Sure, some things are simply best described using 4-letter words
However, most of the pre-WWII houses built to such a constructionstandard are long gone, so those that remain usually deserve to be saved unless there is serious strucutral damage (even though replacement of load bearing components, especially foundations is much more common in the US than in Europe).
I see far too many beautiful houses go just because someone thought the lot with a new house would be worth more than with the old house (which is unfortunately true in most cases since there seem to be too many people with bad taste) and leave the old ones to rot so they can get a demolition permit.
