Limits to jacking a house?

[cgutha]

Ah yes, the resonance frequency of the train at a certain speed.
That would explain why the one train shook and the others did not.
Either way, it has stood for 110 years. I am not too worried.

I have designed a water level to place on all six beams. This I will leave in place for future generations.

ceg

[cgutha]

I seem to have misplaced the "Start a New Subject" portion. Another subject which I need advice on is the exterior brickwork. I read somewhere that the first thing most people do after buying a brick building is to "seal" the brick. The article went on to explain why this is disastrous. The brick must breath. The moisture must escape. The brickwork should be tuck-pointed once every 50 years.
Did I read this correctly and what is the best way to care for this marvelous brick building?

ceg

[Casey]

One does not repoint a masonry building on a schedule, one inspects the mortar yearly, and takes action as conditions warrant. If you have matching mortar mix made up, it will keep indefinitely in an airtight container.
I worked on the brick house of the man who authored the secretary of the interior's guidelines for restoration/rehabilitation; it's one of the NPS's technical publications.
He had the beautiful facade of his house completely repointed and I was told it had been sealed. The other brick walls were not touched (we came through and had to cut out and replace 125 deteriorated brick; if we had access to more matching bricks, which are hard to obtain, we could have found another 50 that were marginal)
Unless you are the author of one of the best-known preservation publications you should probably avoid sealing your brick.
Casey

[cgutha]

Thank Casey
I have three different questions on this point. the front of the building is "Hard brick" with narrow joints. This is in fairly good condition.
The back of the building is "soft brick" and well worn and deteriorating. Your suggestion of "Cutting out" and replacing is probably applicable here.
The third is on the soft brick wide and has a mural I wish to restore the mural What kid of paint would I use. Should this me sealed?
ceg

[Casey]

To conserve a mural, the first thing I would want to know is what the original materials were. If it was oil paint, then I would continue to use oil paint, etc..
Casey

[cgutha]

When I say "Mural" I mean one of those commercials on the side of the building. I will try to download a picture.

[cgutha]

lets assume that in 1906 they used lead based oil paint.
As you can see (If the picture ever finishes downloading) many of the bricks are in less then desirable condition. This is the north side of the house. The west is worse as the roof slopes down that direction and flows over the brick. (yes there is a gutter and drain. But 100 years ...) Actually the wind removed the down spout this year. I learned that it had been siliconed or "great stuff"ed to the brick and took some of the brick with it.
ceg

[phil]

here is the same image in .jpg format.

[cgutha]

Thanks. I could not get this picture on.
Here you can also see the shutter hinges.
ceg

[phil]

i remember my mom saying back in england they came and took their wrought iron front fence. it was metal and it was for the war effort. After the war it was replaced. could it be that metal was collected for such reasons in the US?