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Posts from the “trade secrets” Category

The steel inside

Posted on 2 May 2017

Overkill is our strong suite, but in the case of the newel posts on an outside stair, I think our approach is pretty justifiable.  The connection between the post and the stair stringer is often the first point of failure on a deck.  Typically a 4×4 gets bolted (or, mercy!, nailed) to the side of the stair stringer, and as people pull on the post going up or down the stair, the short grain of the stringer starts to fail and the post gets wobbly.

 

We’ve developed a system where we fabricate a steel sub-post on a thick plate, and then we bolt the plate to the concrete pad at the bottom of the stair.  The finished newel box gets installed over the steel with big-assed tek screws.  On a recent job, the geometry of the steel post was a little more complicated because we were using 3½” thick engineered beams for the outside stringers, but the general idea is the same.  We also had intermediate newel posts on this stair because of the long run.

Rubin deck stair-8154

 

Rubin deck stair-8158

 

Rubin deck stair-8132

 

Rubin deck stair-8134

 

And some images of the finished newel posts:

Rubin deck newels-8550

 

Rubin deck newels-8551

 

Rubin deck newels-8553

 

Rubin deck newels-8558
Categories: Details, Structural work, trade secrets

Tagged: deck, engineered beam, newel post, Stair, steel, stringer, welding

2 Comments

Overkill

Posted on 5 August 2015

The quirky little projects we get are some of my favorites.  They fall outside the typical reach of woodworking, and most folks wouldn’t want to be bothered.  And while they are rarely lucrative, there are other kinds of compensation.   Two years ago (I couldn’t believe it when I checked the email thread!), a regular client asked if we could fabricate the missing wooden handle for an heirloom pistol he had. I of course said yes, before even seeing the project.  I know nothing of guns or gunsmithing, but weird old stuff excites me, and the transgressive allure of a firearm made the project irresistible.  Up close, the pistol was even more interesting than I had imagined, unlike anything I had ever seen.  …

Categories: History, trade secrets

Tagged: boot pistol, machinist, pistol, Rikert Engineering, Steve Reichert, underhammer percussion pistol, walnut

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Practice

Posted on 6 July 2015

We rebuild a lot of porches, but our current project is more rewarding than most.  Though the house was built in 1880, and the front porch had adopted a pronounced rightward lean, the important bits were still there.  Benign neglect is often our ally, and in this case enough of the original architectural details were still present that we’ll be able to recreate this porch almost exactly.

 

The deck and floor framing had rotted to almost nothing, so we removed them, along with the masonry steps, to leave us with the parts we planned to restore.

Front porch, partly disassembled

Front porch, partly disassembled

Closer view of carving

Closer view of carving

The carved panels, in particular, were pretty well preserved, even though the framing inside the half wall was almost non-existent.  We disassembled the panels and the columns above so we could re-support the roof, with the intention of repairing and reusing the decorative pieces.

Carved panels with Luc for scale

Carved panels with Luc for scale

The plain panel is from the back of the half-wall.  The bonus came when Dan checked the other side of the plain panel:

Visible and hidden carvings, with Musti

Visible and hidden carvings, with Musti

It seems that someone on the original work crew had done some practice carving.  Over lunch, we were imagining a scene where the young apprentice proudly shows the work to his boss.  The boss pats him on the head and assures him that his scroll will find its way into the finished porch…

Closer view of hidden carving

Closer view of hidden carving

 

Categories: Found, trade secrets, victorian

Tagged: Canton, carving, front porch, hidden work, Massachusetts, restoration

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Five out of ten

Posted on 30 April 2014

It was a fairly common call.  A repeat client wanted me to look at a section of his barn where the corner board was showing signs of rot.  When we went to look at the job, it was clear that the corner board, and everything behind it, had decayed considerably.

 

Carpenter burying his pry bar into a rotten corner post

Greg’s flat bar is buried all the way into the 4×6 corner post; there was indeed a problem.

 

Concrete shed behind barn

The barn was built in about 1915 to house the limousine for the estate, and the concrete shed attached to the back of the barn held a (coal?) stove to keep the limousine warm.  The current owner’s sense is that the shed was built at the same time as the barn.

 

The shed was almost certainly the cause of the rotting corner — the intersection of the shed’s roof with the sidewall of the barn was poorly flashed, allowing water into the wall assembly from the shed down, and the concrete against the wood was keeping the barn wall from drying to the outside.  The shed was also dramatically complicating the repair, as it was covering much of the area that needed attention.  In consultation with the client, we decided that the only reasonable way forward was to remove the shed.

 

As readers of this weblog know, we are wood guys, and the demolition of a 99-year-old concrete building is well outside our competency.  In situations like this, I call Steve Sullivan of Celtic Landscaping, an uncommonly careful guy with lots of big machines.

 

The first steps were to take down the chimney and create some temporary supports.

Disassembling brick chimney

 

Temporary shoring post for a rotten corner post

 

Deck temporarily supported by ropes

 

 

Steve was a bit concerned about how to safely demolish the small shed.  The roof seemed like it was made up of 8 inches of solid concrete, and the strength of the terra-cotta block walls was uncertain.  Further complicating things, we needed to leave the stair to the second floor in place while we were taking down the shed.  He decided that the best approach was to temporarily support the roof with an off-road fork-lift while taking down the walls, to eliminate the possibility of the roof coming down unexpectedly.  This is the sort of solution that would never occur to me, and a good example of why I like to work with Steve.

 

The first step was to make access holes for the forks in the face of the shed.

Man using concrete-cutting saw to make access hole in concrete wall

 

 

Man using sledgehammer to make access hole in concrete wall

 

 

And then time to set the machine.

▶

Followed by demolition of the upper portion of the walls.

Demolishing concrete and terra-cotta block wall

 

 

Demolishing concrete and terra-cotta block wall

 

 

And then, (gently) bringing down the roof.

▶

 

The rest of the walls came down easily, and the final step was to break and remove the shed’s foundation.

Using a hydraulic hammer to break apart concrete slab and foundation

 

 

Steve is typically a very cool character, desirable, I suppose, in someone operating heavy machinery.  As the shed demolition proceeded, and especially as the heavy roof was balancing on the forks, he seemed edgier than I’d noticed before.  Once the structure was down and he was more at ease, I asked him how hairy this project was compared to others he’d done.  “Oh, about a five.”

Categories: Structural work, trade secrets

Tagged: barn, Celtic Landscaping, Concrete shed, demolition, Lull, Steve Sullivan, structural repair

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Cheating?

Posted on 26 August 2013

Regular readers of this weblog will have gathered that we don’t usually shirk difficult tasks; some might suggest that we tend instead to the masochistic.   I’m not incapable, though, of considering where our efforts might best be expended.   We’ve been working on an exterior restoration project on an early Victorian house in the Ashmont Hill section of Dorchester.  One of the last remaining tasks was to reproduce two small curved molding elements that recurred many times around the house.  Something like half of the existing pieces, about 8 of each profile, were too crumbly or rotten for the painters to work with.  We removed an intact sample of each and considered our options. The original parts had been sawn out of solid…

Categories: Dorchester, trade secrets

Tagged: casting, conscience, curved work, Hobbs, Molding, Reynolds Advanced Materials

2 Comments

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Paul’s house in the woods

Posted on 4 August 2013

I first heard of Paul Koval years ago from a graduate of the Cabinet and Furniture program at North Bennett Street School.  I was complaining about the paucity of really good cherry lumber at the big wholesale yards where we usually buy our hardwoods.  I think it was Sam Chase who said to me, “Well, there’s this guy, and he’s out in the middle of nowhere, but he has some amazing stuff — wide cherry and air-dried walnut, really gorgeous.”  I called the number on the little slip of paper that Sam gave me, and crossed my fingers.  Wood guys can be a grouchy bunch, wary of greenhorns wasting their time, and I was newly enough in business to still feel like an impostor.  …

Categories: Found, trade secrets

Tagged: Ashby, coffee table, furniture, George Nakashima, maple syrup, Paul Koval, sugar house, walnut

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Addendum: Plumbers and carpenters find a third way

Posted on 13 July 2013

Before:

Cast iron waste line in bath floor with cut floor joists

 

After:

Complicated bathroom floor framing to accommodate plumbing

 

Closer view of complicated bathroom floor framing to accommodate plumbing

 

 

Leo Tuccinardi, our plumber, is technically proficient, but we really love him because he talks to us.  I think we spent an hour or more staring at this small bathroom and making sketches on scraps of 2×4, but we figured out how to accommodate both the pipes and the floor structure.  The final framing layout bears almost no resemblance to anything you’d find in a carpentry textbook, but I’m pretty confident that the 12×24 tile in the finished bathroom won’t crack.

Categories: Structural work, trade secrets

Tagged: bathroom, floor framing, Plumbing, structure

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Honor system

Posted on 8 June 2013

I have the pleasure of working with some really great people.

 

Today, we were in the final stages of pre-demolition work on a large renovation project.  A couple of folks from Castle Electric, my usual electricians, were on the job yesterday pulling light fixtures and generally making the place safe for the guys who will be taking down the plaster next week.  I had asked them to be careful with a number of the fixtures so that we could donate them to the Reuse Center.  This morning I found a collection of fixtures ready for new homes along with this note:

 

Broken light fixture with note in apology
Categories: trade secrets, Uncategorized

Tagged: Castle Electric, Electrician, light fixture, Reuse Center

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Glass magic

Posted on 26 December 2012

One of the key fringe benefits of my work is getting to see other trades at work.  And the very best part is seeing the brilliant, magical techniques that other tradespeople regard as completely routine. The other day I had to pick up a piece of laminated glass from Sarno Glass and Mirror in Hyde Park, MA.  We were making a door for a medicine cabinet (for the third time, but that’s another story), and we needed to use safety glass so that a slipping client wouldn’t bump into the cabinet, break the glass, and sever an artery.  There are two kinds of safety glazing — laminated and tempered glass.  Tempered glass is a pain, as it has to be cut first, and then…

Categories: trade secrets

Tagged: alcohol, cutting, fire, Glass, Hyde Park, laminated glass, Sarno Glass and Mirror

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Don’t need no stinkin’ OSHA

Posted on 7 October 2012

Who knew!

Who knew!

(Just to be clear, this is not one of our jobsites…)

Categories: trade secrets

Tagged: ladder safety, Roslindale

0 Comments

  

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