Gorham Street

This was huge. This wonderful historic house had been neglected for years. I strengthened and protected the two stone columns to protect them when I jacked up the entire roof and took all the weight off the columns. Frequently stone columns come crashing down since a significant percent of their support depends on the great weight from above pinning them in place. I then jacked up this huge roof for the three months of rebuild. When I tore off the old beaded ceiling material I could see how damaged the joist system and become as a result of decades of roof leaking. I cut away the worst of the rotted joists and augmented every single remaining joist. The old structure, more than 100 years old, had the ceiling joists set with random spacing not the 16 inches on center now required or even on regular, repeating non-code compliant spacing. So I added additional new joists so that there was code compliant joist spacing. I communicated and negotiated with the Landmarks Commission and the building inspectors. The front and East side structural beams were phenomenally rotted as was all the trim. I demolished these beams and fabricated new beams in place out of glued up LVL’s. I trimmed these and the soffits with hardwood plywood to give me a smooth surface and then designed and installed the decorative trim. We only had pictures taken in the 1970s when a massive rebuild was previously undertaken. Unfortunately therefore we had no original plans or photographs to go by. So the trim was my design after intense negotiations with the Landmarks folks. I installed all new beaded ceiling on the porch ceiling. I fabricated two massive column top beams with curved ends which the roof beams sat upon. These sat directly on top of the stone columns. I trimmed around the ceiling perimeter and painted all new wood.