Timeless Appeal of Pressed Tin Ceilings

A while back, we got to look at a interesting historic masonry building. Sadly, this masonry building has now been demolished. Like many architectural treasures in urban areas, they are complicated and expensive to maintain and where people do not value the unique nature of historic architecture, and or where funds are just not publicly available to preserve them, especially in poor parts of the cities of the east coast, these buildings fall into disrepair.  Historic architecture is something that belongs to all of us, in a way, even if we do not own the actual property. We should treat these buildings with a higher regard and be willing to invest in historic preservation.

Back a few years ago, we looked at several different areas of the historic masonry facade of this building. It’s sad that the building has been lost, but today, will take a close look at the historic pressed tin ceiling that was initially installed, many decades ago, at one of the entryways into the front facade of this building.

Tin originally began being used as a decorative building material in the 1800s, but pressed tin ceilings didn’t become ubiquitous or common in historic architecture until the early 1900s. You can see many different elements of historic tin and other types of historic sheet metal throughout many of oldest city center parts of Washington, DC and other East Coast cities. The tin sheet metal substrate materials were relatively common, ubiquitous and relatively low cost or had a degree of affordability.

There are a few different types of processes that are common for creating pressed tin architectural details. One of the earliest forms used manually hammering tin against wooden types of molds. This type of process was relatively expensive, from a labor perspective because the molds would need to be remade relatively quickly. In other words they had a relatively short life because each time the substrate mold was used to create a hammered tin, some damage or deformation of the substrate would occur.

After only so many times or iterations of shaping different pieces of tin, the substrate would have to be replaced and therefore that iterative rework would be relatively costly. During the Industrial Revolution though, alternative semi-automated assembly line type of methods were created that used steam press type power to mass produce pressed tinwork.

The tin ceiling shown in the pictures below was created in that type of process.

The particular design of the ceiling is made to look like a very small lattice work of a coffered type of ceiling.  The ceiling gives the feel or impression of detailed handmade craftsmanship. In reality though the pressed tin was mass produced in near automated or at least assembly line type of processes. This systemized manufacturing essentially made the production very low cost and made the tin, historically, widely available.

Here in Washington, DC, in contemporary times, people are more commonly interested in restoring buildings to the original style and or architectural methodologies of the time of the original construction. For this reason, tin and pressed ceiling type materials have come into higher demand. Today, for the most part, the original salvaged materials have a bit of a unique aesthetic. Modern alternatives that are made to resemble the original tin generally have much lower indentations and are noticeable forgeries or noticeable cheap alternatives to the original real historic tin.  Salvaging historic tin though is complicated because it is being extracted from a relatively limited amount of in situ type materials.

We originally looked at this building a few years back because of concerns about masonry stabilization and repointing or tuck pointing, but we were fascinated by many of the historic details like this tin ceiling assembly.

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.