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.

 

[Duffster]

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?

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

I would say it is a 8 ton

If you posted more pics I could tell you for sure

 

[stoneyfork]

I'll take some pictures this weekend, it has 6 lug wheels.

 

[Lloyd_E]

The roman numerals indicated a marking system for construction. And kit homes go back as early as mid 1700's. When the loyalist jumped ship in New york and Boston and headed to NS they brought with them many post and beam houses (structure only) to be put together and finished here. They also brought/imported brick, glass, nails etc until suitable industry was established. Once established, there were teams of carpenters specializing in construction that would built houses - usually why you see identically houses within a small area.

By the way - glass was originally 'spun' from liquid on a base. The center or bull's eye was often discarded and that is why some of the homes and barns have them in their transom windows above the door. The more wealthy homes received better 'viewing' glass.

Before you build anything I would go over the site carefully with a metal detector, rake and shovel - never know what you will find.

Great story.

lloyd

 

[scott_vt]

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

Good Afternoon Stoney,
Great thread, and very nice job, you made it look easy !

Mark,
I believe they did make kit houses back then, of course I have nothing to back that up with other than I read it somewhere some time ago ! Off the top of my head Im thinkin, Sears, Stickley, Greene etc but just a guess. Hey maybe even Montgomery Ward !

 

[JeremyL]

I kinda like the old house. I think you should put it all back together again.

 

[JonKioti]

Great story, Stony, thanks for sharing.

Here's how I tackled the same situation on my land several years ago.

I spent a lot of time finding people to take any furniture and doors in the house. The day after I took the glass from the windows, I was approached by a local guy asking for any other bits. I was only too happy to oblige, and he took frames, trim, windows, and finally the entire staircase and bannister (in one piece). He used these pieces to restore a similar house on the other side of the valley which has since been recognized for it's historic representation.

While I did save some boards, most were too far gone, rotted, full of nails, etc. I would have loved to have the same dumpster you did, but I couldn't get one in to the site easily. This was also before I have my Kioti, so I used the rented excavator as shown, then hand sorted and loaded onto my trailer to take to the dump anything that shouldn't be burned.

Parts of the house were over 100 years old; the chimney brick did not come apart from the mortar unfortunately. I did find a book in there from 1889.

Nice cleanup on your site. Hopefully you will not find any extra nails with your tires...or did you already?

Jon

 

[Barkri12]

Did you know that 1/3 of all garbage in our landfills is from construction waste -

Derrida discusses his idea of "interpreting the interpretations," through the ideas
of an event, the structure of that event and the play of the elements of that make
up the structure. The basic idea of deconstruction works.

 

[riptides]

Derrida discusses his idea of "interpreting the interpretations," through the ideas
of an event, the structure of that event and the play of the elements of that make
up the structure. The basic idea of deconstruction works.

Dude!

This is too deep for me, I'll have to reflect on it internally.

Welcome to TBN!

 

[login]

eYs, really. I join told all above. Let's discusss this question. Here or in PM.

 

[crbr]

Thanks for the pictures