At last now some people might understand why some
Preservationists do their own weed eating!

We have a couple of miles of weed eating at the Glass
house Estate!

On our newest building , we have an eight inch apron
of masonry material at grade level to act as a buffer
between machinery and the the "sculptural" and
fragile building.

On our oldest building (1740ish) we have a bluestone
apron beneath our new $2,000 stoop. The stringers
which hold the two treads and risers have a
sacrificial cladding of wood that can be replaced as
necessary.

Marty Skrelunas, Philip johnson's Glass House

Many species of trees that have thin soft bark are
vulnerable and must be weed eated with special care.

We have actually purposely used the weed eater to
remove calcinous deposits on our 35' towerer in the
forest by the pond.
--- John Leeke <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Ralph writes:
> >And don't get your weed eater too close to the
> Dryvit.
>
> Good advice! On many structures I had noticed a deep
> groove developing over
> the past decade or so. Just above grade, all
> materials, especially woodwork,
> but masonry too--sandstone, bricks and mortar, even
> granite gets some wear
> from some unknow grooving force. I could not figure
> it out until I was doing
> an assessment and investigation at the Olsen House
> in Cushing, Maine (the
> one in the Andrew Wyeth paintings, you can see a
> pictures of it at my
> website under "Inturnships"). There the original
> wooden cellar window frames
> had the mysterious deep grooves cut right across
> both jams, on all the
> windows around the entire house. I had just noticed
> the grooves when the
> grounds maintenance guy came around the corner
> wacking away with his noisy
> little machine, buzzing down along the granite
> foundation, across the window
> frame, fwuup, fwuup, and on around the other corner.
> I followed him around
> the house, fwuup, fwuup...fwuup, fwuup...fwuup,
> fwuup...at every cellar
> window. Fwuusssp, across the riser of the back porch
> stairs, the board was
> nearly ripped in two--just an eighth-inch of wood
> left at the back of the
> one-inch-thick board. Buzzzwip, thip, thip,
> thip...down along the vertical
> board and battens of the barn, at the far corner of
> the barn there lay a
> four inch end of a batten, neatly trimmed off the
> building. Out by the
> parking lot the 4x4 posts for the sign were cut half
> way through.
>
> The maintenance guy was wearing head phones with a
> radio built in, he looked
> like he was enjoying his work, whacking weeds and
> tall grass, wacking
> historic woodwork, whatever, in his own little
> world, wacky, wacky, wacky.
> What has happened to people that they cannot pay
> some attention to the world
> around them. I'm afraid that people like this who
> get caught up in the
> artificial construct of media/marketing are not only
> a lost cause, but also
> cause loss of what is important in the real world.
>
> Has anyone else noticed the "Wacky Groove?"
>
>
>
> John Leeke, Historic Building Specialist
>
> 26 Higgins St.
> Portland, Maine 04103
> 207 773-2306
> [log in to unmask]
> HistoricHomeWorks.com
>
> --
> To terminate puerile preservation prattling among
> pals and the
> uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
>
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>


=====
Martin Skrelunas
[log in to unmask]
P.O. Box 184
New Canaan, Ct 06840
ph.:203.966.4483 / fax:203.972.1767

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--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>