Jun 28, 2013

Church Hill's Newest Pink Lady


Restoration Builders of Virginia has recently had the privilege of working on the house at 2100 East Broad Street, right at the bustling corner of 21st and East Broad Streets.

We've worked on this historic house before, and were coming back to do siding repair and to rebuild the front porch.


We took down old rotten siding boards, replaced them with new boards, properly backprimed, and installed with the correct fasteners. By replacing the siding with wood we preserved the historic look, feel, and value of this balloon framed house.

 Painters came behind us, scraping and then priming and painting the house a lovely pink. When headed East on Broad Street from City Hall, you can spot this Pink Lady from the opposite hill around 12th Street.

RBVA had done work on the front porch at 2100 several years ago, when the rails, columns, gutters, ceiling, and roof were all revamped. This year we came back for the deck. The concrete slab that had been there was no longer desireable, so we replaced it with brick piers, pressure treated framing, and tongue and groove flooring. The little touches like the grooved shoes for the columns (for water drainage), slope of the deck, and skirt and ogee trim around the outside edge of the framing, show our attention to detail and long term thinking involved in our construction.
 More pictures after the break...

Jun 7, 2013

Finally rebuilding at termite central: 2100 E Broad


Excellent masonry work by Gustavo, a mason with Virginia Masonry Restoration. We've even got bonafied foundation bolts in there. New salt treated mudsill, new foundation, and this bug-riddled house is going to be good as new soon.

Jun 5, 2013

Termite repairs at 2100 E Broad St- the accidental renovation

What once was a siding job has now turned into major structural repairs.

The studs are 'floating'- supported by the jacking beam bolted to them.

We had to remove a hall wall, the front door, and all the flooring on the first floor.

Hickman's Termite and Pest Control treated the building twice yesterday (we kept  finding more active bugs) .

The bug man estimates they've been chewing on this building for approximately 5 years.

This is called backwards building; suspending a building in air and building from top down, not bottom up.
We bolted 2x4s between the front wall and the floor so the wall didn't  swing out into the street when we lifted it.