Barge Board Walls?

So I’m about to purchase my third property, which is 100 years old and mostly just a pint, floors, kitchen and bathrooms deal.

I had the inspection done, and we noticed that one of the exterior walls was very shaky when i push from the inside. There is drywall for, but that moves as well… It probably has an inch of give total when i push in the middle of it.

There is a window which moves with it.

My inspector said he couldn’t be 100% sure, but he thought it was barge board. He showed me a piece of it that he found under the house, and it’s 2.5 inch think, old barge material. He said it’s great wood for a lot of things, and was used in walls a while ago, but still couldn’t be sure that was the problem.

Anyone heard of this?

He said worst case scenario is that I have to reframe that walls, so either way no biggie. Just wondering what you guys think of it.

Assume you have to reframe the wall and bid accordingly. I would assume termite damage to the sill plate and header board had undermined the structural integrity of the wall (my experiences with shaky walls) and that there may be more than simple wall reframing to be done.

jmd_forest