It would be great if every home had a “Users Manual” that came with the purchase. You know, something that covered the material, systems, care and maintenance basics; after all, we get them with a car!!? You think that should have been part of the deal, right? Especially as you own, or just bought, a heritage home made out of natural -and some manufactured- materials, and you love it! After a little while you notice that the grout on the east corner has a couple of rows that look like they are crumbling a little, or the parging is peeling, that paint on the fascia board is peeling, the window is fogging up, or the downspout is loose … but where do you start? Often with any home, we are unsure where to start, and especially with a heritage property, we can sometimes be afraid to do anything wrong, unsure where to start with preventive maintenance, let alone minor or … gulp … major repairs!
Do you know how many times we have been asked by a homeowner, why one window leaks but the others don’t? Or, why there is staining on the floor beneath a section of wall but nowhere else. Often, following a series of questions -or if we are lucky enough to get on site- we discover a small issue requiring a simple corrective action. However, on occasion we get contacted when there is a serious problem, and it has been made much worse because the owner tried to address the leak with some generic caulking, sealant or mortar, or by using a local contractor who is unfamiliar with the methods or materials that should have been used. Through no fault of their own, and always with best intentions, what may really have been a simple wear-and-tear/condensation/blocked service issue, has now become a real problem for the structure/framing/material of the window/wall/floor. On several occasions we have witnessed where using the wrong product -or even type of product- has aggravated the problem to the point of requiring major renovation. This IS NOT a problem relegated to heritage properties, as a matter of fact as both systems and materials have become more integrated/layered/complex in contemporary builds, the problems are exponentially more likely to cause problems for the homeowners … and builders still do not supply a “users manual”.
This is where we will try to help our modernist property owners understand the basics required to upkeep and maintain their modernist treasures. It will not apply in every instance, and we will try to keep it general enough that it will still be helpful as far as understanding some of the primary issues with maintaining a heritage property. But you are lucky, because more than likely there is a set of drawings of your house, including wall sections and construction details at the National Archives, and if not, the construction details are probably similar to others designed by the same Architect or during that “design period”.
The first post to follow this, will speak to some of the basics of conservation. We call it conservation because a home maintained is by that very process, conserved. If you have inherited problems from “deferred maintenance” (another term used by conservationists to be explained as we go) of previous owners, we will try to address some of those issues as well as we work our way through some of the basics. If you have problems now, research as much as possible about your home specifically. Start with the drawings, even if there is something beyond the scope of your capabilities, the drawings will help anyone you are hiring to do the work, to hopefully make a plan that will best benefit your treasure.
It will take time to populate this post with all -and sundry- solutions, so, as we do, we will post links in our socials. This has been a project in the works for a while, and while we have had interns scanning materials and even conservation students studying specific houses, we will be reviewing materials so as to help without being too specific and even misleading. This is were we finish today, but stay tuned for updates.
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