Replacing Siding and Porch Steps at 3101 E Broad St.

Doing a bunch of various things at 3101 E Broad St., but right now, a ton of siding repairs!

And rebuilding some stairs

Restoring Doors at Tredegar Iron Works

 We recently completed a small job (there are small jobs, but no small clients!) for Tredegar Iron Works repairing two custom doors that had rotted from water that had gather around the bottom during heavy rains. 

The first step was getting the doors off an in the shop. They were heavy! It took 3 to 4 people to move these doors.

First, we performed surgery using a scalpel (never an ax) to remove all of the rotted portions of the doors.

Next, we did dutchman repairs on the door stiles.

then we took tongue and groove boards and cut them to fit inside the large lower panel. The fact that the boards ran diagonally required special attention to make sure that the diagonal cuts lined up with the stiles and rails frame around the panel.

Then, re-installation. Paint will be done by others.

Sean decided to get to know some of the locals.

2502 E Grace St. Project - Porch Repair

Work has continued in unabated on 2502 E Grace St. The porch had to be completely redone. Reframed, columns, steps. There use to be concrete steps where those wood ones now are. 

The tools

The porch.

The men.

Demolishing Anachronistic Features of a House

Sometimes in our line of work, we come across architectural features that aren't original to the structure or are added, but don't fit in with the historic character of the house. In these cases a little demo is required before rebuilding.

We restored the Hilary Baker House in Church Hill a couple of years back and this is one area that the client couldn't address at the time. Two years later, we are finally getting to remove this anachronistic porch. What we now see as the front of the house was actually the back of the house in 1819 when this house was built. At this point this would have been the only house on a large lot. Over the years, development of the neighborhood by filling in portioned lots with row-houses has turned this around.

We will be putting in a period-appropriate stone porch here in the near future.

Door Dutchman Repair

As an aside to our shutters project for Centre Hill, we picked up some work repairing the doors on the mansion.

We started by cutting out the rotten portion on the door stile.

We had to use two different pieces of wood cut to leave room for the flush bolt lock and then put another layer on top, to mimic the original milling of the stile.

And finally, epoxy the joints to hold it together and make it blend seamlessly with the existing wood.

Installing Centre Hill Mansion Shutters

Our large shutter restoration project for the City of Petersburg at Centre Hill is finally under way. We had to delay for a while while several movies and TV shows were being filmed, 

The project involved restoring or replacing several old shutters and the hardware. The shutters that were either missing or had to be replaced were done so by the fine folks at Timberlane Shutters. 

We hired Doug McDonald Welding (our go to for metal work) to fabricate the replacement hardware.

North Church Hill 1913 House Interior Restoration

This house was a disaster when we first went in to bid it. 25% of the second floor had fallen victim to fire damage from long ago; including the ceiling and the attic. We are moving several walls, opening up the kitchen, and re-purposing the rooms and the space.

We are installing new framing for what will become the Master Suite. 

In the attic here, we are preparing to add a brand new set of pull down stairs to give attic access,

Where Chris is framing right now use to be a small hallway closet that led to the crawl space and behind him was also a closet/storage. That space behind him is being converted into a bathroom that will connect to the Master Suite.

Right now, Chris is framing to install a pocket door that will really turn it into a Master Suite, rather than simply a Master Bedroom.

What will become a guest bedroom.

Bird's eye view of the Master Suite

This was a bathroom that will be restored.

This area will be an office. One of the reasons that we work on these older house is because that brick construction is s neat.

The kitchen floor was completely rotten and had extensive termite damage around the door frame. We cut out the damage, reframed the doorway,and the kitchen floor. The area to the right will be a laundry/mechanical room.

Our very capable framing crew:

Site Supervisor Nick

The wily vet, Chris

The most recent addition to our historic restoration team: John