President's House
Location: Naval Station Newport, RI
Date Completed: November 2004
The President's House on the Naval Base in Newport has been the residence of the base's Admiral for over 200 years. HRI was again requested to complete the restoration of the remaining 30 19th century windows. The sash were removed, the frames made lead safe, sash restored, bronze weather stripping installed and new storm windows. The intent was to retain the integrity of the historic fabric of the Admiral's quarters, so future occupants may appreciate the rich historical contribution of the house to the base.
17th Century Cape Remodel
Location: North Kingston, RI
Date Completed: February 2005
This 1683 Cape has certainly undergone some changes through its 300 years, although many of the original features remain intact. The four room, central chimney, with a gambrel roof and dormers, requires a new second floor to better meet the needs and demands of modern life. Yet the owners are sensitive to recreating some of the earlier treatments, such as: board and batten doors, beaded vertical and horizontal wainscoting; while introducing such amenities as a bathroom and built in closets. Yet before we got that far, we needed to address the bastardizing of the timber frame by removing modern platforms and reinstalling the butt and cog 3x4 joists, as well as replacing a hacked out girt. We expect to be done by October/November. See some of the photographs in the Project Photo page.
Vinyl is no Longer Final
Location: Providence, RI
Date Completed: September 2004
Providence is certainly up and coming. This particular area has been attacked by the Vinyl and Asbestos gremlins, and HRI was hired to exterminate and revitalize the beauty that once was. The house is an 1880 townhouse, where much of the features were removed, torn off and destroyed to introduce a "maintenance free" siding. HRI and the customer decided to begin with the front porch, removing the festering elements, and producing a more pleasant, exciting two story design. Off came the plywood decks, aluminum railings and pillars and rolled asphalt roof, exposing the naked frame. Once the frame was repaired, HRI installed a new EPDM roof, IPE decking, red cedar railings and mahogany spindles, cedar lattice, a few crown moldings, fir tongue and groove ceiling and new fiberglass square columns. Now we must return to complete the eradication of these despicable vermin.
Location: Burrillville, RI
Date Completed: July, 2004
The Burrillville Historical Society received a State Preservation Grant to complete the restoration of this 1897 school house bell tower. The bell tower had been neglected for some time, causing some elements to wear and fail beyond repair, while others just needed a little TLC. HRI was contracted to: remove the two layers of asphalt and one layer of wood shingle from the tower, repair the sheathing and apply architectural asphalt shingles; strip selected finishes and prep others for paint; remove and reproduce failed trim elements; prep and apply an elastomeric compound on the hemmed flat tin roof; apply a preservative, prime and finish coat all wood elements; and replace all of the step and cover flashing from the tower to the main roof.
Location: Providence, RI
Date Completed: June, 2004
HRI completed the second triple decker porch on this Benefit Street condominium, completing everything from: removal of the railings, posts, deck, several layers of roofing; framing repairs; New 6x6 red cedar posts; new plywood deck; rubber roofing; reproduction of the railings to painting. HRI also completed some built in gutter, soffit and downspout repairs.
Colonial Reproduction Wood Shingle Roof Project
Location: Bristol, RI
Date Completed: May 2004
This Poppasquash address is a well designed and built 18th Century reproduction. Featuring wide plank floors and vertical featherboard wainscoting, the house was built on land conveniently cleared after the Hurricane of '38. The existing roof suffered from harsh exposure and poor installation techniques, lasting only about 25 years. HRI removed and replaced over 2200 square feet of red cedar shingles, completing all of the removal, application, flashing and gutter repair, all using the recommended guidelines from the Cedar, Shake and Shingle Bureau.
18th Century Cape Frame Repairs
Location: South Attleboro,MA
Date Completed: April 2004
This wonderful timber frame building maintaining many of its original timber frame elements. But like many damp 230 year old basements, the 1/2 log joists had suffered from severe powder post beetle damage, causing them to lose their structural integrity. There were also some original chestnut basement posts that requiring resetting farther above the dirt floor. We sought the new timbers from our local sawyer, and picked up new 10"x10"x10" granite block to complete the repairs. We then supported the floor, cut out the joists and reinserted them reusing the original timber framing techniques. For the posts, we jacked up the beams, set the granite blocks in stone dust(for compaction and good drainage), cut the posts back and put them back into place. We also completed other miscellaneous work, such as: resupporting and securing stair treads; reset and removed other post and beams; and provided a general annalists and treatment for the rest of the framing system.
Punch List
Location: Providence, RI
Date Completed: March 2004
The wonderful home on the East Side of Providence started with tuning up their original 1918 double hung weighted sash windows. The windows needed everything from replacing missing tin weatherstripping, installing the appropriate sash stop adjusters, replacing ropes, adjusting sash locks, installing a dutchman on bent meeting rails, applying butchers wax to oiling the pulleys. After that, the customer asked HRI to complete other smaller, "punch list" items around the house, including: replacing all of the kitchen kickboards and shoe molding, replacing a newer warped exterior door, replacing an exterior column base, installing splines in floor cracks, replacing thresholds and flooring, installing basement storm windows, masonry repairs, as well as some painting touch ups.
Location: Providence, RI
Date Completed: February 2004
HRI was called in after the roofing contractors found this third story porch needing more than just a rubber roof. The project required three stories of staging to access the damage, including: a sixteen foot header replacement, a new subfloor deck, rebuilding the soffit, replacing the facias, reproducing the railing to match the original design while meeting the proper code regulations, and painting. HRI also replaced some of the homesote soffits with new MDO prepainted soffits.
Location: Providence, RI
Date Completed: February 2004
HRI was called in after the roofing contractors found this third story porch needing more than just a rubber roof. The project required three stories of staging to access the damage, including: a sixteen foot header replacement, a new subfloor deck, rebuilding the soffit, replacing the facias, reproducing the railing to match the original design while meeting the proper code regulations, and painting. HRI also replaced some of the homesote soffits with new MDO prepainted soffits.
Location: Warwick Neck, RI
Date Completed: February 2004
This project offered a unique challenge in providing a screened in area to a pre-existing porch. The porch area included 9 areas between columns, where 17 screened panels and four doors were fabricated and fitted between each column. And, of course, each column was crooked, out of plane and as a column would be, tapered. Each column was fitted with 2 inch thick Pattern Mahogany, rabbeted, fastened to the column, and the custom screen panels were installed. Bring on the mosquitoes!!
Location: Newport, RI
Date Completed: February 2004
This 1920's "Colonial" was built with a lot of faith, a very little engineering. We found that certain sags and sways in the house were actually occurring before they put on the plaster!! Our job was to "straighten" out the main first floor beam, using a variety of steel and sistered joists. The project then grew into redoing the basement stairs, turning them from typical rough basement stairs to a new open staircase with oak treads and new turned newel posts. After that, we attacked the kitchen frame, sistering some ceiling joists, resupporting a window header and restrapping ceiling from bent to level. Future work includes installing a new Marvin triple window, as well as other significant improvements and maintenance.