SOME TESTING FOR ASBESTOS has been done at Mishkon over the years. (Some abatement work has also been done.)
This post now documents what I have learned from testing reports, our office computer records, and our inspector. It also gives some background information.…
CHARACTER-DEFINING FEATURES of our historic sanctuary building were identified in the Historic Structure Report (2003; “HSR”). These are the aspects that warrant historic preservation, in the eyes of architectural historians.
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LAST FRIDAY, I noticed that a pallet was leaning against Mishkon’s south wall.
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
Anything that touches our wall is a matter of concern—admittedly minor, yet still significant. That green, 20-mil-thick silicone coating is the only thing that is keeping rainwater out of our building. And it is not easy to patch up that coating after it has been scratched or chipped.
So I wrote to the office of our neighbor, with the following request:
Can you perhaps ask your staff to avoid doing anything that risks marring the waterproof coating on that wall?
I note this simple act here, because in future years—given possible staff turnover—the request will probably need to be repeated on occasion.
WHILE A CONCRETE-REPAIR CRAFTSMAN was doing repair work elsewhere on the premises in mid-September, he redid this old patch, as well.
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| November 2023 (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
For a description of the problem, see HERE.
Below the jump, this post documents what was done, as well as how one resulting concern was handled.…
AS A FOLLOW-UP to my having noted in October the maintenance need HERE, I am pleased to record that our Director of Operations has arranged to have this wall painted, as part of a larger project in November.
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
The quick turnaround is heartening. (Sometimes things do come together nicely!)
Below the jump, this short post documents the wall’s current condition via photos. They are meant to be compared directly with those in the previous post.
THIS PROJECT was completed last month. It features several historically significant components of our sanctuary building’s façade. Therefore this post follows a report template in the 2003 Historic Structure Report, as recommended for all historic-cultural monuments.
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Below the jump, this post restates the basic need and documents the work done. For more background, see HERE.…
YESTERDAY, I discovered a steel post downstairs—like the covered columns in the Social Hall but in an unexpected place.
This one came to light as I was taking photos of the lower portion of opened-up walls that had been damaged in June 2023 by a flood caused by a faulty sprinkler head. (That story is HERE.) I noticed that one vertical member looked more like metal than like wood.
Below the jump, I show annotated photos of our normally hidden post.…
ON OCTOBER 29, our waterproofing contractor for the sanctuary’s south wall tied up the last remaining loose end, in the project it had begun the previous summer. It did so in conjunction with its annual maintenance visit. At least, the south wall project is complete!
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
Below the jump, this post documents both aspects: the waterproofing installation, and the maintenance.…
LAST PAINTED IN 2007, which was 17 years ago, the west wall of our school building is in need of a little lovin’. In retrospect, it should have been repainted a decade ago.
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
This wall has been neglected because almost nobody except the staff ever sees it. Meanwhile, the afternoon sun and sea breezes have taken their toll.
Below the jump, this short post documents the wall’s current condition, with three annotated photos.
TWO WEEKS AGO, I hosted the representatives of two waterproofing companies. It prompted me to take a more careful look at the plaster-covered concrete wall at the southwest corner of our property. Its degradation is now obvious, as the result of water damage. It took a big hit this past winter.
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
Below the jump, this post discusses the condition of what I am calling the “southwest edge” of our sanctuary property.…
ON MAY 31 while in the Social Hall, I noticed that there was cracking in a certain section of ceiling, and blistering paint and cracking on the wall near the ceiling. This water-damaged area is located below the south wall of the sanctuary. Presumably rainwater has run down from above.
Is the damage evidence of leaking during this past winter? Or is it a holdover from before we had the south wall waterproofed last July? Unfortunately, I do not know the answer, because I did not think to take baseline photos in the basement at the time of the waterproofing project. (Live and learn!)
So now going forward, we need to monitor this area carefully after each rainstorm. Taking periodic photos and testing with a moisture meter would be advisable. And to that end, this post—below the jump—documents the present state of things.…
OUR RABBI MAY WELL be the biggest beneficiary of the security windows that were installed in December. I’m not talking about protection from potential attacks. I mean on a more tangible, everyday basis!
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Below the jump, this post explains why I say so.…
BELOW THE JUMP, this post describes certain concrete-repair and waterproofing work that is needed due to water damage.
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The following description is intended for the contractors whom I am asking to bid on the job.…
THE WATERPROOFING CONTRACTOR is being engaged mainly to coat the vertical wall surfaces. Painting certain other elements of the façade is incidental—but still necessary. (Otherwise, they will look bad by comparison.)
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Below the jump, this post explains our intended schema. (It was updated on 7-31 from the original 6-17 post, following another on-site meeting of the color committee.)…
AS NOTED ELSEWHERE, I’m pursuing this color for the main walls, because it meets the project criteria, and it was the Color Committee’s first choice.
THIS POST RECORDS the color treatments for exterior walls, as proposed last summer by Roberta Tishman’s color committee, together with their consultant from Sydney Harbour Paint Company (SHP).
The committee was given two criteria to guide its efforts:
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The committee came up not only with a main wall color as requested, but also with a variety of accent colors, arranged in three related color schemes.
The colors mentioned are standard colors in the SHP palette. Our office has one set of 8"x8" swatches of most of them.
Below the jump, I record the committee’s recommendations, for posterity, while providing links to online swatches. (The color displayed will depend upon your device.)…
ONE OF THE TWO areas of known, active rainwater intrusion is located in the basement, on the eastern side, in the corner “furnace room” (B-04A). Sometimes this space is called the mechanical equipment closet. Anyway, during a few days of downpour, water percolates through the unfinished concrete wall in two places, and it collects in puddles on the floor.
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| Wet spot on wall in corner. Nearby on the left is a wooden post. (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
I have not previously mentioned this case, because it pales in comparison to the previously discussed cases of water intrusion. Mainly because this case occurs out of sight of nearly everybody. Nonetheless, any such water still threatens the long-term integrity of the concrete, not to mention nearby structural wood. Below the jump, I briefly discuss a few considerations.…
WHAT COLOR will the façade of our historic building be, after it is waterproofed this summer?
The present blue-gray color — which is not original — is not a prudent choice from a maintenance perspective. Therefore last summer, given our need for a lighter and more neutral color, an ad-hoc committee recommended two color choices instead.
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| Left side: Southwest corner of façade, last painted 17 years ago. Right side: Western edge of south wall, recoated in July 2023. (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
This post updates a similar one from 3/30/23, which I wrote before the committee met, and before a color was selected for the south wall exterior.
A MOSTLY VERTICAL CRACK appeared in mid-January in the newly repaired and painted interior plaster surface of the south wall. It’s in a portion of the wall that did not have cracking previously: at Row 15 of the seats. For a couple of weeks, I could not account for what caused it.
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| (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
Below the jump, this post discusses the problem.…
THE TITLE of this post is a sincere question that is being posed to our waterproofing contractor, Cameron Figgins of Absolute Maintenance & Consulting. My focus here is on the concrete stem wall (also known as the foundation wall), which juts out along the bottom of the overall exterior wall.
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| Why does the section on the right of the pilaster look so different from the one on the left? (As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.) |
My concern is not aesthetics but rather that the rightmost section seems less well protected from future water intrusion.
I’ve been wanting to pose that title question in person since mid-August, but I haven’t succeeded in meeting up with Cameron on site. So last week, I asked him via email. He promptly replied:
Please send me something from a few different angles.… I'm really interested to see what you're talking about here, see what you might mean.
In response, I am uploading photos to this post. Below the jump break, I document how the easternmost section of our wall looks markedly different from the other sections.
