May 2010: Annual Window Maintenance

Spring is here, but summer’s blistering heat won’t take hold for a while yet. It’s the perfect time of year to throw open the windows and freshen the inside of my house with warm spring breezes. If your windows are anything like mine, they – along with the screens and storm windows – need a good spring cleaning. Outdoor cleaning presents the perfect time to check the exterior condition of your windows and to repair any damage wrought by winter weather.

April 2010: Historic Row Houses: the Rear Ell

Often when visiting a brownstone, I would pass through a paired, 19th-century parlor and dining room to a kitchen located in a narrower ell at the rear of the building, from which I could access the rear yard and complete the monitoring visit. Though the designs differ from house to house, the ells have a few things in common – they are almost universally shorter than the main block of the house, and they are constructed of common brick. In some cases, I found no ell at all, and it was clear that one had never existed. The universality of the ell and its common design attributes led me to wonder about its history and articulation.

March 2010: Spring Maintenance

Spring has finally arrived in Washington after a long, cold, and unusually snowy winter. It’s not just the calendar that says so. Daffodils and tulips are sprouting in flower beds around the region, and the buds are just becoming apparent on trees. The first warm days of the year are a perfect excuse to spend a weekend outside inspecting the condition of your home and repairing damage wrought by harsh winter weather. We spent this last weekend doing just this type of assessment and beginning small repairs.

February 2010: Vines and Other Vegetation

Although mental images of quaint cottages and historic collegiate campuses are often filled with ivy-covered buildings, the nasty truth is that allowing ivy – and many other types of vegetation – to grow on your historic building can be extremely detrimental to its survival. Usually the method by which the plant attaches itself to the building is mechanically harmful to historic building materials. In addition, vegetation holds moisture against buildings and causes chemical deterioration of building materials. Even the growth of such small plants as mosses and lichens on historic buildings has a similar detrimental effect. Finally, substantial growth of vegetation can hide problems in the underlying wall, such as cracking or loss of mortar caused by settlement.

January 2010: Caring for Your Historic Wooden Exterior Shutters

Wooden exterior shutters are integral to many historic houses in the United States. For the better part of four centuries, these shutters have helped keep our houses warm in the winter and well-ventilated in the summer. They have protected us from rain, sleet, ice and snow, as well as from hurricanes and the hot summer sun.

December 2009: Paint and Historic Brick

Modern waterproof sealants, coatings, and paints significantly decrease the brick’s natural breathability. Water saturation and decreased breathability trap water in the material, and as the water freezes in the material it expands causing stress cracks and spalling, and ultimately, failure. In unpainted or appropriately-painted brick houses, the porous brick absorbs water from sleet, snow, and ice, and with the material’s proper, natural breathability, the water evaporates, leaving the brick intact despite years of exposure to this cycle.

November 2009: Historic Masonry Chimneys

The Getty defines chimneys as “vertical noncombustible structures containing flues for drawing off into the outside air products of combustion from, for example, stoves, fireplaces, and furnaces.” The chimney, then, is the structure and is most commonly constructed of brick or stone. It surrounds a flue or a group of flues that carry exhaust gases up and out of the building. The flue itself is a passage and should be surrounded with a flue liner, which is – like the chimney – constructed of noncombustible and heat resistant materials.

October 2009: Getting to Know Your Historic Double-Hung Windows

Historic windows need periodic maintenance to operate properly. With proper care they can last indefinitely because all of their components are repairable or replaceable. Even quality replacement window manufacturers only warranty their windows for 10 to 20 years. When compared with the proven lifespan of original windows, replacement windows don't look like such a good deal.

September 2009: Iron Fencing and Railings

Iron fencing comes in two types, cast-iron and wrought-iron. Wrought iron is an older technology than cast iron in the west. Though the Chinese had developed the technology to cast iron as early as the 3rd century BCE, cast iron was not found in Europe until the Medieval period. Both types of metal are used in historic American fencing, often in combination, with cast-iron posts supporting the wrought-iron panels.

August 2009: Gutters and Downspouts

Gutters and downspouts are critical components of a building's water protection system because they are the most effective method of collecting rainwater from the roof and directing it away from the building's foundation. Gutters have existed for thousands of years in one form or another, and they probably have always necessitated a hated task of building ownership - cleaning. In addition to cleaning, periodic maintenance of your gutters is necessary to ensure that they keep the water flowing and out of your basement.

July 2009: Wooden Cladding, A Building's Skin

Wood is the most ubiquitous building material in America. Wooden cladding is often the single feature that most defines the character of the building it protects. Understanding the kind of wooden cladding that your building has, and how it was made, can help you make the best decisions about its care.

June 2009: Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation

The Secretary’s Standards, as they are generally known, are a set of federal guidelines developed by the National Park Service to guide their own decision-making processes with respect to historic buildings.

May 2009: Are Carpenter Bees Harmless?

Carpenter bees are generally attracted to unpainted wood, so one of the best methods of preventing an infestation is to keep any exposed wood surfaces covered with a good coat of paint.