floored

I realized today that there is only one spot in this house where you can see all four types of floors that have been used in this house over the last 117 years. If you stand at the top of the stairs on the third floor and look down, you'll see the original 1899 old-growth yellow pine stairs leading up to the third floor (which also has it's original floors), the 1x4 yellow pine boards that a previous owner installed and called a floor in the early 90's, the circa 1920's oak veneer steps leading to the second floor and the Red Oak floors we installed on the first floor before moving in.

When we looked at the house, the whole first floor was the thin Oak veneer floor laid over the original pine floor. It was in terrible shape and unrepairable (in many places it was as thin as cardboard) which is why we replaced it.

Original 1899 heartwood pine floors

1920's oak veneer floor

From what I gather, oak was a sign of wealth. And in the early part of the last century, oak veneer floors became widely available. The veneer boards were roughly 1/4-1/2 the thickness of a standard floor plank, half the price and were installed directly on top of the old floors. People who had pine floors who could afford a small upgrade but not an entire new floor (but wanted to appear like they could) installed the veneer in their house.

Many people wrongly assume that the oak is original and the boards below it are just subfloor. But in houses this age and this size, wood floors did not have a subfloor. They were nailed directly to the floor joists and the seams always met directly over the middle of one of the joists. The quickest way to tell, in this neighborhood, if your floor is original is to look at the direction the boards are laid. If they run from front to back, they could be original. If they run side to side, they're definitely not original.

lightness

The stairwell gets crazy good natural light in the afternoon during spring and summer.

An evening Constituional

Evening walk through the park. 

If you'd like a really well-written history of the park, check out this link: http://www.romeofthewest.com/2009/05/photos-of-tower-grove-park.html

E

brick bashing

It could be worse. I could be pregnant.

After another round of calling contractors, no return calls, and one no-show, I finally got one to show up today.

I've done enough research on old brick houses to know that if you're going to do any tuckpointing or other repairs to the bricks that you're supposed to use hydraulic lime mortar which is what this house was built with.

Lime mortar has the same properties as the soft brick in that it absorbs and releases moisture and expands and contracts like the bricks. Portland cement mortar, which is used in new masonry construction, is rigid and impermeable to water. The problem when you use portland cement mortar on soft bricks is that the bricks will absorb moisture and the water will become trapped behind the mortar. And when the bricks expand because of heat or becoming waterlogged, the rigid portland cement will squeeze the bricks and cause cracks or defacing. And when the bricks shrink back to their dry size, they become detached from the mortar.

So now I have a litmus test for any contractor that might be doing something with our bricks. I'll ask him what kind of mortar he would use and if he says portland cement, he's out.

The guy today suggested using spray foam insulation instead of mortar.

So I made up my mind to fix it myself. I watched a ton of youtube videos on how to clean out old mortar, how to mix historic lime mortar, how to reset bricks and how to tuckpoint.

Today I started cleaning out mortar and one by one every brick started coming out. And the further back I went I started noticing waterlogged bricks and wet mortar.

I stopped.

You're looking at the exterior layer of bricks there. One swift knock of a hammer and you'd be looking at our deck.

I discovered a very slow leak coming from the bottom of the window. God only knows how long water has been flowing down between these bricks and washing away mortar.

This is way beyond me. So now I'm on the hunt for a competent mason.

"but you didn't tell me to fix it"

I used to get annoyed when the guys at the oil change place would point out everything that was wrong with my car and offer to fix it. "All I want is an oil change," I'd say.

These days, I'd give anything to work with a contractor who extended that kind of courtesy.

When Neil was building the wainscoting, he could have very easily said, "Hey, guys. Your vinyl replacement windows were installed really poorly. In fact, they aren't even sitting on anything and you can see daylight around the edges. Plus brickwork under your windows is falling apart and the wood that's left is rotting so I really don't have anything solid to attach this new work to."

But he didn't. And instead basically built a free-standing framework that came down with a couple quick pulls of the prybar.

FML.

shoddy work

Dining room update: The saga continues.

At first glance, the wainscoting that the first contractor, Neil, (who advertises himself as an "Artisan Craftsman") built and put under the dining room window are fine. But then you look a little closer and realize they're not so fine.

1. Construction: Neil was given explicit instructions that they match the originals in the house. Meaning that he should use the same construction method, same proportions, with the same details. He did neither. The original wainscoting was built using a method called Mortise and Tenon. They assemble like a jigsaw puzzle and once put together become a solid piece without using nails. Neil, however, simply cut the pieces of the wainscoting and nailed them to a frame he built behind it. He also was completely off in the dimensions and the detail around the inset panels.

2. Quality: This one just baffles me. He could have very, VERY easily bought poplar to match the rest of the woodwork to create this wainscoting. Instead, he chose the cheapest pine you can get at Home Depot and tried to "hide" it with caulk.

3. Structural integrity: The original window stools were a solid piece of wood. Because every window is slightly different, we went with a 2-piece stool that once assembled correctly should look like a solid piece. With Neil's work, however, from day one there was an obvious valley where the two pieces joined. It wasn't until recently when one of the noses fell off that I discovered why. First, he hadn't cut the front of the stool in a straight line and second, it was attached with tiny nails that barely held it on.

So, it's all coming down.

Two weeks ago I did what I should have done in the first place. I went back to the people who did all the other woodwork for us and asked if they could build a couple wainscoting panels to match our originals.

Of course they could. And they could do it in poplar to match the rest of the woodwork. I brought in a section of original wainscoting from another room in the house which they used to get the dimensions and details right.

The sad part is, it was cheaper than what Neil charged us.

Neil's Panel	New panels
New panels accurately reproduce original construction	Original with replica
Original (from upstairs) and new (taller) panel.