In a message dated 4/14/00 8:02:31 AM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< Can we have some historic justification, or perhaps literature to oppose
or support such treatments? >>

Nothing to do w/ clapboards. Simply from a maintenance perspective I have
found that if all the joints on a cast iron facade are caulked prior to
painting that it prevents the need for the owner of the property to think
that their building needs to be painted again in two years after a lot of
rust stains and organic gunge have run down the face of the building. I've
heard the arguments as to application of sealants to paint and what will be
durable etc. In perspective it does not matter it the cauling sticks. The
substrate is durable, the inner connections of the substrate are not. Even if
the caulk fails in five years I consider five years of not letting water into
the joints and even half-arsed attempts at keeping the interior connections
dry is worth the effort. This is where I find the line between preservation,
doing something to keep the building around for a while, and by-the-book
Rolls Royce restoration to be drawn. A majority of the property owners of
cast iron buildings that I have encountered would rather not spend any money
and it seems to me a justice to the building if you can at least talk them,
through their vanity, into painting and sealing the cast iron. The fact that
the building owners tend to hire cheap cheap crews that don't know how to
combine paint with caulking and walk at the same time amazes me. I'm not
talking the architect/craftsperson agitation here as many of these projects
are absent any professional involvement  -- it is deferred maintenance with
an overhead of histo presto that often grinds against the owner's sense of
property rights.

][<en