Restoring the Deck On a Porch With Wrought Iron Columns and Railings

We continue to get porch repair work and we're happy to have it. The latest case is some rot that has overtaken an Italianate Style house on East Grace Street up in Church Hill. We are replacing the decking, the framing, and the lattice.... restored with historical accuracy of course!

Normally, with wood columns, we would jack up a porch roof in order to suspend it while we replace the decking, but with wrought iron columns that's not option so we built a bracing system.

Our Carpenters used two 2x8's to be the point where the jacks hold up the roof. 

We then end up with the issue that the entire porch would collapse if we simply jacked it up from the bottom, so we braced the structure to the North Side wall using 2x4s.

 

 Our Carpenter Ben, and Apprentice Chad are hard at work putting together the deck frame.

When completed, the clients will have a fantastic new deck to compliment the beautiful wrought iron railing and columns.

Bracing Tredegar Tunnels

Lurking beneath Tredegar Iron Works are old tunnels that took water to and from the water mills that powered the 19th Century manufacturing powerhouse that flowed in from the Kanawa Canal. Our job was to help them maintain their current shape.

We customized piping for the bracing. The tunnel needed some additional bracing to maintain the industrial history of the structure

We carefully sized the poles and braces and carefully arranged them balance and counter-balance the supports.

Building in the round: recreating a missing round porch on Monument Avenue

After rebuilding the reclaimed columns in the shop, we realize on site that one full and one half column were too short. We spent a day on site adding onto these columns and shaping them. No one will be the wiser.

The capitals did not quite fit inside the tops of the columns. We routed 3/16" of material off. The capitals (shown here upside down) mid-modification. The one on the left is partially complete.

The elaborate scaffolding access gives us a safe platform to work on the columns. The round columns slip around a 6x6 post, which has to be set first. The columns were lifted 12 feet in the air and slipped down onto these 6x6 posts. Very carefully.

The next step is the handrails. In order to hide all fasteners, the entire handrail will be let into the column for support on all sides. 

 

The entire handrail was mortised into the column; we wanted to avoid using the manufacturers' mounting brackets, which would betray the modern material. We used Kreg jig pocket screws instead.

After the screw holes are filled with epoxy, sanded and painted, no one will be the wiser.

 A few views of the handrail from the scaffold really show off the curve.

 While one carpenter works on the finishing details of the round bases, we will move on to setting capitals around the 6x6 inner core of the columns.

Finishing the handrails:

The balusters were so close to the round column and newel, we had to do some extensive modification to make the system work.

One of the bottom rails has to be carefully coped to fit around existing trim details. This piece will be spliced onto the handrail section to extend its length and eliminate a half-newel at the house, which would obscure existing stone trim details on the house.

The first piece spliced on.

Restoration Builders of VA Project Recieves AIA Award of Merit

Our Castlewood Project has won the AIA DC Chapter Award of Merit. For the past year we have taken the early 1817 Neo-Palladian style Castlewood plantation house in Chesterfield, Virginia from this:

Before

to this:

After

 

We are glad to partner with Davis Buckley Architects to accomplish the restoration of this beautiful piece of property.

Thank you, AIA for the honor.