tower roof yet, and before I go and break the pieces, is there anything I need to do make sure they are okay? They have been punched out for about a decade (and while other sheets of the kit that I am not using are in bad shape), they seem to be all right.

Thanks for the advice!

[eskava]

I don't know about other kits. I bought my Fairfield in the early 1990's on ebay, and the kit was kind of warped. I'm assuming that was from the way it was stored. Then I saw that Greenleaf reissued the Fairfield a couple of years ago.

I actually had partially built a Fairfield back when I was around 17. That's 28 years ago! So I bet some kits can be really old if they were stored away and forgotten.

[uppitycats]

I consider "old" anything that wasn't produced within, say, the last 5 years, give-or-take a couple of years. New releases of "old" houses don't count...like, I have a brand new Brookwood, although the original was produced years and years ago.

[havanaholly]

I have generally thought of "old" kits as those no longer being made/ retired, vs "older" kits as ones still current that have been sitting around for years. I'm not sure what you mean by "bad shape".

The Glencroft I built had individual plywood sheets that liked to shatter and delaminate, which on the window frames and half-timber trim presented some really interesting problems with opportunities for innovative solutions. If you're going to stain any of your pieces on the "bad" sheets, do that first, then hit 'em with the clear sanding sealer on each side, letting it dry thoroughly. Be sure to use new, sharp blades in your knife and gently cut out the pieces as you remove them from the sheets and they ought to be OK.

For skinny pieces I had to break on me, I wiped one broken end over a puddle of wood glue and gently pressed the two ends of the break back together, wiping the wood to straighten the wood fibers and to remove excess surface glue; wrapped a scrap of waxed paper around the break and clamped it until it was dry. When I removed the clamp & the waxed paper, many of the breaks never even showed & the others responded to gentle sanding.

[heidiiiii]

My first dh was a Skilcraft Colonial. It was made in 1978. I consider that an old kit.

[MichelleG]

My Tennyson was bought in 1992. It sat in the box in the cellar for a few yrs, then went with me on a couple of moves. The wood got a bit warped and dried out by the time I started working on it last October. I don't mind the imperfections as this is my first build and my "practice" house for many to come I'm sure. Also.. The Tennyson was discontinued, which is too bad, it's a darling house.

So any house that has been discontinued, or sat for a long enough time to get dried out and/or warped would be considered an old house.