{"id":9212,"date":"2017-05-23T15:53:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-23T19:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consigli.com\/?p=9212"},"modified":"2020-12-09T11:05:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:05:47","slug":"tricks-trade-consiglis-masonry-restoration-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.consigli.com\/tricks-trade-consiglis-masonry-restoration-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricks of the Trade: Consigli\u2019s Masonry Restoration Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The question, \u201cWhat did you do?\u201d may not seem like high praise, but for professional masons\u2014 particularly when restoring a historic landmark property\u2014this is praise indeed. Happily, this is a question that Consigli\u2019s masons are often asked.<\/p>\n

But what skill and effort goes into mason\u00adry matchmaking that assures a seamless, practically invisible restoration repair? The short answer: a lot. For an answer with a bit more detail\u2014the experiences of veteran Consigli masons Stanley Boratyn and Bob Levitre shine light on work that, when done well, is, well, not noticed.<\/p>\n

From the painstaking matching of one-hundred-year-old mortar, to the fitting of a small stone replacement piece for a seamless \u201cDutchman\u201d repair\u2014Consigli\u2019s masonry team are master matchmakers.<\/p>\n

Dutchmen at Dorchester\u2019s Parish of All Saints<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Among the masonry repair techniques used in Consigli\u2019s award-winning restoration of Dorchester, Massachusetts\u2019 Parish of All Saints, Consigli 20-year veteran mason Stanley Boratyn and the All Saint\u2019s masonry restoration team brought their ability to repair stone with stone, using the \u201cDutchman\u201d method.<\/p>\n

Originally built in 1893 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, The Parish of All Saints was the first church designed by notable Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram, and strongly influenced parish church building in America and Europe.<\/p>\n

Stanley explained the trick with Dutchman repair is to cut the replacement stone to fit as snuggly as possible, so very little epoxy is needed to hold it in place\u2014increasing its seamless appearance. He estimates that he has created at least 300 Dutchman repairs over the years on Consigli\u2019s projects.<\/p>\n

Echoing Bob Levitre, Stanley agrees that masonry work is a skill perfected over a lifetime, \u201cEvery single day you are learning something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our team also acts as a second set of eyes for the client to assure full restoration. In this case our masonry team identified several additional areas on this National Register of Historic Places property that required Dutchman repair that the restoration architects had not noticed. This detailed work included replacing many sections of the church\u2019s sandstone trim\u2014from the roof\u2019s parapet, to the entry porch, to door and window lintels\u2014using stone recycled from other areas of the church. And, in addition to the Dutchman repairs, the restoration also used 35 tons of historically matched mortar to repair over 46,000 feet of masonry joints.<\/p>\n

Now, with the restoration complete, The Parish of All Saints is just about ready for another hundred years\u2014or more.<\/p>\n

Experimentation in a Mason\u2019s Workshop: 300 Recipes and Counting<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bob Levitre brought his meticulous approach to developing the perfect colored stucco to match and restore the historic stucco pathways at the Trustees of Reservation\u2019s Francis William Bird Park in Walpole, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

Stucco\u2019s ingredients, virtually the same as mortar\u2019s, are sand, a \u201cbinder\u201d (i.e. cement or lime) and water. The color of mortar and stucco comes from the sand and any added pigments. To create a perfect match of color and texture is a painstak\u00ading process\u2014and like a secret family recipe\u2014its success can depend on a pinch of this and a dash of that. While Bob, and veteran masons like him, are guided by experience in creating a mortar to match an existing historic property, fine tuning it to be the just the perfect fit takes patient testing and experimentation.<\/p>\n

In developing the perfect stucco match for the recent Bird Park path restoration, Bob created and tested over 40 recipes with varying types and amounts of aggregate, binder and pigment\u2014with test samples assembled and then baked in an oven to speed drying. These resulting mortar pat\u00adties were then compared systematically to the existing stucco in the park. Through this iterative process, it becomes clear how a mortar recipe needs to be tweaked to find the right balance of components\u2014 and the right match results. When asked how many individual mortar recipes he has worked with over his years as a mason, Bob figured about 300\u2014so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day you learn something,\u201d Bob remarked while explaining that mastering masonry skills is truly a career-long effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question, \u201cWhat did you do?\u201d may not seem like high praise, but for professional masons\u2014 particularly when restoring a historic landmark property\u2014this is praise indeed. Happily, this is a question that Consigli\u2019s masons are often asked. But what skill and effort goes into mason\u00adry matchmaking that assures a seamless,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTricks of the Trade: Consigli\u2019s Masonry Restoration Experts - Consigli Construction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consigli.com\/tricks-trade-consiglis-masonry-restoration-experts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tricks of the Trade: Consigli\u2019s Masonry Restoration Experts - Consigli Construction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The question, \u201cWhat did you do?\u201d may not seem like high praise, but for professional masons\u2014 particularly when restoring a historic landmark property\u2014this is praise indeed. 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