FNB: Week 9, Windows Installed

It has been more than a month since my last official update.  We have been completely swamped with finishing demolition, completing final approval from the State and getting ready for Bean Days (Montpelier's annual festival).  Matt & Lane Dye have been working steadily on the interior framing and are almost finished...it's just hard to document with photos since it looks like a forest of 2x4s. 

This week, however, God blessed us with HUGE progress on the exterior...the windows finally arrived and were installed by Craig Siebenaler Construction!

I want to make an important distinction here.  This is not specifically a "restoration".  This is a "revitalization". While it IS a handsome old building with lots of great details but we are not intending to put things back to the old just because it's old.  We want the building to be useable and vibrant.  If it will look better / work better the "old way" then that's what we will do.


The new windows are a perfect example of this distinction.  The old photo here of the First National Building shows the building in its historic context.  We have used this photo to help us decide several important details - the windows being one.  You can see in this old photo that the windows on the First National Building match those next door (Hammer Athletic) and that, compared to the color of the brick, the windows are a bright color.

As we worked on the revitalization plan for the building we had several decisions to make on these windows: color, sizing, design, materials, etc.  We settled on Andersen A-Series windows for many reasons:

1. Custom Sizing. These openings are large and irregular.  Standard-sized windows wouldn't look very good and would not maximize the opening.  A-Series is customizable to the 1/8" which allowed us to use the maximum opening.

2. Fibrex.  While there are differing views on this product I like the structural and longevity characteristics that Fibrex provides.  These windows are 7'-9" x 3'-2".  Installed, these are very stable windows with no parts or fasteners showing.

3. Wood Interior Components.  I've seen solid vinyl windows in rentals...they get pretty gross on the inside.  With wood interior components we can sand, fill, paint and maintain better than with vinyl.

4. No paint on the outside.  We chose white so that we could use Azek trim.  I like color as much as the next guy.  But 15 windows, each opening a little different with the low structural arches at the top...lots of fitting OR 15 individually custom windows.  The Azek trim allowed us to purchase sets of windows which reduced complexity, sped up installation and then covers over the installation in a wear-resistant package.  The result matches those old windows next door very nicely!

In any case, the difference between the building we started with and now is gratifying!  Framing of the apartments should conclude next week.  Then the electric, heat and plumbing begin.  Meanwhile, our mason continues work on the exterior.

FNB: Week 4, Finding the Floors

Apartment A fully demolished

Among the injustices placed on the First National Building over the years is the many...MANY...layers of flooring.  As Matt, Lane, John and Derek Dye have completed most of the demolition (read "disembowelment") of the building we are uncovering the more-than-century-old floor underneath.  In some places three or four layers of flooring have been installed up to an inch thick!  This includes underlayment, linoleum, carpet, tile and even some furniture board.

I want to be very clear - I try not to be OVERLY nostalgic about old stuff.  Floors are just floors after all and the work involved in restoring these floors would be large.  There is something special, though, about walking on floors laid down one hundred thirty-two (132) years ago.

As we discover the old floors we also find the flaws that have been covered up for decades.  The first is also the most humorous.  Some enterprising contractor of a time gone by used spiced meat cans to patch a hole he found (or maybe made accidentally...).  The second is simply a hole found randomly in the floor of Apartment A.  You can see this hole in the photo above.  No good explanation comes to mind.

 

At this point, the plan is to take the building down to the original floors.  When the new walls are installed we will decide if any of the floors are in good-enough shape to save.  The rest will be covered up again and a new flooring material will be installed.

The mason has been working this week.  The windows are ordered and should be here late July.  Final demolition will end in the next week and framing will begin shortly thereafter.  It's coming along nicely!

FNB: Renovations of Old...we'll be fixing that...Part 1

Many of the folks who are following along with our project have asked me some form of the question: "Have you found anything interesting?"  Usually it's accompanied by a gleam in their eye - hoping for a story of mafia treasure, local trivia or maybe some sort of time capsule.  Alas, no...except for some bits of (hideous) wall paper and fragments of old window trim we haven't found anything that is old and/or interesting about the building or community in the building.

We have, however, found the remnants of renovations and incomplete repairs that have done harm to the building.  Thankfully, because we have embarked on a substantial renovation, we are going to fix many of these problems.

The first - and most heinous - is the scary modifications made to the building to install plumbing.  

   

So far we have only uncovered the plumbing for Apartment C. Here, you can see from below the interesting diagonal track that the plumber took from the toilet to the existing drain that runs along the wall and down to the basement.  The course is not the issue.  Next you can see, after we removed the plumbing (and flooring above) the HUGE holes that this plumber cut in the joists!  Finally, a view of the beam that supported the landing for the old stairs.  You can see how the weight of the floor (and everything else above it) has deformed the beam over time.

This is particularly troubling because there are some very handy rules of thumb about how much beam / floor joist you can cut without significantly ruining the structure.  Apparently this plumber wasn't consulting his handbook.

The solution: Thankfully this whole section of floor gets removed to accept the new rear stairs...we PLANNED to take these joists out anyway.  You can see in the photo below where we have removed the plaster and lathe - this is the location of the hole for the new stair.

It's too bad that you find this type of work in almost every renovation project.  More of these to come...

FNB: Opening the Windows, Part 2

Today Craig's team finished opening the brick infill and began framing the openings to receive the new windows.  It's fun to watch the folks on Main Street stop to gawk at the immense progress underway.

 
The fun part of opening the windows is seeing the change in character of the building from the outside AND inside.  The challenge is using what we find to put new windows back in.

As I mentioned in my previous post: this brick is old and it is soft.  This is also the second time is has been significantly tampered with (the first time being when they filled in the openings in the 1970s).  

Opening the windows we confirmed triple wythe brick construction = three separate brick walls that are tied together at intervals.  This type of construction is very strong at this height (two stories) - both in resisting gravity and lateral (wind) loads.  It also provides a nice, deep window sill...these walls are approximately 12" thick!

Row Lock Comparison

 
In this series you can clearly see the three wythes = face brick (exterior), integral (middle), and interior.  You can also pick out the "row lock" where the mason set a brick perpendicular to the wall to attach the integral wythe to the interior.  Don't worry, even though you don't see any row lock, the face brick is also attached to the integral wythe.  Masons of this period used a labor-intense method to attach face brick and conceal the row lock.  I've included a sketch to illustrate the different row lock methods.

A huge consideration will be the detailing to install our new large windows when that time comes.  This is the plan we prepared last week (May 29).  There are a few places where Daniel (the mason) will be making repairs but, in all, the condition of the openings is very good.

I'll be posting later on how we plan to get this done.

FNB: Opening the Windows, Part 1

This project has many dramatic and exciting parts.  Most of those parts are hidden from view - many will eventually be covered up with drywall.  The most dramatic, and the most public, is the removal of all of the brick and wood infill of the window openings and the installation of new, insulated windows that simulate the originals.

A little background - this photo montage shows some of the major changes of the First National Building over the last 133 years.  The most visible is the windows.

 

This week the restoration of those window openings began with the removal of the old windows and scores of bricks. 

The process was painstaking based on these considerations:

1. The original brick is 133 years old.
2. Since the brick is that old, it was probably made locally and is extremely soft.  Extensive vibration and / or stress on the brick could significantly damage the structure of the building.

3. We didn't know how sound the brick infill was installed or how much work would it take to remove those bricks?

With these in mind, Craig Siebenaler and his crew (Randy Manges, Jacob Manges, Ira Barrett, Daniel Cooley) worked very closely with Daniel Hammond (our mason) to strategically cut the infill and then cautiously hammer one brick at a time.  The first window took approximately 2 hours as they hammered, evaluated, adjusted and tried again.  The second window went much faster and, by the end of the day, five openings were freed.

Even now, before the windows have even been ordered, the difference is impressive.  This photo was taken from the inside, just after that first window was removed.  The opening is easily TWO TIMES the height of those replacement windows.  It's hard to show in a photo the DRAMATIC change in character as more and more light fills the room!

Craig and his team worked all day Monday and Tuesday and cleared all but one window opening - a total of eleven in two days.  It looks a little sad with all of that plywood covering the openings but we are making enormous progress.  I've said it many times today...it has to get worse before it can get better :)

FNB: Look at all this space!

Apartment C - looking South

Apartment C - looking North

As demolition progresses (one dumpster filled, another delivered this morning) we are opening up the building and finding so much space!  These photos of Apartment C show the full volume of space that results from taking out the old walls and lowered ceilings.  You can trace the line of the removed walls in the floor and ceiling.  Excellent work by John Dye and Lane Dye.

It's too bad that we don't get to keep all this space...we'll be filling it up with our own walls, stairs and plumbing.  In the meantime we get to investigate the old building and see how things used to work.

An interesting discovery is that none of these walls were original!  How do we know?  Because the plaster is continuous behind the removed walls - and so is the wallpaper!  The photo below shows the (lovely) old wall paper as it appears in the space where a wall used to be.  We haven't taken enough of the walls apart to know what's underneath - we also don't know what the arrangement of these spaces looked like before.  One thing is for sure - we won't be going out and finding this wallpaper for the new apartments :)

FNB: Committed to Doing it Right

Yesterday (Thursday) I had a very productive meeting with a interesting group of people: a carpenter, a mason, a lumber guy and a window guy.  We each came to the table with our backgrounds and talents.  The thing that we have in common = making this project the best it can be.  The great thing about working with thoughtful and talented people is their commitment to doing it right; I am very proud to be working with this group!  Thank you Craig Siebenaler, Daniel Hammond, Greg Shoup and Chris Pfleghaar.

We met to talk about the windows - just ONE of the challenging parts of this project for multiple reasons: 

1) none of the original windows exist on our building.  We do, however, have examples of the original look right next door at Hammer Athletics (photo at right).

2) the original openings have been compromised - even to the point of completely blocking them up...

3) we really don't know the condition of the openings until they are all opened up

We met to form a plan for the windows - how will they be installed, what will the details look like, how much material, how do we keep the water out?  The good thing is that, spending the time to discuss all of the options and important information, we came up with a very good solution which will realize itself here in the next few months.

In order to have this conversation, though, we needed to open up the walls and ceilings to look at all sides of those openings.  The first photo shows the inside of an opening that was completely blocked up - this one stays that way.  The second photo shows the inside of an opening that was fitted with a MUCH smaller window and then bricked the rest of the way up.  See how much higher the ceilings are in the oldest part of the building?

A few frustrating observations:

1) For all the effort to lower the ceilings, in this apartment there was no insulation installed.  What a waste of all that space!

2) They used Belden brick in these openings - for those who don't know, Belden brick is some of the best.  So they used high-quality brick on the outside but installed no insulation in any of these openings.

Our forebears spent a lot of time and energy to retrofit this building while leaving out the most important part - the insulation.  I'm so glad we have the opportunity to do it right this time - with the help of some thoughtful contractors!