House Deconstruction

[stoneyfork]

Some real nice timbers in there. I'll take some close ups of the brick this weekend. Someone told me that a lot of them appear to be "sun dried" as opposed to kiln dried. The bricks on the outside of the chimney look as though they are much harder and more uniform than the brick from the inside of the chimney.

 

[mrcaptainbob]

My house (circa 1863) is composed of two layers. The outer layer is a fired type for weather, while the inner layer is structural only. It has full 2x4 horizontals every 6 or 8 coarses for attaching none structural wall studs. The inner layer of brick also holds the second floor joists. After some house reconstruction I left a few bricks to the weather and that's when I found the inner layer bricks are not to be exposed to the elements! They returned to their original state of orange powder! Lots of interesting finds on an old house. So far no money or stocks in the walls....

 

[stoneyfork]

Got the project done in the last few days. Here are a few pictures of the progress. First is the HEAVY set of concrete steps that I found someone to take. Next is the site after a few passes with the box blade. Last are some of the different types of brick I found. The orange bricks broke into powder, the others were much harder. The one in the lower right was found at the base of the chimney, not sure if it is part of a date built or not. Fun project, but glad it is done, now on the large play fort that will be built on the site

 

[MarkV]

Stoney, nice project, I am glad you shared it with us. Years ago I helped take down an old tobacco barn and it is a lot of work.

The roman numerals cut into the rafter and the grease pencil markings, like a shipping label, on floor boards has me wondering if the whole house, trading post, was brought in as a kit by train. That would explain why the construction was unique for the area. Anyone know if kit houses were being made in the 1860's?

MarkV

 

[JB4310]

Bricks definitely look hand made/home made.

The orange ones are usually softer, indicates less heat during the firing process, bulging blistered bricks are typically over cooked.

If they all vary in size,shape and hardness like that it would be hard to incorporate them into a project. Maybe interior veneer work with a good sealer on them to keep the dust down.

Seeing the cleaned up house site, it's hard to imagine there was ever a house there. Erased from history except for the pictures.

JB.

 

[riptides]

Stoney, nice project, I am glad you shared it with us. Years ago I helped take down an old tobacco barn and it is a lot of work.

The roman numerals cut into the rafter and the grease pencil markings, like a shipping label, on floor boards has me wondering if the whole house, trading post, was brought in as a kit by train. That would explain why the construction was unique for the area. Anyone know if kit houses were being made in the 1860's?

MarkV

I did some quick references on kit homes and found the earliest to be of 1906 and 1908 productions.

 

[Negligence]

stoneyfork, interesting read. I noticed we have the same hay wagons. I've been trying to identify the weight rating on it for a couple years now with no luck. Do you know what yours is?

 

[quicksandfarmer]

The roman numerals cut into the rafter and the grease pencil markings, like a shipping label, on floor boards has me wondering if the whole house, trading post, was brought in as a kit by train. That would explain why the construction was unique for the area. Anyone know if kit houses were being made in the 1860's?

Roman numerals are often a sign of scribe rule framing, which means that the joints were hand cut to match irregular lumber and each piece fits only one place in the frame.

 

[kebo]

Thanks for sharing that teardown. I've never had a chance to help with one of those, but maybe one day I'll get a chance. But, you REALLY should go over the area where the house sat at (and the surrounding yard) with a metal detector for sure! Houses that old give up MANY treasures and artifacts. If you yourself aren't experienced with detectors, then invite someone over who is and ask them to help you get started in exchange for sharing some of the finds with them. I'm sure there's a detectorist in your area that would jump at the chance. I happen to be into that hobby myself and you can find some really cool stuff around old houses.

Also, another thing you can try is to sift the dirt with a homemade sifter. Scoop up buckets of dirt and then run smaller 5gal bucket loads of dirt through the sifter by hand and see what you come up with. The sifter is more work than a detector, but the advantage is that you find almost EVERYTHING, not just the metal stuff. If you ever get to do one or both, be sure and get back and show us pics of your finds. Good luck!

 

[stoneyfork]

Negligence - I don't know the rating on mine either, bought it used, seems pretty stout though.

Kebo - I have plans for both, several friends have metal detectors and I am planning to build a screen to sift some. There is an even older house site across the creek so hopefully I will find some interesting stuff. I will post pictures of what I find.