Catch Up Time

It's been a while since we've had a post - mostly because it's been pretty quiet around here. But I still need to catch you all up with what has been done.

Before and after the Fourth of July weekend, the masons completed their work on the west chimney. They replaced around 50 bricks, dismantled and relaid the crown of the chimney, and re-pointed the whole thing down to below the shingles.


They also parged the inside of the flues from the top down as far as they could reach - about 3 feet.


Like the kitchen chimney, this one had a void in the masonry between flues - posing a fire hazard if the fireplaces were ever used.


Since the void was visible, we decided to fill the cavity with the same vericulite/cement mixture that we used on the kitchen chimney. Again, our thought process was to incure the long-term survival of the building. We found a problem so we addressed it rather than cover it up. If the house ever has a different owner that tries to use the fireplace, we don't want them to have a bad experience!

Finally, they capped the chimney with metal that slopes from the center down toward each side to shed rain (it's shaped like an upside-down "V", except much flatter). They installed temporary flashing that will be removed once the roofers are ready to build a cricket to protect the chimney.


The chimney was out of level by 2.75" across the width at the top - pretty bad considering it's only about 5 feet wide. They were able to correct it by using some slightly thicker bricks and increasing the size of the mortar joints slightly. The trick was to do this in a manner that would be imperceptible from the ground. In the following pic you can see that the courses of brick rise from the left side of the chimney to the right side:


The results are great - the chimney looks excellent with the chimney mortar matching the adjacent gable end mortar perfectly.

So the next project is the roof on the Amstel House kitchen wing. The roofers arrived today, and the tear off process has started. As I write this, they have removed all the shingles from one side of the house and are in the process of installing plywood over top of the lath.


We're using the same installation process that was used at the Dutch House, so I won't rehash that again here.

The wood shingles will be standard "royals" with a normal thickness - no tapered butt like we did at the Dutch House. We are matching the shingles that are in place on the roof of the main block (that roof is not being replaced since it has several years of life left in it).

In addition to the roof, we'll also be correcting some gutter issues and completing some minor repairs to the metal roof that is on the 1905 rear addition. the roofers should be on-site for about a week - barring any weather-related delays.

Gotta run - I'm expecting our architect to arrive any minute to inspect the Dutch House and check out the progress thus far at the Amstel House.

More tomorrow!

The "Brick" Boat soon will be making another run...

May 26

OK that title was a stretch, but the latest news is that we need more bricks. About 60 or so more...so when the weather breaks I'm off to my favorite brick pile. I do feel a little like "Gopher" I guess as I go for more bricks. Did you know Gopher's given name was "Burl Smith"? Me either...who cares?

After a pretty relaxing Memorial Day weekend (which included a trip to the budget-threatened Brandywine Battlefield in the true spirit of the holiday), it's back to work on the house today.

Before we get into the chimney project, there's another side project going on at the Amstel & Dutch Houses currently - painting the outbuildings. You'll remember that both buildings just received new roofs, so now its time to paint them. The Dutch House outbuilding (a recreated smokehouse) is getting painted on the outside only, while the Amstel House garden house is getting painted both outside and inside (excluding the ceiling inside which has a nice peeling whitewash look to it that was so in vogue in the 1990s - "shabby chic" or something like that). We received a grant from the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Delaware (who henceforth shall be known as "the Dames" - its OK, "Dames" is politically correct speech for the organization - I worked for them in Maryland for several years) for the paint project. It's great because the Dames originally paid for the construction Dutch House smokehouse way back in 1939.

So last week I pulled down our garden exhibit in the Amstel garden house, cleaned out the cabinet and vacuumed up all the spiderwebs. The painters actually started on Friday and are finishing up today and Wednesday. We decided to paint the Amstel garden house white again on the inside walls and exterior woodwork. We considered painting the exterior woodwork the same historic color as the Amstel House exterior (discovered through paint analysis) but since the garden house is a 1930s colonial revival reconstruction, we decided to leave it white. That will help to visually differentiate it from the main house, and keep that lovely white trim that they were so fond of during the colonial revival. The Dutch House outbuilding is being painted the same color as the Dutch House (red) which is the same color that it already is.

Back to the chimney...

It's raining. So work is limited to inside the attic and cleaning bricks. All the bricks that have been cleaned manually now have to be washing with a weak muriatic acid solution. The solution is mixed in a five gallon bucket with about 1" of acid added to the water - I'm not sure of the water amount. (Always remember your chemistry class and "do as you oughta...add acid to woughta!")

To clean them, the masons dip a nylon brush (on a handle) into the acid solution and scrub the bricks which are arranged in a row on the ground. BTW - Don't do this near any plants that you want to keep alive. Once they are scrubbed, they may require a little more scraping. If so, a final acid wash happens again, then they all get hosed off. Repeat for all sides. Let them dry and they are ready to use.

One issue with this cleaning process that most people don't realize...once the historic bricks are clean, they look like they did in the 18th century - i.e. brand new. They don't look like the brick on the house that has 200 years of grime, mildew, etc. on it. After the chimney is completed, the cleanup process requires some more acid washing, so the mortar joints will look pretty clean too. They will both take some time to weather to a matching patina (Don't you either love or hate that word - patina - thanks alot Antiques Roadshow!). Luckily, the house is at a stop sign on a busy street, so there will be plenty of exhaust to help darken up our new brick, and the chimney is shaded by a tree which will promote mildew (did I say "luckily"?). One thing we decided against is that we don't want to artifically age the brick or the mortar to match right away.

More tomorrow...