The long awaited masonry restoration workshop officially began this morning as Andy deGruchy met four masonry apprentices at The Speaker’s House.
Last week, Rob and Steve, two masons who have worked for Andy for more than 15 years, began by removing layers and layers of whitewash from the building’s facade in preparation for repairing and repointing. After two days of grueling, messy work, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the 100+ year old whitewash, Rob and Steve announced that the whitewash was winning. Because brownstone is very porous, white wash penetrates the crevices of the stone, making it very difficult to remove. We estimate that it may take two more days to remove the remainder of the whitewash.
In the meantime, Andy is introducing the apprentices to historic preservation and restoration. They will be discussing how one makes decisions about a project where there is no definitive information as to what the building looked like when it was originally constructed. Andy will be taking the apprentices back to his shop in Quakertown where they will be doing mortar analysis and color matching.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s updates!
Tags: historic preservation, masonry
