William Brown House - Chimneys
An notable architectural feature of the William Brown House are the two central chimneys.
As you might expect, the chimneys get battered a lot by the weather and needed a lot of attention for this preservation project. The Worcester Eisenbrandt (WEI) crew is spending a lot of time repointing the brickwork and just checking the "health" of the chimneys.
Below are some pictures of their work and the chimneys.
The image below gives us a view of how the chimneys are capped. Before this project we at London Town had no images, and thus no good idea, of how the chimneys were capped. You should see three pieces of grey slate on each chimney. They are bolted in place to prevent rain, snow, and other debris falling into the chimneys.
If you look closely at the picture to the left, you should notice a small gap in between the bottom of the slate and the top of the chimney. This is put there on purpose so that the chimney stacks and "breathe" a bit when the temperature changes.
The image below shows the WEI crew in action as they start the repointing process. The crew is removing the older, deteriorating mortar. For the sides of the each chimney facing "inward," the crew accessed the roof through a hatch in the attic. To access the outward facing sides, WEI brought in a construction lift.
The image below is a closer look at the brick and mortar after the deteriorating mortar has been removed. The WEI crew will next clean the brick and mortar joints before adding new mortar.
