Masonry Restoration and Preservation

RedStone 210 College ST Burlington, VT

Recreating arches is very difficult. In this case during the 1960's this building was altered. All the original arches were taken out. New square awning windows were built in.

Paul List designed arched steel arches welded to the new I-beam headers and installed. After this area was stabilized came the difficult task of recreating the arches for new windows.

Liszt Restoration spent weeks sending out brick samples and calling different leads only to find a near perfect match in Cape Cod, Mass. Here we see Paul List of Liszt Historical Restoration recreating the arches for new arched windows. Paul gave the brick supplier twice the asking price for the brick to insure he received only the very best face brick. Salvaged materials are of little use if they had been damaged during the salvage process. Liszt salvages many onld masonry building to insure a ready supply of authentic materials. Brick are salvaged by hand directly from the wall, not picked out of a debris pile after the building is pulled down and the brick and stone is broken chipped and scared. Proper lime putty cement is critical to beautiful results, and we make our own lime putty from burned high calcium limestone, slake it and store it in air-tight containers for future use. The average age of the lime putty we use is over two years old. This insures the lime putty is fully slaked and ready for use without the shrinkage and other problems that result from using lime cement that is still too young. Hundreds of square feet of masonry were re-pointed and the terra cotta detail elements were removed, repaired, cleaned and reinstalled. Liszt also repaired all the decorative sheet metal and cleaned the entire exterior of the building. Peggy List developed the color scheme for the painted metal and wood elements.

Pauls arch work and every other masonry repair literally disappears into
"original" areas of building. The result was that the building was honored with a Preservation Award form the organization 'Preservation Burlington'.

Middlebury College Starr Library

Demo starts 2006. Liszt Restoration carefully removes marble, categorizes it and saves for later use on the project as large areas of the original structure called for 80% of existing marble work to be replaced with salvaged marble or patched. The original stone has a unique 'tooled' finish that couldn't be reproduced in large quantity by any stone shop known, so salvaging the stone with this tooling was critical to the outcome of the project. The tooling was painstakingly reproduced in all the patched areas, and Peggy List's finishing technique made the patches vanish even at point blank range.

Salvaged Marble

Cornices, marble panels on pallets for future installation on South Wall and Winter Garden

Demo to Winter Garden & South Wall

South Wall and Winter Garden interior will be one of the most challenging areas of this restoration project, but Liszt Restoration was not limited just to those areas of this massive undertaking.
Engelberth Construction (Colchester VT) was a great team to work with, along with the Architect and Building Conservator from Boston. They put trust and faith in our Company to provide the customer with their wish to have the marble exterior panels, columns and cornices rebuilt into the building, and everything to look as if it had never been damaged.

Former South Wall & Winter Garden

After demo, it literally looked like a large bomb went off, as everything was broken, shot full of rebar and had cement slurry spilled over the entire area, as these surface were never suppose to visible again after the renovations were done in the 70's. A heavy weight loomed on our abilities to pull this off. Paul List and his two lead men, Tom and Dave and the rest of the crew were excited to make it happen!

Demoed Winter Garden section

Winter Garden after demo. Liszt rebuilt columns, walls, headers, windows, doorways and cornices, much was to become large glassed enclosed pedestrian areas. Our work had to be invisible and marry flawlessly with existing marble that was unearthed from sheet rock, block and cement slabs, hidden away for 30 years.
The public would have an "Up close" view of the restoration work when completed so it was critical that our work disappeared. The joints were unusually and Liszt had to fabricate all the tools to duplicate the original mortar joints.

special tool for joints

Special tool Paul List made to duplicate original joints. Liszt also had to perfect the technique of their use, and design the mortar mix that would meet the demands of both physical and visual requirements.

South wall after demo

Large sections had to be rebuilt. What original marble that was left on this building had to be cleaned, repaired and patched with a special patching material Liszt Restoration is certified to use, from Cathedral Stone.

South Wall after demo

The salvaged marble had to be installed within the context of the original marble the demo process uncovered.
The original marble that was left on this wall was severely damaged, when it was covered it was treated with the thoughts of never seeing the light of day again! It was a task that daunted everyone involved, except Liszt who relished the opportunity to do the 'impossible'.

south wall detail.jpg

Window Openings SW

Recreating all the Window openings

Existing Stone

Liszt was in charge of finding a match to the existing stone foundation, existing had to be cleaned and patched too. It was important that the infill areas in the rubble foundation be invisible. Paul List has a good knowledge of the natural stone available in the area and was able to pick through an old quarry owned by Gawet Marble in West Rutland, VT and find the perfect match which was then shaped and installed.

Water Table install

Install of water table stones

Paul List Mark Tighe

Paul List is on the job, assisting with critical areas. Two lead men, Tom Corr and David Okalita are Liszt Restorations Foreman, valuable team, each posses unique talents and we are honored to have them, they are a critical element.

Water Table

Making their way down South Wall rebuild

Lower portion S Wall

Wall is taking shape at this point

starr sw progress.jpg

S Wall complete

Winter Garden and South Wall restored

South Wall restored

Amazing results Liszt Historical Restoration's work blends and remains invisible.
All the work on South Wall and with-in the glass enclosed Winter Garden blends.

Close up

A true example of Restoration quality is when one cannot visibly see repairs.
Matching all material takes a critical eye and many hours of researching the appropriate material to match long before the work takes place.

south & winter after.jpg