Historic Façade Components "Keep It Simple" Coping - Provide a water preventive cap to your façade wall. Upper Cornice - Maintain decorative top. If your façade feels top heavy, consider adding a cornice. Eye Brows - Maintain existing brows over upper windows. Look for delaminating or rusting steel [...]
Work the Local Historical System “The Way It Is Supposed to Work!” This façade project has a great deal of positive examples. We had a typical slip cover on this façade that had to go! It is always a bit anxious when you don’t know what is left behind [...]
What Is a Knox Box? “Emergency Access Box” Check with your local fire department and ask if a Knox Box is required in your community. This simple box is pretty non destructible. It is a small box safe that is attached to the side of your building. It will [...]
Upper Windows - Can I Replace? There is a lot to cover on upper windows. Keep these simple design elements in mind as you replace them . . . Yes, you can replace them! We are only covering flat top systems in this article. Steel Lintel - This [...]
Tuckpointing a Painted Facade “Organize Your Painter with Your Mason” Rarely will I recommend you paint an unpainted façade, but if it is already painted and you are in need of tuckpointing, consider this. Remove the mortar, paint the face of the bricks, then fill joints with [...]
Transom Windows over Storefront “To Do or Not to Do?” Lets start this discussion with a little bit of history. Windows over doors and above your storefront glass was meant to do a couple of things back then. Remember in 1900, air conditioning and proper lighting were hard to [...]
Upper Floor Window Eyesore “That Upstairs Window Is Ugly!!” Take a good look at the middle three windows compared to the ones on either side. Yes, the upper level has a dropped ceiling that cuts the upper sash in half. I’ll tell you a secret—so do the middle windows, [...]
Top of Building: “Cornice” “Preserve — Remove – Add” Cornice - The top crown of a building. It is traditionally made of masonry or molded tin. In recent years the cornice has been abandoned altogether. Historians want you to preserve what is left on your building, but they don’t [...]
Signage on your Facade “Go HOG WILD . . . with Proper Scale” Signage is one thing that can easily be replaced over time. This gives you the option to be creative, unique, and inviting. The one “must” consideration is to properly size your sign based on available space [...]
My Front Door - My Side Door “My Façade Has a Side Door that Leads Upstairs” Back in the day, it was typical to have a screen type door or no door at all on the street level of your staircase going up. Today it feels unsafe not to [...]
