Exploring Gothic Arches in granite stone
Recently, we took a look at a historic building that was once a religious building that’s now being converted for a commercial use. This type of conversion is very common today in our modern times as the congregations that make up many of our historic churches have aged and real estate prices and the cost of routine upkeep and maintenance have increased with regular inflation.
These buildings need funding, to manage and maintain, and if a congregation is declining, both in number and also aging to the point that funds from contributions are naturally declining, it may make financial sense to convert these buildings into commercial usage. There’s an increasing rise in the commercial real estate market for churches to be placed inside of deteriorating strip malls because those strip malls have trouble finding retail clients and churches generate their own revenue from within. Those commercial rents are generally very cheap compared to the cost of upkeep and maintenance, particularly when there is a bank note on one of these old historic churches.
As people who really value and care about preservation of historic masonry construction and architecture, we, at least appreciate the fact that these buildings are being preserved and not demolished. Even if they’re being converted from their original use to something new, there is a benefit in keeping them alive and maintained. Today we’re going to look at an example of a historic granite facade built with ashlar cut stone and using Gothic style window openings.
There’s a degree of randomness to the shapes of these stones, although they’re cut in an actual form. Ashlar forms are somewhat rectilinear and at least have some flat surfaces, whereas stones harvested from the earth are generally more rounded or even more random in shape. These stones have been dressed, cut, likely by hand, and formed before being used as masonry units.
This processing allows the stones to be set in a tighter structural network together so that they are easier to place and have a greater structural stability. By comparison, rubble masonry is basically masonry construction with stones that are completely randomized and unformed. We’ve shown some notable examples of rubble masonry here on our website in the past.
Like an engaged column, these walls are built with a buttressing pier that adds lateral resistance to the planar shape of the wall. These buttressed piers stick out from the face of the wall and to some degree at an architectural detail that might be considered an aesthetic point of interest. Really though, they’re intended for functional purposes to add additional support to the wall at intermediary spacing.
If you look closely at the mortar joints between each of these individual stones, you can see that there’s something a little bit unique or different about these mortar joints compared to the typical flush joints we see, so often, at brick work here in Capitol Hill. Particularly with restoration and repointing of historic mortar joints, it’s important to understand the profile of the existing joint, at least in cases where wholesale repointing isn’t required. In other words, when spot or selective limited repair of mortar joints is needed and not wholesale repointing of historic masonry, it’s important to create a profile that resembles the existing mortar profile.
In most cases, we will present options to the client and the client will select from the types of options available. In this case, we would generally recommend the repointing be done with a similar profile of a ribbon joint. Here you can see a ribbon joint that is basically centered on the middle of the mortar joint between the individual masonry units. The actual mortar joint or the space that that mortar is larger than the centered ribbon joint.
This detail only takes up roughly 1/3 of the total space within the outside edge of that mortar joint. Essentially, the center most area of the mortar joint is cut, while the mortar is still relatively fresh, away from the remainder of the mortar to give a proud or extending facing.
In this particular week’s blog, we talked a lot about masonry restoration and the repointing of these historic mortar joints, and we will continue this discussion about these details in this coming week but wie wll also talk more about the structural design and use of Gothic arches. Gothic arches have been used for centuries to support openings in historic buildings, both built with brick and stone.
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.
