Why should you learn masonry structure anatomy by studying old ruins?
This week, we’re taking a look at some really interesting ruins of an old building. We think this is a very interesting context to learn about and analyze a building and the history of construction technology and building methodology, it’s almost like an archeological excavation but in this case we’re just making g visual observations without any actually digging or disturbance of the physical remains. We had the opportunity, in this case, to see the elements of construction in a cutaway type view. You can learn so much about building construction and the methods of creating building assemblies by looking at the partially deteriorated and destroyed ruins of old buildings. This building is built very similar to a typical rowhome in Capitol Hill or other historic neighborhoods of Washington DC.
While this building is falling apart, dilapidated, piece by piece deteriorated in a freefall of accelerated physical atrophy, by comparison the attached building nextdoor is in the middle of being renovated, a complete gut remodel. The next door building stands, like a foil character in a novel, as an example of a building of complete opposite condition, side-by-side. The next door building shines a light on the issue of value. It’s a recurring theme woven throughout the context of building restoration, upkeep, and repair. Economics are central to the driving forces of the decisions we make related to preservation and restoration of buildings.
Grade Portion of the Building
In the picture below, you can see the full length of the above grade portion of this building. The building stands 3.5 levels above grade, a relatively tall yet slender rowhome the heart of the city. The three levels above grade constitute the majority of the home and building, with the half level that remains below grade as an extra rise that keeps the living space in the dryer areas above grade and separates the living space from the damp of the basement.
At the time of original construction, today’s systems of HVAC and moisture control technology had not been developed or invented and many of the products we use today for building construction related to water abatement or waterproofing did not yet exist. It was rare that the basement of a typical row home was finished at the time of initial construction, in most cases it could be used as a storage space or a root cellar but it was only in more modern times that we consistently started finishing these basement areas to make them part of the overall living space. Today it’s common to have a den or gathering area in the basement, in addition to utility elements like HVAC units, bicycle storage, powder rooms, and workout or fitness areas, mud rooms, and the ever critical laundry rooms.
The remaining portion of (what today appears to be) the rear facade of the building is largely constituted by the remains of an old brick masonry chimney. It’s really interesting that a chimney would take up such a large portion of the rear wall of this building, but there’s reasons for why the chimney is so central to the function of this historic home and it’s not really the rear wall of the building. At the time of original construction, there was likely a rear ell portion of this building which has already collapsed and been removed. This apparent but misnomer of a rear facade was actually an interior wall of the building, structural nonetheless, and functionally very important.
Brick Structure of the Chimney
The chimney once worked as a fireplace in the main entry or ground level and possibly also as an exhaust air chase for a basement boiler. The next picture below shows the brick structure of the chimney and structural load path of the fireplace at the main level, transferred to the foundation through the structural brick wall of building with thickened sides on each side of the fireplace.
It’s likely there was once a smoke shelf that sat on a ledge, still visible, in the brick chimney, above the firebox. That particular smoke shelf is gone though at this point. In the next picture below, you can see a clear view of that area above the fireplace and you can also see the underside of the actual exterior brick partition at the top floor of the building. There was a wood header, still in place today, to support this span of brick. While the remainder of the wall below was not actually exterior. The top floor of the building had a smaller footprint and the door opening that still remains, shown above, led to a balcony at the rear of the building. Although the remaining ruins of this rowhome are in shambles, it was once a functionally accommodating home and building, a terrific place for a typical family to live.
How Rooms Were Wider And Hand A Larger Footprint
Like a typical window or door header, the wood beam below the bottom of the top floor rear wall creates a header or a structural girder so that the brick can span over the opening below. The opening below allowed the room to be open between the area below that top floor structural wall, otherwise there would have had to have been a structural wall right in the middle of an interior space that otherwise could have been functionally more useful if it had been opened. Since the wood girder was in place, that room could then be wider and have a larger footprint and therefore more useful. In most cases a wider footprint allows for more functional options and a better potential for effective use of a space. Several generations ago, layouts with many separate rooms were more common because families stayed together even across several generations and even in office spaces, cubicles were less common, more individuals in a firm had acyltual walled offices. For residential buildings, families stayed together with multiple generations of the same household. This still happens a bit in the United States, but it’s much less common today than it was several generations ago. Far and wide, by-and-large, overall we prefer open floor plans today even more than we did in the past, In a typical thin rowhome creating an extra division at a room like this for no functional reason, just to carry the structural load paths, would have reduced the effective options for use of the interior space.
The area below the fireplace may have had a fuel tank near the base of the chimney. It could have also been used for storage space, but cellars were not often used, even for their potential storage space, many generations ago in the past. At the time of original construction in the early 1900s or late 19th century, people simply had much fewer possessions than they do today.
The picture below shows the condition of the historic masonry brickwork at the area at the base of the chimney on the main living level. The brickwork is deteriorated, in bad condition, out of its original planar shape and form. The mortar joints are largely deteriorated, in many cases completely defunct and even missing in many areas. There’s a stair-step crack that runs across the face of the lower six courses of brick. At some point in the life of the building, a stucco or plaster coat was applied directly to the face of the brickwork, in this particular area that stucco has delaminated and is now missing from the area where it was formerly covering the lower several courses of brickwork.
It’s hard to tell exactly where the old firebox used to exist within the omitted or void section of this chimney. The most obvious or apparent location has a wing wall at one side which is covered with several delaminated and flaking layers of paint. At any point in time when the brick fireplace was in use, it would not have made sense for that portion of the brick wall to be painted. This paint was probably applied after the fireplace was functionally damaged or inoperable beyond the point that the building owners or habitants were willing to repair. The paint on that wall is a likely sign that former building inhabitants chose not to repair the chimney or fireplace at the time when repairs were first needed. Instead it looks like the economic challenges that wreaked havoc in the local economies of most American urban centers such as Capitol Hill and Washington DC may have affected this house as well, probably in the mid 20th century. At that point, the building owners may have made the choice to forgo a repair and no longer continue using the fireplace, possibly due to better options ushered in by technological advances and / or related to financial or economic or market limitations.
How Economic Forces Affect Construction and Engineering
It’s really interesting to study the economic forces and how they affect the construction and engineering and restoration industries. Sometimes, there are multiple variables that a simple supply and demand curve may not be able to illustrate the forces of all of those individual variables. If you look at almost any niche of the construction industry, you can see that very recently, since the pandemic of 2020, material prices have spiked, driven by unbridled corporate greed in America. Politicians right here in DC argue whether or not the increasing costs which affect most markets and most of the construction industry are driven by supply chain cost increases that are a natural effect of a pandemic or whether there’s an embedded relationship tied to corporate greed. The answer is abundantly clear, at the same time as costs have spiked, corporations across America have experienced record profits as is apparent by their own clear admission. However, it’s also really interesting as prices have spiked, overall qulaiy has actually decreased, not increased. We can see the same trend in the construction market, companies like IDS, Infinity Design Solutions, who care and make a major effort to train and learn about the principles of historic restoration, are increasingly rarer, every year.
In the picture below, you can see front lines left on the exposed face of the inside back wall of the old chimney which show the outline of the smoke shelf and brick opening header. That header is gone now. It’s likely to have collapsed decades ago. The painted portions are very interesting and are a clue that supports the theory that the functional retirement of the chimney happen years ago, as described above.
In the coming week we will examine more details of this historic brick masonry property and discuss some of the structural and mechanical implications of the masonry and related support elements. We also will take a look at an analysis between the functional elements of brick masonry and similar types of historic stone masonry, Including restoration processes, tuckpointing or repointing, durability and structural compressive strength analysis.
How To Properly Maintain And Repair Historic Buildings
To properly maintain, repair, and care for these historic buildings, a knowledge, interest and understanding of historic building principles is required. Here in Washington DC, historic masonry buildings are extremely expensive and the amount of financial loss caused by improper repointing and low quality construction is staggering. However, in addition to the direct financial value of the property, there is also a cultural loss when historic buildings are damaged. By comparison, consider neighboring poor cities, when historic buildings are damaged, it’s not just the loss of value to the property owner, there’s also a loss to all inhabitants and visitors of a city, present and future, who care about architecture, history, and culture.
We encourage all of our clients, and all readers of this article and to our blog in general, to prioritize the historic built environment of Washington DC and neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown and become educated on on the difference between proper historic preservation versus improper work which leads to significant damage to the historic fabric of a building.
From a conservation and preservation perspective, several approaches can be taken to improve conditions related to deteriorated historic brick masonry. Primarily, lime mortar brick joints and low temperature fired soft red clay bricks should be inspected and checked on a routine maintenance schedule, either seasonally or at least annually. If brick masonry is kept in good condition, the life of embedded wood elements can be significantly extended. Hire a professional contractor which specializes, understands and appreciates historic construction elements and buildings.
You can learn a lot more on our blog. Feel free to check it out. If you have questions about the historic masonry of your building in Washington DC, fill out the webform below and drop us a line. We will be in touch if we can help.
