Friday, August 27, 2010

Tresspassers WILL be prosecuted...

...by the Law of Gravity. After that last exciting blog I"m sure y'all are breathless with anticipation, waiting to know what the Restoration Department is doing the second half of the month of August. Well wait no longer, we are doing a preservation for fee job at the 1814 Monumental Church in Richmond, owned by the Historic Richmond Foundation. The first floor foyer and stair passage rooms have been heavily damaged by termites. The termites are gone, but not forgotten. Seven of the three inch by nine inch floor joists in the foyer have to be replaced, and the remaining need to be consolidated. The subfloors were destroyed. The white oak finish floor has some damage, but at least 80% is reusable. It was carefully labeled, toward its reinstallation. There are two manufacture stamps on the oak floor, one is "Peerless Flooring Co. of High Point NC". The other is "NOFMA Burress of Lynchburg, Va." It may be possible to establish a ballpark estimate of the date of installation with this information. We laid plywood down for the safety of the HRF staff before left.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Isle of Wight Punch List

The Restoration Department was at the Isle of Wight courthouse in Smithfield the first half of August to correct some moisture problems, to repair the stocks, and to renovate the bathroom. The stocks were approximately five years old and were constructed of white oak and painted brown. We have no idea why its' horizontal members started to decay so quickly, as white oak should have a 20 year life-span. The decayed members were replaced with band-sawn pressure-treated pine, and then the stocks were reassembled. The bathroom needed a baseboard and a piece of flooring to fill in a void where an HVAC register was removed. Some plaster repair was also done there. To correct long term moisture problems to the courthouse a major amount of regrading was done between it and the Clerk's Office. Patio blocks were placed in the drip lines of the two buildings to prevent runoff ruining the grade work. On the other side of the courthouse, a large hole in the exterior wall next to a gutter downspout was bricked and repointed. The effects of these moisture-control activities will be noted by the Isle of Wight branch over time.