Traditional Roofing
We are master roofers / fabricators who repair (our specialty), restore, or rebuild the following types of roofs: slate, cedar, copper, standing seam, corrugated, tin, flat (EPDM + TPO + modified), tile, asbestos, mid-century hurricane shingles, architectural shingles, solar shingles, synthetic slate (aka – fake slate or plastic slate), concrete, ceramic (Ludowici), green / vegetated, thatch, anything else that has been or can be built, and any building system or component that interfaces with a roof (fascia / soffits / gutters / pole gutters / crickets / valleys / ridges / gussets / ornamental woodwork / chimney flashing / etc.).
Please note that we take great pride in matching the original materials / building systems on historic roofs. No challenge is too difficult or inconvenient, even if we have to invent a solution or scrounge down a material that is located in another state or even another country. In this regard, the majority of roofs we service have been built before 1950 and often still rely on the same traditional building systems and materials; although, we do enjoy repairing more contemporary or atypical “modern-era” flat roofs associated with the International Style / the Philadelphia School / Brutalism / and the like; or even the early modern ones of mail-order Sears Modern Homes, utilitarian military / industrial structures, or communal neighborhood theatres.
As a brief list, we have repaired roofs designed by the following architects: Frank Lloyd Wright (and his contemporaries), Wilson Eyre, Walter K. Durham, Horace Trumbauer, William L. & Walter F. Price, Frank Furness, Junzo Yoshimura, Richardson Brognard Okie, Thomas Ustick Walter, Edmund B. Gilchrist, Theophilus P. Chandler Jr., Mitchell / Giurgola, William W. Eshbach, Donald M. and S. Arnold Love, and many anonymous but no less skilled builders / artisans (before architecture became a formal profession).
Masonry Conservation
Our approach to masonry conservation is from the perspective of building / objects conservation (otherwise known in stuffy academic circles as "architectural conservation") in which specialized artisans and mechanics combine the principles of both contemporary materials science and traditional pre-1950s trades to either conserve or restore historic buildings / sculptures / sites, often with the very techniques and materials that went into their original construction and which have been subsequently forgotten, ignored, or "improved upon" by the contemporary home renovation industry. This means that we typically use only the most compatible, breathable, and time-tested lime or silicate-based mineral cements or stains, in many cases imported or originally derived from France, the Netherlands, Canada, and other heritage-rich countries that prioritize the preservation of historic fabric; along with locally sourced replacement stone / brick, to affordably do the following:
Chimney repointing and crown repair (our specialty – especially since we are equally skilled at traditional roofing), mortar matching (including the color and texture), hardscape restoration (e.g., patios, flagstone walkways, and gravel driveways), sculpture / ornamental stone / cemetery conservation (including mechanical pinning, composite / fill repairs, and the like), stucco repair (including traditional lime coating / patterning for colonial architecture, as well as more contemporary methods such as shotcrete or gunite for modern buildings), basement waterproofing and foundation restoration, interior plaster repair, masonry cleaning and repair (including the removal of surface soiling, as well as the restoration of lost or irrevocably damaged stone or brick), lintel or arch reconstruction, stone carving, and anything else that involves setting cement, ceramics, or materials quarried from the earth.
Custom Metalwork
As experienced mechanics / fabricators with an extensive network of artisans and foundries, we can repair, install, or replicate any metalwork that interfaces with a traditional roof / gutter / drainage system, such as vent collars, valleys, pole gutters, downspouts, ice cleats, flashing, crickets, gussets, standing seam panels, soldered pent roofs, conductor heads, and anything else that can be bent on-site with a break or replicated in a foundry. We can also accelerate the green or black patina on suitable metals such as copper; as well as fabricate or conserve ornamental fences, weathervanes, furniture, railings, sculpture, awnings, land art, objects, casement windows, and custom designs from spec.
Regarding fabrication, we favor complex projects that involve overlapping specialties in masonry and roofing, such as when we had recently designed and installed a cairn-like gabion retaining wall, in heavy-gauge weathering steel and freestanding river stone, around a sloped concrete patio, internal drainage system, and hand-soldered copper downspouts. Built in front of an eclectic Interwar-period catalog home, this modular gabion was a visual nod to the utilitarian park rustic aesthetic developed by the National Park Service Landscape Division in the 1920s and later adopted locally by the WPA in the construction of the nearby Wissahickon Valley Park outbuildings. Both the John Muir Hut by Henry Gutterson and the unrelated Camp Muir Shelter on Mount Rainier by Daniel Ray Hull also served as our points of reference. Please refer to our project photos for more information.
Finish Carpentry
With a team of versatile restoration carpenters and finish craftsmen, we can conserve, repair, replicate, or replace most types of historic woodwork – soffits, fascia, molding, windows or window framing, doors, rafters, ridge beams, joinery, columns, tongue-and-groove flooring, furniture, porches, etc. – as well as conserve, replicate, apply, or remove any kind of interior or exterior wood surface coating, paint, or stain. The full list of our capabilities is too much to mention here given the diverse and venerable tradition of woodworking in Pennsylvania, which ranges from the vernacular to the more modern, but as a sample of our carpentry projects, we have recently done the following:
Restored a completely rotted out mid-century pediment, using only specialized rot repair epoxies and zinc-copper; hand carved new sections of ornamental woodwork for a 1920s-era Main Line estate; repaired or replaced countless soffits / fascia that have rotted behind defective or poorly maintained gutter systems; rebuilt colonial pole gutters in Chadds Ford; preserved or stained multiple irreplaceable doors, many of which date back to the late 19th or early 20th century; repaired or painted the often aluminum-covered cornices of numerous Philadelphia townhouses; conserved, insulated, or painted hundreds of historic windows; and stabilized the full range of collapsing historic structures (portico columns, porch roofs, floors, and the suchlike).