Interior basement weatherproofing

The basement at the Hilary Baker house in Church Hill. The large open hearth in the next room (shown here temporarily supported with wood) is being restored to be a functional fireplace again. The floor will get a new slab and in-floor heating. We've been down in this basement for a week or two trying to take care of all details that go under the new concrete slab. There has been lots of digging through clay and river rock, and a few cool things found. An archaeologist is sifting through all of the dirt that's coming out of the basement to look for treasure, and has found some old pottery and bottles.

200 year old mantel

This mantel has been through a lot. It's been burnt, seems to have had a hungry dog or toddler chewing on it for a few years, some of the trim replaced, and some termites at some of the bottom corners. It will be re-painted, but all of the paint was removed to bring out the original details.

More work in our shop

This is beautiful tread, take two. The first antique pine tread we made was too small.

This door has seen 200 years of changes in Church Hill. Well worth the surgery I had to perform on it.

Dutchmen held on with pegs, clamped overnight. This repair isn't going anywhere.

A million little dutchmen

I like to do dutchmen in the original material, or as close as possible. That way the wood will 'breathe' (expand and contract with moisture) at the same rate. In this case, more antique pine.

Beautiful tread replacement

Our client had a broken tread on the main staircase in his house.

Rebuilding door frames in the basement of an 1815 home

Faked out beam using antique pine

Quite difficult to glue up warped antique pine, but the goal is to hide a steel lintel in an 1815 home. Once installed, no one will know this isn't a solid 3" by 16" hunk of tree, just like the old lintels in the rest of the house.