In the picture below, you can see an old Garage wall left behind or the old masonry. The old wall stands directly against another building. This historic masonry wall is deteriorated and falling apart but the building adjacent to it or right next to it is intact and complete. When you look at this at first, it might look like it’s all part of the same construction assembly. However, when you look closer you can see that it’s actually a remnant of a past building that is now gone, essentially part of the ruins of an older historic building.
Several plants are growing out from the top of the old remaining wall and or the interstitial space between this wall and the adjacent building. In many cases, adjacent buildings, even across property lines, and historic times were built together as one monolithic assembly. In this particular case though, they were built at two different times and there is a dry joint between them and even an interstitial open void or space between them which is even more problematic.
As plants take root and grow on top of a historic brick wall like this, the roots and associated biocolonization of other plants cause damage to the existing remaining substrate.
Here in the picture below you can see three small softwood sumac trees growing in the top of the historic brick wall. The remainder of the old building is gone and already falling apart and largely been removed. It’s likely the only reason that they left this part of the wall was just to save costs as they were either lazy or on a tight budget and didn’t want to take the time or spend the money to remove the rest of the remaining wall since it hadn’t already collapsed. It’s likely that the remainder of the building which has already been removed fell and collapsed to the ground.
The heavy iron gate hinge is partially left set and cast into the remaining parts of this old brick wall. And, although it’s a totally different property, the property owners to the right, in the picture below, painted the remaining part of the neighbor’s wall the same color to make it all aesthetically blend together.
The next picture below shows the two side by side facade elements together. Although the picture below is taken at a wider angle, you can still see there is a dark shadow at the joint between the two buildings. Here, in this case, there is an actual separation that can allow the elements such as water and wind to enter into this interstitial open voice. It’s problematic to have open voids like that because once water enters into that space, it does not dry out or drain away easily by gravity or by air circulation alone. Instead that water and or hydration will sit in that area and permeate the adjacent surrounding materials. Longer times of hydration and/or saturation are problematic because they accelerate the deterioration of both the brick and the historic mortar. Repointing or tuckpointing can solve many of the problems associated with deterioration of masonry that naturally occur over time, but in this particular case, even repointing won’t stop the issue of damage to the interior bricks at the interstitial void or in the middle of the brick assembly.
In the next picture below, you can see that gap even closer and it’s possible to see that it’s just open where it would have been much better to fill that space with either mortar and or an elastomeric sealant, especially at the outer face of the wall.
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.