Efflorescence is a chalky white-ish salt deposit left of the exposed face of masonry, concrete, and cementitious building assemblies. The following picture shows a painted brick screen wall with significant efflorescence. When a masonry building assembly is subject to or exposed to residual moisture in… Read More »Efflorescence
Egg and Dart is a architectural pattern common in the Washington DC historic neighborhoods such as Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Dupont Circle. The pattern uses an oval and an interspersed vertical arrow between each circle. This type of pattern was carved in millwork and running… Read More »Egg and Dart
The barnstar in the photo below is secured to the building’exterior brick facade using a threaded rod, washer, and a 3/4″ nut. This hardware holds the star in tension to resist the lateral defection of the wall. Ferrous exterior hardware should always be galvanized (or… Read More »Electrogalvanization, zinc
The English brick bond is extremely common in the United states. Here in Washington DC it is not the very most common of all brick bonds, but it is still ubiquitous and found throughout the historic areas of the city. By comparison, the Flemish bond… Read More »English bond brickwork
An architectural eschutcheon is basically just a trim ring that covers the perimeter edge of a pipe, bar, or tube where the pipe or ither item penetrates through or mounts to a another surface. A picture below shows an example of a fire suppression sprinkler… Read More »Escutcheon, architectural
Expansion joints and building movement joints may be referred to by other names such as expansion joints. Essentially, buildings move, even small buildings have micro movements. But large building construction assemblies such as bridges, in the case of the photo below, and on many other… Read More »Expansion joints and building movement joints
Expansion joints in concrete and masonry flatwork are similar to building movement joints but smaller in scale and simpler to build. The picture below shows a 1″ wide expansion joint in an upside down T shape next to a quarter inch saw-cut control joint. Concrete… Read More »Expansion joints in concrete and masonry flatwork
Exposed aggregate concrete is very similar to typical flatwork concrete, except the exposed face of concrete cream (a mixture of cement and fine aggregates pushed to the top of the exposed concrete surface at the finishing stage of pouring concrete) is washed away before concrete… Read More »Exposed aggregate concrete
Exterior Insulated Finishing System, EIFS, is a synthetic type wall rendering g or stucco system. The system is comparatively very lightweight with significantly better insulation values, compared to traditional cement render and stucco systems. The pictures below show an area in a Washington DC alley.… Read More »Exterior Insulated Finishing System, EIFS,