Welcome to the Landmark Services Old House Renovation Blog

Case Study: Using fake wood (!) in a historic renovation project

In the course of a recent renovation of a ca. 1795 home in Milton, we needed to replicate an original rooftop balustrade.The one surviving section displayed a "spider web" pattern composed of many small pieces of wood nailed together.

Concerned that wood would not hold up to the elements well in this situation and would require a lot of maintenance, we explored other options.  After much research (and some soul-searching) we decided to reproduce the balustrade by having the panels milled from sheets of PVC imitation wood.  We're very pleased with the result. Visually, the new panels are indistinguishable from wood. But in terms of strength and maintenance, the PVC product is superior.

We brought the surviving panel to a friend who has a CNC machine in his shop and asked him to cut the new sections from sheets of PVC material (one popular brand is Azek).  A CNC machine is a cutting and shaping machine controlled by a computer.  Our friend Nick programmed the pattern into his computer by tracing the original with the cutting head and entering the key positions into the software.

The rest was simple.  He laid 4' x 10' sheets of 1 1/4" thick material on the table and pressed a button activating the cutter head.  The result was 30 panels matching the original in appearance but stronger and better able to hold paint.

 

While some may argue against the use of synthetic materials in historic renovation projects, we feel that they are appropriate in some situations. In this case, the use of this material does not affect the aesthetics of the project, but provides the homeowners with a longer lasting product that will require far less maintenance than would have been the case if we had used wood.  

 

PVC trim is certainly not the right choice for most of our projects. Wood has a subtlety in appearance and touch that cannot be matched by synthetic materials and-except in rare cases such as this balustrade- we stick with traditional materials when we can. One other great use of PVC wood, though, is any trim that comes in contact with the ground such as the lower trim boards on a porch.

Landmark Services has been renovating historic Massachusetts houses, barns, and churches for almost 20 years. Have a look at our project portfolio to see some of our past projects. 

We'd love to help you plan and build your project so give us a call!

 

Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.

Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.

Additions to Old Houses Part 2: Exterior trim

Last time we discussed how important it is to place the roofline correctly when adding on to an old house.  If the roofline is too high or set at the wrong pitch, the addition could look awkward or even overwhelm the original part of the house.

Now let's talk about exterior details.  Too many additions on historic houses suffer because contractors use stock materials instead of trying a little harder to make their work blend with the original house. Most of our clients want their additions to blend in with the original house. They want the same level of detail: period appropriate windows, moldings, etc.  

We start by looking at the trim of the original house:  the roof trim (rakes, fascias and soffits), cornerboards, window and door trim, and so on. Does the old house have large overhangs as seen below?  Or was the trim shallower? How does the rake trim meet the fascias and soffits? Are there decorative brackets on the house? What's the profile of the moldings? Molding profiles change with the architectural style.  Do the moldings on the house seem original or were they changed at some point? How thick are the windowsills? What materials sis they use?

Once we've assessed the existing trim we face a choice: do we exactly duplicate the trim on the addition to match the original house?  Historically, it was not uncommon for a historic house to have a slightly lower level of detail on rear or side ells than the main house had- even if they were built at the same time. This was particularly true in the second half of the 19th century on houses that boasted elaborate trim. If that's the case, we'll often scale down the trim on the addition. Often, however, it is more appropriate to use the same trim details on the addition as on the main house.

If the budget allows, we'll replicate the profile of the old moldings exactly, either in our shop or from a molding supplier. If there are brackets, we'll duplicate those, too. When matching original trim it is important to look at the thickness of the original trim, as well as the profile. Historic houses often used thicker trim than typically used these days, which results in a more substantial look and deeper shadow lines. It's surprising, for example, how much different standard 3/4" cornerboards can look on a house than ones that are 1" thick. The former often look like cheap substitutes - which they often are.

To replicate moldings in our shop we use a molding machine and use heavy steel knives ground down to the intended profile. Sometimes, however, we find stock moldings that- with a little work- will do the job. We'll take a stock molding that's close to the original and maybe rip a little off one side, or add a bead detail with a router. Whenever possible we try to stay away from installing moldings right off the lumber yard shelf. 

The project shown below is an extreme example of matching original trim on an addition. The original (ca. 1860) house features some pretty spectacular carpentry. Since the goal of the project was to make the addition look like part of the original house, we took pains to make our work match down to the smallest detail.

Here's the house before we started work.  The brick was added in the 1950's. 

 

Here we are part way through. We have the addition framed,roofed, and partly trimmed.  You'll also notice that we have taken the brick off and discovered the original tongue and groove siding. We had some more reproduced for the addition.

 

The completed project!   By faithfully reproducing the original trim, milling reproduction siding, and even installing granite veneer stones on the foundation, it is nearly impossible to tell that this is an addition. 

 

Landmark Services has been building additions to historic Massachusetts houses for almost 20 years. Have a look at our project portfolio to see more of these additions. 

We'd love to help you plan and build your addition!  Give is a call. We're Landmark Services, The Old House Experts.

  

 

 

 

Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.

Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.

Building an addition on a historic house? Don't make these mistakes

How many times have you seen a nice old house ruined by an unsightly addition? Some additions "read" as additions from a mile away. It doesn't have to be that way. With some careful planning, it is quite possible to design and build an addition that blends beautifully with the original house. Over the course of 3 or 4 posts, I'll review some guidelines that will help your proposed addition co-exist with and complement your historic house, rather than detract from it.

Often, when people are adding on to a historic house, they are so focused on maximizing the new space that they forget to think about how the house will look from the street. Take a look at the house below. The original house is a cute, mid-19th century cottage. But the addition, instead of taking its cues from the main house, has absolutely nothing in common with it. 

 

 

Let's start with the roof.  First, the ridge is higher than that of the old house. Cardinal sin. Rule #1: If possible, place the ridge of the addition lower than that of the existing house. If the ridge must be higher, consider inserting a lower, connecting roof in the middle, as we did to the house in the photo below. This will soften the difference in roof heights. In our case, the addition was not actually higher than the main house, but the "connector" roof still works because it breaks the mass of the addition down into smaller pieces, making it compete less with the original.

 

 

Let's take another look at the roof of the first house. Do you notice something else that doesn't fit with the original house?  Answer: the roof pitch. The addition has a much shallower roof. It looks, well, cheap. Take another look at the second house, in the photo below. The pitch of the addition (on the left) matches that of the original. In fact, the pitch of the new dormer also matches the pitch of the dormer on the old roof. It looks natural, like its always been there. Now look back to the first house. It look tacked on. So let's make Rule #2: try to design the addition with a roof pitch matching the original house. 

 

 

Take one more look at the first house and notice how the gable trim on the historic house has a large, decorative overhang.  The gable on the addition has a simple piece of 1x6 trim tacked on with no overhang.  Again, no effort was made to use the vocabulary of the original house on the addition. On our addition, yes the trim on the addition is very simple, but it matches that of the main house in every way- we even re-created the curve at the lower end of the roof.

Next time, we'll look at some other things to keep in mind when designing and building additions to historic houses, such as massing, matching trim details, and how to handle windows. In the meantime, take a look at these additions that we built on some old Massachusetts houses.

Landmark Services has been building additions to historic Massachusetts houses for almost 20 years. Have a look at our project portfolio to see more of these projects. 

We'd love to help you plan and build your addition!   

 

 

 

Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.

Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.