Historic Masonry Headers: Key to Structural Stability

This past week, we took a look at several different types of common historic Masonry headers. The majority of historic masonry headers here in Washington DC or segmented arches which are partially self-supporting but also often have an embedded hidden beam behind the brick facade.  We also looked at some of the even more historic Roman arches and talked about the gothic arch and other self-supporting types of headers.

 Today we’re going to look at several header failures in historic brick masonry. And these failure types are from around the DC historic districts and other examples where we’ve seen brick header failures or masonry failures in the field.  This past week’s blog article was a good primer to set the stage to have a more complete discussion about header structure and associated failure.

We start with the bay in the picture below.  This bay is at the rear of a historic brick row home. At the top of that bay, just below the ñow-slope roof, the window header on the right hand side of the bay has collapsed.   You can see, by looking at the adjacent windows and the remnants of what are left at the collapsed window header, the original construction was designed for jack arches at each of these similar window opening headers.

The next picture below shows a much closer view and you can see that the bricks above the jack arch have collapsed.  You can learn so much by looking closely at the demolished and or collapsed or failed ruins of old buildings. Sometimes you can learn more by looking at those old areas of failure and destruction then you can by looking at the finished building itself. In this case, we can see the hidden areas that would normally be concealed.  

There are two corbelled header courses of brick above the planar field area of the wall.  One single brick from the lower header course has come loose and is partially dislodged. The regular field bricks at the exterior part of the facade above the window header have collapsed already and are now gone. You can see the original brick behind the facade brick.  There’s a relatively short wooden beam set into the brickwork on the interior of the double wythe masonry partition.

After the header failed, the bricks above also collapsed. In the picture below the same thing has happened but in a much larger type of destruction. Temporary bracing has been installed to try to salvage the remaining parts of this building and protect the adjacent buildings from collapse.

Here, you can see, similar to the building shown above at the beginning of the article, this header, although a double window opening, also has a similar wooden beam set into the interior side of the double wythe brick partition.

Although this particular buildings has had a lack of upkeep and care for many years, it is built similar to many of the historic buildings we see in DC. It is a relatively typical historic masonry building like many of the other buildings in the historic areas of the city.  Once the bricks around that header began to come loose, after years of deterioration the rest of it came down quickly.

All of this destruction and failure and collapse could have easily been prevented by routine upkeep and maintenance such as typical repointing at the exterior face of the brick wall.  Repointing the brickwork helps to maintain a consistent exterior moisture barrier that prevents the majority of precipitation in typical rainwater from permeating into the face of the brick and slowly deteriorating the inner parts of the mortar joints that hold the brick assembly together.

This past week we showed a couple different examples of segmented masonry headers. Those particular headers use a series of bricks and coursework, in a header position.  Brickwork in the segmented arches below are similar, but they’re in a different position. This particular layout is a more typical voussoir layout, commonly found in Roman arches.  Here the rubbed bricks are gauged, meaning they are individually shaped to fit in a near self supporting configuration. 

After experiencing problems related to mortar deterioration and stair-step cracking, the brickwork at the header and the header above were repointed and restored.  Repointing is a relatively simple process that can extend the life of the brickwork and these critical areas of the exterior brick facade for decades.  Proper repointing and  historic masonry restoration is somewhat expensive, but the amount of costs that can be saved is immense. Repointing is simply worth it (and much more), almost every single time in almost every single type of circumstance.

Here, in today’s blog article, we have looked a few of the critical steps in the stages of both failure and restoration, but this coming week we’re going to show a different stage between restoration and complete failure which generally begins at window headers with stair step cracking related to the absence or omission of proper upkeep and or historic masonry repointing.

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 Solution s 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.