Historic renovation of Capitol Hill 7th Day Adventist Church in Washington, DC.
Historic dome re-stuccoed on 10th St. and Massachusetts Avenue, NE in Capitol Hill
My phone I had back then took terrible pictures. I hope you can figure out what was going on.
This nice old dome had been patched quite a few times since 1910. Some of the patches were really well done, like where this band was duplicated.
Most of the paint was easily scraped off. A long as we are down to the unpainted stucco, we can permanently bond a new coat on top.
Where the dome was re-coated before failed, and
the mortar was easily scraped off. They didn't know the secret of Flex-con.
The stucco was done over gypsum blocks, known as "gypblock". These were really made for interior use. Without tearing the whole dome down, we had to find a practical solution for a permanent repair.
A close up of the gypblock shows it was reinforced with straw. Gypblocks are cast molding plaster, like is used for interior plaster moldings. Some of these gypblocks were made right at the job site, by the plasterers. Some were made by manufacturers, like US Gypsum.
Most of the paint is chipped off using an electric chipping hammer. The chips open the pores in the old stucco for a good bond.
For more about re-coating stucco, please click here.
All the holes and gaps in the gypblocks are packed with mortar with plenty of Flex-con mixed in. The flex aids not only in bonding, but the mortar develops incedible strength and crack resistance. The wall will be coated with the
same flex-con mixture. The flex-con also makes the mortar a lot less porous, and water resistant.
The ladder we climbed every day to get to the dome.
Brown coat on the dome finished.
Dome finished to it's original 1910 splendor.
I hope it lasts longer that 100 years this time.
