Archive Record
Images
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Metadata
Collection |
George Douglass |
Archive Number |
GDHRPT5 |
Title |
George Douglass House Restoration Report for the quarter ending September 30, 2019 |
Description |
The Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County, PA., Project ME Number 16709 George Douglass House Project Work Accomplished July 1, 2019 to September 30, 2019 Addendum to 3d Quarter 2019 Report PLASTERWORK: Interior: During the 3d quarter of 2019, the project plasterer, William Smith of Brandywine Historic Services, made substantial progress in the interior work, including restoration of wall and ceiling integrity in the 1st floor kitchen. Specific accomplishments include: (A) Determining which original 1765 plaster ranges are soundly anchored in original hand-split lath and in a reasonably regular plane; these plaster segments will not be re-coated with new plaster. (B) Raking out and infilling significantly cracked plaster, aligning the margins into the surrounding original surface, all work very lightly textured only by trowel-tooling sufficient to meet the ambient wall-plane. (C) Deteriorated, de-laminated, and deflected plaster was restored to the proper ceiling-plane in the kitchen with recessed washers where necessary. (D) Missing plaster was infilled with a lime plaster "scratch" coat base [Photo # 7, 7/2619-kitchen partition], a "brown" coating of lime plaster with an animal hair binder, keyed for a finish coat of lime plaster without additives. (E) More extensive fractures were bridged with a base coat consolidated with a chemically neutral mesh tape and a finish coat. Structural steel columns, rectangular in section, received wire-lath for anchorage ["keying-in"] of base-coat plaster. (F) The kitchen side of the new partition separating it from the store-room was lathed with re-purposed early split lath [Photo # 9, 7/11/19] and plastered with base and finish coatings. [G] Kitchen ceiling plaster was anchored with washers where necessary, consolidated, and 3 plaster coatings were applied as necessary to receive whitewash in 2020. All stabilized early plaster with discoloring surface accretions will be gently brush-cleaned with water in preparation for lime-based whitewash in 2020. Exterior: [A] A finish coat of non-pigmented [un-tinted] lime plaster was applied to the cove cornice above the principal façade [Photo # 3, 10/2/19]. [B] On the northern eaves-to-eaves gable-end cornice, original well-anchored plaster segments were retained; plaster voids and re-lathed areas were re-plastered with scratch, brown, and finish coatings; cracks were repaired as above in preparation for finish coating or whitewash [Photo # 41, 8/26/19]. This gable-run of coved cornice will be whitewashed in the first half of 2020. [C] The short run of coved cornice on the exposed western half of the southern gable was similarly treated, applying new plaster coatings where necessary [Photo #4, 10/2/19]. [D] The western [back] "eaves" wall cornice has retained a substantial proportion of its original plaster. Lath defects and gaps, plaster delamination, cracks, and voids in this (and all) cornice segments were remedied by consolidation, washered, re-setting into plane, or replacement. [E] Deteriorated lath and temporary metal "weather" coverings were removed and replaced with old lath. Most cornice plaster has now been prepared for whitewashing in 2020, after a six-month cure-period and necessary infill at margins. CARPENTRY AND JOINERY: Carpentry and joinery work in the 3d quarter focused on the fine paneling and moldings in the NW front ["best"] parlor. Significant segments of original 1765 joined woodwork survive intact and in-situ in parlors and 2d floor chambers. Each wooden element in the best parlor is represented by an original fragment or complete module in its un-modified construction and molding profile. All replicated paneling and molding details have been milled and molded, and will be fitted and installed (or re-installed if original) in the 4th quarter of 2019. Paint analysis by consultant Matthew Mosca has determined the original Deep Prussian Blue and Moderate-Light Gray colors for panel fields, stiles, rails, and molded architraves and panel transitions [Photo #15, 8/30/19-replicated wainscot and baseboard on best parlor partition]. Based on a recent discovery by carpenters Tom & Chris Lainhoff, period panel fields in the best parlor were originally decorated with a medium-blue vernacular "marbleizing". Once verified, curated, and color-matched by the Trust’s paint consultant, this treatment will be applied to corresponding fields of replicated panel-work. Larry Ward |
Date |
October 2019 |
Object Name |
Report |
Catalog Number |
1006.01.051 |
Search Terms |
George Douglass George Douglass House GDHRPT Restoration wall-plane ceiling plane hair binder gable-run wainscot marbleizing |
People |
George Dougass |