Key Insights into Urban Stick Frame Construction Techniques
The vast majority of our blogs and content here on our website, go into detail and look closely at historic masonry construction and restoration. Often we talk about masonry, brick, and mortar deterioration, repointing and tuck pointing restoration. Today though, we’re going to switch gears and we’ll look at and describe images of something different. We’re going to take a look at some urban buildings, that are right into the middle of the historic areas of the city. They are in the middle of reconstruction, but not just refurbishing and repairing, instead, the majority of historic buildings are being cut apart and demolished with only select parts remaining in fact.
Much of the parts of the buildings that we’re showing in the pictures below looks to be brand new and, many of the materials are brand new, but if you look very closely, you will see that these are actually being built into existing older historic urban buildings.
Over 100 years ago most historic facades were built with brick masonry. Stick framing and timber post and beam type framing also existed concurrently and for many hundreds of years, but particularly in the dense urban cities of the east coast of the United States.
Particularly though, in Washington DC, many of these buildings were built in rowhome type construction with brick masonry. Brick is a particularly strong material, in terms of compressive strength, and as well brick is naturally fire resistant. The fire resistance is one of the biggest reasons that brick masonry was required here in Washington DC. Today though, when people renovate these buildings, they’ll often build walls with 2x dimensional lumber. This is a common rough framing lumber. However, to meet a modern fire rating, the joining walls are often sheathed with a fire resistant fiberglass mat gypsum sheathing.
The pictures above and below, show a rather unique glimpse into how these buildings are built. You can see that part of the building is framed, another part is sheathed, and another part above that even has the exterior finished cladding applied. It is a bit rare to get a view of the raw assembly, shown here, at the specific moment that the pictures were taken, because it shows all three stages at one time in one limited area. Here, you can basically the elements of the construction peeled away to expose the underlying substrates.
The area that we’re looking at here is a ceiling for an exterior part of the building, it’s actually at a rear balcony but framed similarly to how it would be built if it were on the interior of the building. It’s common in the historic parts of Washington DC that original porches have been enclosed and become part of the interior rear of the building or remain as an exterior portion af the back of the building. In most cases, those porches are also framed similarly to the floor on the inside of the building, with a 2x dimensional number.
Historic lumber was slightly different because even though it was nominally, called dimensional lumber, referencing the next larger incremental inch in each of the shortest ripped dimensions, it was built thicker than modern lumber. Modern lumber is more standardized and in most cases after milling and kiln drying a 2x dimensional board, it will only be 1.5 in thick, roughly. Even in modern processes with a much higher degree of controls, a degree of variation between individual boards and between mill processes is very common.
The next picture below shows a clear view of the exterior cladding. In this coming week’s blog article, we’re going to take a look at another set of historic buildings renovated with modern materials mixed together with the historic substrates and shells.
We can Help
Our company focuses on historic restoration more than modern building upkeep, maintenance, and construction, but our company understands both types of construction very well and a full picture well-rounded approach is needed in any niche in the construction industry. Although we focus on historic restoration, repointing, tuckpointing and historic brick repair, our company also has technical knowledge and competencies in the areas of modern and contemporary construction as well as we become one of the leaders in that area of the market today. Understanding both historic and modern or contemporary construction is useful because both aspects help understand the challenges and potential solutions for challenges in building science and construction.
We can help with a variety of historic masonry restoration needs and upkeep, from modest tuckpointing and or repointing to complicated and extensive historic masonry restoration. Infinity Design Solutions is a historic restoration specialist contractor specializing in both historic masonry restoration such as tuckpointing our repointing, and brick repair. If you have questions about the architectural details or facade of your historic building in Washington DC, reach out and say hello and if we can help we’ll be glad to assist you. You can email us or call us on the telephone at the following link: contact us here.
