The will To Survive
The colonial building you want to restore was built by hand.
The tools to make the materials to make the building were made by hand.
The materials to make your building were cut and shaped by hand.
There were no short cuts during this process…. then.
Why should you accept short cuts in the restoration of your colonial building today?
Restoration of antique timber frame structures is not a production related process even though carpenters trained in 20th Century production methods would have you believe it is. The word, Restoration, has become a popular code word added to contractors advertising to increase their business leads along with bathroom and kitchen remodeling, additions, and new construction. This is especially true of remodeling companies that have little or no understanding of the word. With the population growing and moving out of the city, demand for skilled craftsman are growing while people filling that job description are getting harder to find.
In the 80’s there were many old timers still doing restoration work. The recession of 1990 put a lot of people out of business. Building contractors struggling to survive figured out quickly that there was no new houses to build but there was a lot of high end restoration projects in the works. The natural response was to follow the money. All of these people became restoration contractors over night. Unfortunately the business changed in name only. The work was production based and priced by the square foot. This was the beginning of the decline of the craftsman restoration specialist , those who gave their life to the perfection of the craft. The beginning of the decline for the restoration trades in general and those skilled enough to do it properly.
If cost becomes an issue and you are gullible enough to believe that you are going to get a proper job cheap, then you will get what you pay for. The price you are willing to pay to have restoration work don to your antique home may be the result of receiving bad information from your Home inspector or a local contractors quoting extremely low bids biased on there lack of experience and knowledge in these areas
At some point in the process the homeowner decides to have a specialist’s look at the structural components of the project assuming that sill and structural member replacement cost are similar to new construction cost. When the inspection is complete, the report written and a price given, the homeowner is shocked. Based on a bad prior quotes you now have a perceived value and it looks like the specialist is trying to rob you. The fact is that professional antique building restoration and structural repair is a craft comprised of many disciplines such as mechanical and engineering skills as well as artistic and intuitive talents and good communication skills. A lot of experience doesn’t hurt either. This is what earns someone the right to use the term Professional in his or her title.
Although a contractor pricing the work low to get the job will assure you they can hold to the price, it’s common knowledge that you can only price what you can see and there is much that you can’t see when it comes to this type of work. Antique structures have a lot of secrets including many previous bad repairs that a craftsman has to remove in order to begin their repairs
Restoring an antique structure on its original foundation has its virtues. Most houses are being squeezed out of their spaces with roads being widened and raised. A road going by the house could be 50′ away and 6′ or more below the sill of an old house when it was built. The road that provided passage for nothing greater than horse and wagon 100 plus years ago now sits 4′ to 8′ away from the foundation and in may cases 3′ or more above the sill with tractor-trailers going buy all day long. A house that used to sit on 200 archers now clings to life on less than half an archer lot. This type of progress raises havoc with field stone foundations. Now add snowplows piling snow up on the foundation, sill and walls and the outcome is easy to envision. I have actually seen paved roads 4’ away from a wall of an antique building. There are no laws in any of the New England states to my knowledge mandating that highway departments provide a safe buffer zone, make an effort to reroute the road or help the owner financially to move the building for the protection of these structures.
The question now is, can these structures survive the ignorance and indifference of the 21st century and a disposable society! ? There are many once beautiful structures that have been converted to apartment houses or commercial space. Floor plans and architectural details destroyed forever. Worse yet, exteriors reck-o-vated beyond recognition. The grand examples of our recent 300-year past turned into manikins and dressed up like clowns, victims of processions of uneducated carpenters hired by less caring cost conscience property owners. The resulting losses become staggering by proportion. Situations do occur ware poor repairs hold the building together long enough to be saved by professionals but not often enough. By consretive estimates we are losing 200 buildings a day in New England alone when you consider that developers bulldoze antique buildings in the way of progress, fire departments burn them to the ground for practice, harvesters dismantle and part them out, and owners neglect them until they fall to the ground. Add natural disasters to the equation and you begin to get a clear view of the demise of our natural architectural treasures.
WHEN IT HAS TO LAST 200 YEARS
I don’t mind paying you the final payment George, the sill work you did was good. The only problem I have with it is that I can’t show it off. That is what a client in Otis MA said to me 20 years ago. I have never forgotten those words.
Restoration of colonial homes and barns and related structures in the 21st century has been market driven and diminished to the lowest common denominator by modern building standards. Clients ask for bids to restore wonderful antique houses as if they were having a common ranch house remodeled. The word, estimate has become confused with and therefore accepted into the language as a firm or fixed price. The word, restoration has also come to mean something other than intended in the general terminology of fixing up old houses
It’s not that anyone expects the work to be less than perfect, it’s more that prices driven by uninformed buyers and uneducated builders creating a market demand that accepts the Lowest Bid Syndrome. I also agree that one should ‘t pay top dollar for someone with little or no experience, which happens way too often. This I’m sure is also the result of client’s not taking time to research references or looking at previous projects.
Young and inexperienced, hungry for work, many carpenters take on projects that are out of their league or above there skill level. Homeowners begin to think that anyone equipped with a pickup truck and a level hanging in the back window can save them a lot of money on there restoration projects. Whether they are licensed, pay taxes , carry insurance or even speak English is often overlooked for obvious cost cutting benefits, a determining factor when it comes to the bottom line. Few homeowners ever question them while honest and legal contractors struggle to make a living.
Good restoration specialist fall victim to the demands of modern building standards as well . These craftsmen are eventually forced to lower their price to get work and adjust the quality of work to meet lower socially accepted building standards. The buildings suffer as well. Many buildings are more severely damaged at the hands of inexperienced or price driven carpenters than by the passing of time. This is the reality of the world we live in today. It’s hard to justify good repair/restoration work that cost more when TV ads bombard us every day with propaganda like, WHY PAY MORE or I’m not going to pay a lot for that muffler. As a society we have become conditioned to big box stores selling stuff cheap, including clothes, food, tools and inferior building materials. This conditioning leads us down a dangerous path that continues to get steeper as we go.
Modern building codes if any usually only address new construction and those who enforce the law try to squeeze old homes between the lines of the codes. Many unyielding building inspectors lacking an understanding of the superior qualities of antique structures demand that these structures be repaired to this new lower standard causing havoc with historic architecture, forever changing the castor and historic value of the building.
Antique buildings were built to a much higher standard than current building codes. Materials were cut from old growth lumber making it stronger and also cut to larger detentions. The craftsman who built these structures went through a long apprenticeship insuring that the quality of the work met high standards. There are many inspectors who appreciate these buildings and work closely with craftsman doing every thing in their power to invoke Grandfather clauses allowing the building to coexist in its original grandeur.
I have been involved in a number of municipal State or Town owned antique structure Restoration projects that have been put out to bid using the AIA format. This contract has very strict and narrow guidelines determining start and finish dates and unreasonable demands and perimeters for true restoration.
All of the bid packages are well documented describing the parameters of the project with blueprints. I read them and throw them away because it’s common knowledge that these projects go to the lowest bidder. Larger companies have a staff dedicated to this type of bid process. Small companies more qualified to make the repairs could invest many hours putting a bid together and lose it to less qualified larger companies. Once a company gets chosen for the project, extras such as unforeseen damage are hard, even impossible to get paid for. This means that these repairs are handled in a less than professional manner. A recent phenomenon occurring in the profession is that no one is submitting bids because they don’t want to get caught holding the contract so to speak. Again the low bid mentality infects the states ability to hire professionals to do the work.
There are many people buying antique houses as investment and restoring them on the cheap. There rational, professional repairs will exceed it’s market value and I won’t be able to get my money out of it when I go to sell it! This is flawed thinking. Again the antique falls victim to shoddy logic as well as bad repair techniques preformed by low-end carpenters, at the request of greedy, unscrupulous investors and sold to unsuspecting buyers; there’s that pesky spiral again. Once you remove moldings, doors, staircases, period fixtures, plaster, and lath all you have is a Home Depot show room and usually poorly executed one’s at that. A stately single family converted to four apartments is the equivalent of hitching Funny Cides to a carriage for rides around Central Park, another antique diminished in value. All buildings appreciate including, antiques even more so if treated with respect and dignity. The point that seems to be ignored with antique homes and barns is that a professionally restored antique becomes more valuable because of the documented restoration.
If a client takes their Model A Ford to a shop to be restored, the shop will give them an hourly rate and some idea of the time frame of repair. The shop will also tell them that they won’t be held to the price. When the restoration of this car is completed its value becomes that of the combined original value plus the price of the restoration. This is also true for fine furniture, artwork, boats, your car and musical instruments, in effect any thing that requires someone with talent to perform the repair. Craftsmen that restore anything built by hand that requires care and patients charge by the hour. This falls into the category of CUSTOM WORK. Restoration in and of its self is not a production related sport; as I have stated, it’s about slow and steady progress. The understanding of applied multiple variables. The ability to comprehend existing conditions, materials, accepted norms for the period, and the desired outcome. This is where the plaster hits the wall so to speak.
There was a time when I was a young pup that the phrase, made In America meant quality, we joked about products labeled Made In Japan. Today Japan dominates the electronics, camera optics, and auto markets as well as robotics among others while our jobs are sent over seas and collage grads flip hamburgers to get by. I agree that competing with senior citizens and high school kids for work doesn’t leave a lot to restore the old barn or even fix the roof and windows on the 18th century house that Grandma left, or worse, you had to pay for.
What’s the point you ask? The point is that we have a rare indigenous species of life planted, nurtured, and left behind to grow for generations to admire and learn from. Living proof that we have been here for 300+ years, the result of struggle and hardships endured by brave and adventurous soles. Fine examples of their dwellings are not all that they left. They left us with a government created by the people. A new concept called democracy, a bill of rights, and a legacy that taught us; if you work hard you will be rewarded. Today our great architectural legacy is disappearing as fast as our civil liberties. We can act with revolutionary vision to save the buildings that bore and nurtured our patriots and launched a consciences change toward the global awareness of freedom of speech.
Restoration of 18th century structures in this country should be considered the highest level of custom work. It encompass knowledge of soil conditions, grade and water management, stone foundations, timber frames, lath and plaster, milk paints, architectural detail, wood shingle, mechanical repair skills, restoration and replication of period moldings and siding to name a few. Combine all of that with a working knowledge of integrating modern amenities and mechanical systems into antique structures and, blending of the 18th and 21st century. Add passion to the list of qualifications of those charged with the responsibility and the final product becomes a finished work of art.
If you are building for two to five decades than the price will reflect the quality of the work. If you are re-building for two to five centuries the price should also reflect the quality of work.
Level, plumb and square.
For those with a background in economics or stocks and bonds, you are fully aware that long-term investment provides greater value. When you prorate a 20 year repair against a 200 year repair the better repair begins to look much more reasonable. “Restoring the Past to Preserve the Future”, is not just a slogan, it should be a mantra helping us to be aware that the responsibility belongs to all of us to maintain and nurture these buildings for future generations.
George Yonnone
