Causes and Impact of Collapsing Roofs in Old Buildings
This past week, at the start of the series, we began looking at a collapsing historic building. The roof was basically missing and/or laying about on top of the parts below. We explained that the area that you can see through the windows is actually part of the ceiling at the top floor of the building, not the roof.
You can see the correlation between the joists and the connection at the side wall if you look in the picture below, through the window opening. You can see the edge of where the ceiling joists meet the side walls of the building. Those side walls are made of bricks and the ceiling framing is made with a rough sawn 2×10 lumber boards. The lumber of historic times, over 100 years ago, was generally a little bit larger than modern boards of the same nominal dimension.
The milling process, for this lumber today, is done with a higher degrees of automation which generally removes more of the wood and today’s lumber is a bit more standardized at incremental dimensions.
When you look further into the building, as shown at the view through the window opening in the picture below, it’s hard to make sense of which set of framing you’re actually seeing. It’s hard to tell that the roof framing is basically gone. It’s hard to say where that roof framing is today, it could be partially laying on top of the ceiling framing, still in it’s original position or close to it at least.
Or the original roof may have lifted off in heavy winds and blown onto a neighboring building or even onto the ground below. It could have also deteriorated into pieces and fallen through the elements of the ceiling framing into it on top of floors farther below that.
When you look at the details of the picture below, it is clear, there are elements of framing members, scattered about, clinging to or sitting on top of the remaining portion of the ceiling framing. These elements are, in some cases resting on top of that framing, and other cases partially lodged in between the framing is if they’re falling to the area below. So there’s examples of all of the different potential cases that we described.
In the next picture below, we’re looking at a very similar building, but it’s not the same building, it’s different. This is part of a block or section of buildings where there is widespread deterioration and dilapidation. The picture in the building below has some interesting similarities, but it’s definitely unique. Instead of having just multiple, traditional window openings in the brick beside, there’s a major section, the majority of the front facade, in one big rectangular shape that’s now missing.
We believe that the original construction of this building had a big, large opening cut into the front, years after the original construction. It was relatively rare for building to be built like this, especially at the upper levels, in historic times. The idea of wide open floor to ceiling windows was not really a common thing over 100 years ago. For a lot of manufacturing and technological realities, it was difficult to make windows quite so large.
The building here is also in seriously bad shape, the ceiling and floors of the building have collapsed and caved into the interior lower portions. A portion of the ceiling and roof are still somewhat intact, but even with the roof which is largely still covered with some of the materials, it still has an opening that allows light to pour in from the outside. During storms and income in weather, this opening in many parts of the old roof area leaks right to the interior.
In our company’s particular line of work, we are most concerned about the historic facade elements of buildings. We’d like to see these buildings taken care of and refurbished or at least maintained so they don’t become completely dilapidated like these examples. Nonetheless, we’re interested in understanding the science of masonry deterioration and here you can see examples of where non-masonry elements of destruction or dilapidation have led to damage to the historic masonry. It’s good to use these examples as a learning opportunity, here we can understand how some of the structural issues can be exacerbated by unmitigated deterioration.
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.
