Deconstruction In Youngstown

[iwasthere]

the store's hours are 9am - 4pm thursday, friday and saturday.

[Shar]

Thanks for the info RR!!   

[Shar]

I will have to check them out.  Do you by chance know when they are open? 

[iwasthere]

shar the restart store on ytown-poland rd in struthers has materials from old homes for resale and the profits goes to the local Habitat for Humanity towards their local projects.

[Shar]

Rick...has this guy started his business?  I have many projects going in my house and would love to be able to find materials from an old house to use.  Many larger cities have these type of business and I certainly think there is a market for it here. 

[AllanY2525]

Rick,

Could you email me his number?

My apartment building is going to be sitting there for a very long time, the way things look right now from a
financial standpoint - but it is structurally sound, has electricity ( a construction feed in the basement with
a 100 amp panel) and it has a brand new roof on it, so the interior environment is dry and out of the weather.

My building totals 16,800 square feet - this would be a great way to make some money from the place until
I can get the funds to renovate it.

Could you please send me his phone number?  I'd be more than happy to rent the interior space to him
for storage, I just wonder if the city would have a problem with this (??)

[Rick Rowlands]

I got a phone call today from a guy who is starting up a business locally to deconstruct houses.  He called to ask if I would know a place that he could rent to store the materials that they plan to resell.  I have his number and if I need any lumber for a project I'll give him a call.

[northside lurker]

On my last visit to Alcatraz Island, the park ranger was explaining the whole "spalling" thing... basically, the whole
darned prison was made of reinforced concrete - which the salt spray gradually ruined..there are large areas inside
the cellhouses that are off limits to tourists because of this, but they are slowly restoring the concrete where it
was damaged... they used a lime-based concrete when they built the place.....

(And yes... I escaped from Alcatraz... )

That spalling is for a different reason.  The salt in the air has penetrated the concrete, causing the steel reinforcing to rust.  Once the reinforcing starts to rust, it expands and the face of the concrete pops off.

Bricks and mortar expand and contract at different rates.  Old bricks with new mortar spall because the bricks are softer than the mortar, and the face of the brick gives first.  The old-fashioned mortar was softer than the brick and so the mortar would give first.  I hope I'm explaining that well enough.

[AllanY2525]

On my last visit to Alcatraz Island, the park ranger was explaining the whole "spalling" thing... basically, the whole
darned prison was made of reinforced concrete - which the salt spray gradually ruined..there are large areas inside
the cellhouses that are off limits to tourists because of this, but they are slowly restoring the concrete where it
was damaged... they used a lime-based concrete when they built the place.....

(And yes... I escaped from Alcatraz... )

[Rick Rowlands]

At one time lime based mortar was used extensively, and that mortar is quite a bit weaker than the portland cement based mortar used today.  As Allan states, using a portland based mortar to point brick where a lime mortar once had been is inviting disaster, as the harder mortar will spall the face off the bricks.

[AllanY2525]

I read an interesting article in an architectural (sp?) digest about leaning chimneys, and what causes them.
Something about pollution and acid rain, etc gets into the mortar and causes the chimney to lean towards
the most weather-exposed side (ie: the North and West faces).

With all the mills that were operating in the city, this may have had something to do with it.
But then, you also have to bear in mind that these brick buildings in the city are, after all, very old.
My apartment building needs to be re-pointed down the road (if I ever get the bucks to finish the place)
but overall, it's in fairly good shape on the outside.

The bricks do, of course, have a ton of black "mill soot" on them.. LOL.  The house on Woodbine has
the same discoloration - I'm going to have a brick mason clean everything some day when I get the
brickwork restored.

The concrete and mortar products that are made today may be much stronger, etc, but you gotta
give credit where credit was due with the original builders of these places...for the building to last
as long as it did says alot about the materials and craftsmanship that went into these structures!

[northside lurker]

I think mortar was probably weaker when this building was built.  There is more engineering behind modern mortar.

When restoring a very old house, (pre 20th century) you have to be careful about what kind of mortar you use to re-point, because the new mortar might be harder than the brick, and cause the face of the brick to pop off.

But, if a wall is in good repair, it doesn't matter that the old mortar might be softer.  In the case of this building, it looks like water got behind the bricks, froze, and heaved the wall out.  The mortar probably wouldn't have made a difference.

[jay]

What would those used yellow bricks be worth in the Youngstown area?  There were quite a few of them on the ground next to the building.

Was the mortar weaker back when the building was constructed?  Most of the bricks seem to have broken free from the mortar.

[AllanY2525]

Questions about deconstruction

Would the glass windows be salvaged?

Is the wood behind the bricks salvageable?

The bricks look as though they could be saved.  What is the going price for a good used brick?

Why are there red bricks where the former porch roof had been located?

Jay, yes, the red brick was less costly, and since the porch roof covered it up it only makes
sense that the builders would do this.  My house on Woodbine has a couple different varieties
of brick hidden behind the new roof we built over the porch for the same reason - this practice
was very common back then.

The yellow bricks could fetch a pretty good salvage price, as the bricks made
nowadays are not as sturdy (they're made with a more lightweight material).
When the roofers were doing my house on Woodbine, we eliminated a second
chimney at the rear of the house (was used for the old water heater at some
point, and maybe a wood burning stove in the kitchen) but we kept the yellow
bricks so that I can use them to repair other portions of the exterior at some
point down the road.

The wood behind the bricks is called "skip sheathing", and it would not be much good for anything
else because it is very old, and very dried out....this same sheathing was also
used for deck material in the old rooftops.  Modern homes use plywood, because
it is stronger and quicker and easier to install.

The glass could probaby be salvaged, but more and more homes are being built with either
plexiglass  or Lexan(tm) these days instead.Lexan is stronger than plexiglas, resists yellowing with
age (mainly due to ultraviolet exposure)_ and is even used in some aircraft for windows...auto
headlights, etc.

Maryland bulding code now requires that storm doors have only plexiglass or lexan glazing in
them, for safety reasons.

[Why?Town]

My guess is that red bricks were cheaper.

It's just a guess.