I keep losing my way here what is the connection between what was done in
Stockholm, Germany or Poland and this building in northern NJ?
Ken
From: This conversation may be monitored for quality control.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rudy Christian
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 10:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] Conservation problem
Well hysterically speaking, which is my usual fashion, nobody worried all
that much about seeing all that wood AND keeping fire from spreading but I
have seen a number of examples (most recently at the Royal Palace in
Stockholm) where dry pack lime putty was used in the floor system presumably
to provide sound and fire separation. The joists cavities were filled and
the floor was applied over cross strapping which allowed the lime to cover
the joists for he most part. I've also seen examples in Germany and Poland
where the joists were grooved about half way up and boarding was wedged in
the grooves allowing a mud daub to be installed under the flooring which I'm
convinced was more for insulation. Useless input I'm sure, but you asked for
it.
Rudy
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 9:58 AM
Subject: [BP] Conservation problem
Attention K-mart shoppers!
I have a client who has taken a 3 year lease on the ground floor of a
commercial building in northern NJ. The building turns out to be an
apparently 18th, or at latest very early 19th, century double pile, center
hall two-story colonial house with a one story c. 1920 storefront addition
on the front and a 2 story rear addition. The front and rear additions
extend the full width of the house. The wall between the storefront
addition and the original house had modern doorways in it; we had been
considering recreating a doorway in the center hall, and reestablishing
windows or window openings (presumably 2 per room) at original locations on
the front walls of the rooms on each side of the hall. These windows would
have let in light and some degree of visual control from the large
storefront, and recreated (sort of) the original appearance of the rooms of
the "house".
The double pile house may have originally been a two-room front-and-back
house, with the center hall and other 2 rooms added fairly early on.
Chimney breast construction is different on the 2 sides of the hall. Ceiling
height in the 2 rooms that appears earliest are 7'-4"; the center hall and
other 2 rooms have ceilings at 7'-8". There appears to be a reused girder
in the basement along what would have been the exterior wall of the earliest
section, and there are some differences in the widths of the subfloor
boards. The ceiling height of the storefront is 9'-9", which leaves the
bottom 18" or so of the 2nd floor wall framing and the ceiling/floor framing
exposed in the storefront space.
The basement has had extensive structural work done to support hand-hewn
beams and joists, which was what gave away the early date of the house. My
client/tenant did some selective demo yesterday that revealed old (and in
some areas rotted and/or termited) post and beam framing; brick nogging with
what looks like clay mortar; limited amounts of what appears to be original
siding (planks about 8" x 1/2", with a ghost along one edge that makes me
think they were originally installed clapboard-style--but they aren't
tapered like clapboards); and plaster, some directly on the nogging and
framing and some on sawn wood lath.
Some reframing has been done (probably in the last 20-30 years) in the
course of subsequent alterations at the front of the "original" and center
hall portion of the house, so we're not dealing with pristine
intact-but-for-termites fabric. The plaster on inside face of the front wall
at the old side and the center hall is gone, and on the "new" side is in
fair-to-poor condition; we tore some of it out yesterday to see what was
going on underneath, but I have been troubled by the thought of destroying
already-damaged Historic Fabric.
My client, who wants to run an art
gallery/antique-rental-for-movie-and-TV-production is sensitive to and
interested in the heritage implications of this stuff, and in his clients
being able to see it; the building owner (the local Junior League) may or
may not be--they don't know all this yet.
My immediate question is whether anybody has any experience with
maintaining/creating/reestablishing fire separation between our tenant space
on the ground floor and the owner's space on the second floor. How do I
keep a fire in my tenant's space--if framing and voids between joists,
posts, etc is exposed--from spreading to the owner's space upstairs?
Anybody got any bright ideas for this project? which I am
uncharacteristically able to see as an opportunity.
Ralph
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