No house stays pristine for long.

Wood rots. Foundations subside. Paint peels. Metal rusts. Shingles slide.

Many other unpleasant and potentially expensive things can go wrong with the parts and pieces of a house.

At the half-century mark, even the best-built home is going to show its age and require some tender, loving care.

Because much of the local housing stock falls into that category or is even considerably older, the Columbus Landmarks Foundation has been embarked on a local preservation initiative.

The next in a series of “Old House DIY Workshops 2011″ will be held Saturday, Aug. 13, at the Community Properties of Ohio training facility, 933 E. Gay St.

For $5, owners of older homes may attend a session from 9 to 11 a.m. to find out how to identify and resolve common maintenance issues. The fee for a session on wood restoration that afternoon from 1 to 5 costs $10. During the latter hands-on workshop, attendees will learn how to stabilize rotted wood, use wood consolidants and epoxies and prepare restored wood for painting.

The workshops, titled “Nuts and Bolts: the Basics of Home Maintenance,” are being put on with funding received from the United Way of Central Ohio and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, according to Columbus Landmarks Foundation executive director Kathy Mast Kane.

“The premise being that if we, as owners, learned to do this routine maintenance and inspection, we prevent major expenses down the road and make home ownership more attractive,” Kane said last week.

Nathalie Wright, a field representative for both the Columbus Landmarks Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation, will provide staffing for the initiative.

The term “older homes” is loosely defined, according to Kane, but it generally refers to homes that are approaching 50 or possibly well beyond.

That covers a lot of territory in neighborhoods such as Clintonville and in many of Northland’s subdivisions, Kane pointed out.

“There are a lot of ranch subdivisions and they are approaching that 50-year mark,” Kane said. “Maybe the message is for residents in those neighborhoods — they may not be thinking of their homes as ‘older’ but truly, they are approaching a 50th birthday or are just past it.

“It doesn’t have to be a turn-of-the-century home for this to be applicable.”

A home doesn’t necessarily have to be even very old at all, the foundation executive director said.

“The truth of the matter is, I believe these workshops would have pertinent content for owners of any home,” Kane said.

Funding from the United Way and the National Trust helps hold down the costs of putting on the workshops so as many people as possible can and will attend. With luck, Kane said, this will lead to houses getting the attention they need and being preserved because they are well worth the effort.

“I think fundamentally what we know about homes, particularly those that are 50 years or older, they come with great bones in terms of what they were originally constructed with and the craftsmanship that went into them,” Kane said.

The workshops encourage participants, whether tackling repair and restoration projects themselves or hiring someone, to bring that same attention to craftsmanship, rather than just doing something cosmetic, she added.

“It’s kind of demystifying the process and making it more manageable,” Kane said. “And at the same time, through that educational process, people will learn more about the process and more about themselves, so they can learn if it’s something they want to take on themselves or if they want to hire a professional.”

The presentations include pointers on finding the right contractor.

“It’s about getting multiple opinions and bids, and it’s about understanding what you want to have done É that’s in the best interest of your pocketbook and your house,” Kane said.

Space is limited for the Aug. 13 workshops and early registration is encouraged. For more information or to register, call (614) 221-4508 or visit www.columbuslandmarks.org.

kparks@thisweeknews.com

www.ThisWeekNews.com