Back To The Bricks

Let's take a break from the neighborhood analysis for a minute to cover a quick - but fun - little project I tackled over the weekend. Technically, I didn't tackle the project I set out to tackle initially, but I still tackled a project and got some valuable info. 

30,000 foot view, earlier this year I decided to make 2023 the year I (finally) address a good chunk of the front of the house. That means repointing all the limestone, repointing the brick where it's needed, and rebuilding the windows. And I mean REE-BILL-DING the windows: 

• New precast sills
• New precast sill corbels
• New brick mould
• New lower sashes with muntins and insulated glass
• New upper sashes with muntins and insulated glass
• New spring bronze 
  
• New window weight chain
  
• NO MORE STORM WINDOW PIECES​

This pic obviously doesn't show EVERYTHING that's goin' on, but it's the gist of it. It's all bad.

One of the first things I need to do is make the sills and sill corbels. Since I've never done anything like that before, I'm guessing it'll take a few tries to get it right. My game plan for last weekend was to try casting a sill corbel.

Getting the exterior dimensions was easy enough but I needed to know how far into the wall those things went, and the only way to figure that out was to remove the original millwork under the window on the inside of the house. I was going to replace the millwork anyhow, given its condition.

While the panel removal yielded the dimensional info I sought, it also revealed some brick in pretty rough shape. 

I figured I might as well repoint the brick while I was there, but about 2 seconds into removing mortar I realized I could pull the entire inner wythe apart with my hands. So I did.

See those 2 square, gray-colored things? Those are the backs of the sill corbels. That's what I was hoping to find. The rotten mortar holding the wall together, not so much. With the inner wythe out of the way, I could see daylight through the wall in multiple spots. 

I haven't repointed any brick in about a year and a half so it took me a minute to get the feel for the tools, but before too long I was slingin' mortar and stackin' brick.

I dunno why, but it always makes me happy to go from holes in the wall to no holes in the wall.

The whole job took about 10 hours of work, start to finish. I didn't mortar up under the window sill because it's coming out later this year and there's no sense in making that job more difficult than it needs to be.  

Maybe NEXT weekend I'll get around to casting those corbels...