Times, the legislation may affect 13,500 wooden buildings and 1,500 "brittle apartment buildings."

Even if it floods then I wouldn't consider it a big deal and at that point I might consider replacing the pipes if they feel brittle.

hello, aleko. i am a home inspector from the western new york area. the old cloth, 2 wire wiring is kind of dangerous, in my opinion. as stated earlier, the cloth gets brittle and can crumble with the slightest of touch. with rehabbing the place, you are going to disturb it, for sure. then, you have exposed wiring. fire hazzard. not to mention, a lot of this old wiring is made of aluminum, not copper, therefore, the heat it will carry without fail is far lesser that the copper type wiring. if you have an overload somehow, and the breaker doesn't trip, you are going to have a fire. the gfi's have to be grounded, thats the whole idea of a gfi. the g stands for GROUND. with the two wire system you have, where is the ground????

Actually wouldn't have to for hardness, but should for brittleness on old redwood.Don, after repairs and maybe bracing, the whole house, so that it can get a perimeter foundation, so that I can get construction financing in California. 

The floor boards seemed super thin and brittle. 

Cellular concrete, while extremely light, is rather brittle (for lack of a better term) and breaks apart like chalk. 

They are brittle.  

I'm not fond of vinyl and it gets brittle and they can chew through it.

Two things that are extremely brittle with seismic shifts.

The insulation is very brittle so the key is to touch it as little as possible.