Rick Irons - General Contracting and Restoration LLC - Custom Contracting and Complete Building Restoration and Preservation - Limerick, Maine - Projects - Late 18th Century Restoration, Walpole, NH Page

We were asked to restore this bank house (typical two story, center chimney colonial built into a "bank") after it was purchased by two prominent New England antiques dealers. This house needed extensive structural repairs including 80% sill replacement, much post foot repair, stud repair, floor joist replacement, 60% foundation replacement and a lot of straightening and jacking.

The windows are handmade reproductions of the originals with early glass. The clapboards are prestained vertical grain spruce with scarfed joints. Trim boards are hand planed. All the nails are hand forged (blacksmith made). The roof is hand split cedar shakes.

**Beaded cornerboard with very wide watertable board (which copies original) with hand wrought nails**

**Detail of door, thumblatch, keyhole for boxlock and simple door moulding**

**This stone foundation is laid in mortar, but we keep the joints well back from the face giving the impression of a dry laid wall.**

**Rear view shows roof detail, siding treatment and small window that we reproduced, after having found evidence buried in the wall.**

We found a few remnants of this siding in the wall cavities which the owners were willing to let us reproduce and use on the rear of the building. These are 6" to the weather and are made of 1" clear vertical grain cedar. They are beveled both top and bottom so that they lay parallel to the wall and on plane with each other, and then fastened with hand wrought nails which are reproductions of the original fasteners.

**One of the 1st floor rooms during the restoration process. Front hall and stairway to left, recently exposed paneling to right (note plaster stains), cooking fireplace being restored in center.**

This is a typical dutchman repair. We repaired the mortise and tenon joint at the right corner of this fireplace surround which was destroyed. The band moulding was repaired also and then the whole repair was colored to match the existing. The plaster is new as well.

We built this cupboard in place from old boards and then plastered between the shelves. The owners chose to expose the 2nd floor joists and add plaster between. The flooring is old, but replaced as is the paneling to the right. The existing wainscot needed extensive dutchman repairs. A little coloring and this room is done.

All text and photographs are the property of Rick Irons General Contracting and Restoration LLC
and may not be reproduced without written permission.