Abbot Restores Brick Facade of Historic South End Warehouse Building  

Abbot's Small Projects Division recently completed restoration of the façade of a five-story brick warehouse building at 61-63 Wareham Street in Boston's historic South End.

After the building began to experience water penetration issues, the building owner elected to install new bronze replacement windows in an effort to control the problem. Because the replacement windows did not eliminate all of the water penetration, the owner contacted Abbot to recaulk the replacement windows and repoint the entire building façade. Abbot cut all of the mortar joints to a depth of ½" and repointed the façade. Significantly, with new mortar was formulated to comply with the South End Landmark District Commission regulations.

Brick masonry can be properly and safely installed in just about any weather conditions with use of appropriate precautions.

Codes, specifications, and standards provide for protection of the masonry and the masons. The Masonry Standards Joint Committee Code and Specification (MSJC), Section 1.8C on cold weather, lists among its goals as assuring proper mortar curing and proper bonding of mortar and masonry units. Even if a cold weather construction plan is not required in the project specifications, the code requirements are mandatory.

Also, mortar temperature must be kept between 40 degrees and 120 degrees F, and the units above 20 degrees F. Units with ice or snow must not be laid.

Maintaining proper temperature is possible by incorporating one or more of the following strategies:

• Heating sand and/or water
• Setting up  wind barriers
• Enclosing and heating entire space