This was a really nice project to work on. Built in 1901, this facade was eventually covered in stucco. This was possibly done in the 90’s. Before the guys installed the stucco they removed almost all the original bricks leaving just a section of brick on the face where the door is. After setting up the scaffold, we removed the stucco, repaired the wood framing, installed building wrap and then bricked up the facade taking time to include the original jack arches, elliptical arch with plinth course and checker-board detail panels.
We used orange Ibstock brick from England which is a molded Ontario size brick similar to the original brick and we laid them with traditional lime mortar. Due to the strike in the Montreal docks at the time this brick was unable to be released and transported to Toronto. We had to drive out to Hamilton 3 times to pick up skids of brick as the local supplier, Kreitmaker was out of stock and Sean was unwilling to drive to Montreal over the weekend, sneak onto the dock and unload 1700 brick for us and then drive back.
The owner @andrew.a.welch cut the stone sills out of Berea sandstone from Ohio. The face and margins were tooled and a washout and lugs cut into the stone.
When gauging our coursing and details, we took reference from a matching facade a few doors down that was painted but details were still visible.
These are our favourite projects to work on. Working on great projects for great clients is what makes the dust and noise worth it.
