20140107 Structural Assessment COLT Park Buildings James K Grant Assoc.pdf

SrnucrURAL AsspssMENT

Colt Park Buildings Hartford, CT

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Gardener's Cottage

Jeugs K. GneNT ASSoCIATES 30 Depot Street, P.O. Box 235 Collinsville, CT 06022

(860) ó93 8403

Carriage House

January 7,2014

On October 1,20I3,I conducted a structural assessment of trvo buildings in Colt park in Hartford - the Residence and the Stable. The purpose of the assessment is to detect and identiff deficiencies which could adversely affect the itruätural integrity of the buildings and to proporå corrective measures for any found deficiencies. The assessment is based solel| on visual observations. No physical testing was performed and no calculations were -u¿". Following is a sunmary of my observations and recommendations.

Colt Gardener's Cottage

Description:

The residence is a brick cottage built on a sloping site. It has steeply sloped rooß with Victorian style trim on its overhanging gables, and a variety of window.hafer. Túere is a large porch running along the full length of the south side which does not appear to be originat. The northwest corner has a wood enclosure which may be concealing what may ha:ve been a small qorch, The roof is presently clad with asphalt shingles. SecuriÇ screens * g.itt"r cover many of the windows. There is a brownstone foundation wall for the main body of thã house but the east portion of the house, which may have been an addition, does not have a visible foundation. The brick walls extend below grade to an unknown depth. The building was last used for offrces but is now unoccupied/

Observations:

The exterior brick walls are laid in a running bond with every eighth cor¡rse containing alternating header and stretcher units, although several of these bonding courses are spaced at greater intervals. There ¿ue areas of mortar loss and some areas which iave had joints pointed in the past. At the northeast comer there has been some severe damage where a significant number of bricks have loosened and fallen from the wall as well as some cracking of the east wall. Io my opinion, the source of this problem is water runoff along the north wall. Íhe grade appears to direct water to this corner where it can accumulate and ãxpose the brickwort< to the *åuk".rirrg effects of long term water presence leading to mortiar softening and erosion as well as freeze-thaw action. The movements at the corner appear to have resulted in the vertical crack on the east wall which runs through both of the circular windows on that wall. There are some open mortar joints in the brownstone foundation wall on the north side, possibly due to water from a downspout that may have been missing for a period of time.

The double window on the first floor of the north wall has a steel plate lintel that has corroded severely and deflected downward approximately l-l/2". The other plate lintels do not appear deflected.

The wooden porch on the south side is in poor condition. I believe that the x-bracing and steel rods with turnbuckles which now exist were added to stabilize the porch. The partial failure of the stone retaining wall which runs under the porch has kicked out one of the oiginal posts and another post has been added to compensate.

Colt Park Building Assessments

The interior of the house is in good structural condition. Floors are firm and walls free of any settlement üacks although there are signs of moisture lifting wallpaper. The roof framing is sound and shows no sign of distress.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The condition of the northeast comer of the house will gradually worsen unless remedial action istaken' It will be necessary to excavate to the bottom orJne wad to investigate the condition of the brick, determine if there is a foundation wall and footing and evaluateìhe soil conditions.

Repair work will include:

' Improvements to site drainage, including a curtain drain or footing drain to eliminate water accumulation at the base of the wall.

' Possible localized underpinning of the wall if there is no footing at or below frost depth.

. Rebuilding of the disturbed portion of the wall.

. Repair of other cracks on the east wall.

' The corroded lintel on the north wall should be replaced with a galvanized steel plate or angle. This will require localized rebuilding of thã brick above ih" lint.l but flashing can be added when this is done.

' The porch on the south side of the house should be removed and replaced with a new porch in keeping with the period.

' Elsewhere on the exterior walls, pointing of mortar joints will be required. Ideally, 100% of the joints should be pointed to give a uniform uppr**", to the house. If I00% repointing is not economically feasible localizedpänting should be done in those areas showing the most severe mortar loss.

The interior of the house does not require any structural repairs.

Colt Carriage House

Description:

The stable is a building which appears to have been constructed in three stages. It has a full basement and first floor and a partial second floor. The original stage is It iJbuilt into a slope in the tradition of bank barns which permit access at grade to both levels. All exterior and some of the interior walls a¡e load bearing brick. The main roof is framed with wood trusses which have been reinforced with steel plates and columns have been added to reduce the forces on the truss members. The modifications indicate that there was serious concern for the integnty of the trusses in the past. The roof of the east addition is flat. The main roof is covered with roll roofing while the east roof has a membrane. The floors are framed with wood joists bearing on either walls or steel beams' The foundation wall of the original portion is broinstone but the brick exterior walls of the east portion disappear into gradJwith no sign of a stone foundation.

The stable is used for some storage but is otherwise'ioecupied.

Observations:

The exterior brick walls of the original, west portion of the building a¡e laid in the same running bond pattern as the cottage, i.e., headers every 8'h course with an oJcasional greater spacing between the bonding courses' perhaps suggesting the same masonry contractor. The newer eastportion has the headers occurring every 6bcourse with an occasional 7 course spacing. There are several areas where excessive water inflrltration has loosened the brickwork or caused spalling ofbricks' some areas-have had mortarjoints pointed in the past. The worst condition occurs on the north wall where abroken downspout has allowed water to run freely down the wall surface, leading to serious deterioration of the brickwork as well disturbance from freeze-thaw action.

similar conditions exist on the west wall. There is also some movement of a brownstone course near grade on the north wall at both the basement and first floor levels.

There are steel plate lintels on those window and door openings that are not arched. [n some locations, the plates are corroding but have not p.ogr"rrãd to ã significantly weakened state. The one exception is at the double door on the north wall ,next to theietainingïaI. This lintel is severely corroded and has deflected more than one inch.

The parapet of the east addition has some open joints in its precast concrete coping but the stones have not been disturbed. There is some tocàlizã¿ brick spaùing below the coping.

There is a massive concrete buttress providing lateral support to the west foundation wall,presumably because there was movement of tle stone wail and fea¡ of collapse. The buttress seems to have stabilized the condition and there are no other sections of the wall that show signsof significant movement.

on the interior of the building, there is evidence of a past fire that required replacement of a large area of floor joists in the southern portion of the building. There a¡e steel beaLs supporting

Colt Park Building Assessments 3 some of the joists, some of which appear to date from the original construction and others which are from the latter part of the 20ú century. There is an area of the second floor which was originally open, creating a two story space with a balcony surrounding the open area. The opening has been filled in with ceiling framing, obviousþ rursafe to rialk upon. Adjacent to the open floor area, there is some badly deteriorated and rottàd floor framing wtrich is piobably the result of a roof leak. Elsewhere, the floor is in sound condition.

The roof framing above the second floor opening has partially collapsed and appears to be inadequately designed for snow loads. Unfortunately, the roof was not accessible for observation from above.

The roof structure for the southwest portion of the building consists of a shallow pitched wood decking and rafter system supported on heavy timber trussis. The ends of the trusses have been clad with l/4" steel plates thru bolted to both faces of the trusses. The reason for the modification is not apparent but is probably due to rotting conditions at the bearings. One of the trusses appears to have new material at the end of the bottom chord. There are no deficiencies observed in this section of the roof that need corrective action.

Conclusions and recommendations:

The Carriage House is basically in sound condition but needs repair work in several areas.

' The exterior walls need repairs in several a¡eas and should be pointed throughout to assure long term integrity and uniform appearance. An area oith" north wall and other locations on the west wall where water tras Oamaged the brickwork will need some rebuilding and there are spalled bricks in scauereá locations that should be replaced.

' Grade should be lowered where the bricks extend below grade and disturbed brownstone elements should be reset. Vines climbing the west wall should be removed.

' The plate lintel over the double door on the north wall should be replaced with a galvanized steel plate. It may be possible to do this without r"rrrorring the bricks above the lintel but it would be preferable to use a galvanized steel angle anã add flashing and weepholes.

' The open area on the second floor needs fuither study. If it is to be permanently filled in and used as a floor it will need to be properly framed. If it will be råstored to maintain the original opening, the balconies may neeá strengthening. In either case, the rotted floor area next to the opening needs to be repaired.

' Tht ceiling and roof framing above the second floor opening needs to be exposed for further evaluation but it is clea¡ that some repair work needs to be done.

1' Cottage - North wall showing previously pointed brickwork and corroded, sagging steel lintel.

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2' Cottage - Northeast corner. Fallen brick, disturbed bricks at grade, crack through round window.

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4. Cottage - Northeast comer freeze-thaw action.

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3' Cottage - Northeast corner' Area of fallen brick possibly loosened by disturbed brick at base of wall.

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Disturbed bricks at base of wall at grade. probable cause, water and

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\x>-'./ \ , -.t9., 5' Cottage - North wall. First floor window with corroded and sagging steel plate lintel

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I 6' Cottage - Porch on south side is deteriorated and unstable without extensive bracing system.

7. Carnage House - North wall, west end. Excessive moisture, brick and brownstone disturbance.

8. Carriage House - North wall, east end. Movements and mortar loss due to excessive moisture.

9' Caniage House - South wall. Spalled bricks, open brownstone joints" discolored brickwork.

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11 Carriage House - North wall. Corroded and deflected lintel above double door

12. carriage House - East addition parapet. open coping joints, spalled bricks.

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13. Carriage House - Massive concrete buthess supporting interior stone foundation wall.

14. Camage House - South end of east addition showing new floor framing that replaced fire damage.

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15. Caniage House - Rotted floor framing on second floor, next to large floor opening (at left)

16' carriage House - Roof and ceiling framing above large floor opening. Extent of damago unknown.