PART I
I don't mess around. Over the winter, I had quite a bit of time inside to plan out my spring and summer projects, and now that the warm weather is here, I can't stop. It's like a switch gets thrown and I'm in DIY Bipolar mode. I go until my body breaks and I have to stop for a few days to heal. But I don't want to. Stop. This winter I planned out a couple major projects, now mostly complete: Grade the backyard and finish the retaining wall; put in a walkway (this one is not started yet); build the cedar fence on the one side of the house, and make the front entry more appropriate to the house. We had two ideas that we were pursuing for the front entry. One was partially enclosing it with breeze blocks, the other was using lintels to create a cool modern screen. Unfortunately, the particular lintels that we would need are a dimension that is quite uncommon, and ordering block is prohibitively expensive. We found breeze blocks in town, and in stock at Hebron Masonry Supply for just over 2 bucks a piece. At the right is a render of the original idea. The dimensions of my model are not exact to the house, but close enough to get the idea of the plan. The door (by the way) will not be that yellow! And yes, the plan is for a wood garage door at some point down the road.
The railing system that was in place is almost certainly original to the house. It doesn't look particularly modern, but it is definitely mid century. It's kind of a scroll pattern with cross bracing - not super ornate. We will be retaining the hand rail system on the stairs leading up to the front entry and repainting it after a thorough wire brushing. It is in really great shape, and is heavy cast steel with several layers of black paint that have kept it pretty well protected. It's got some rust in places, but it certainly has a lot of life left to it. I'm going to put in in the garage for now and see if I can find someone else who can use it for their place. They really don't make them like this anymore - and if they did, they'd be really expensive!
It was installed in a pretty unique way - they had drilled holes for the legs to fit loosely into, and then filled in around the holes with molten lead. It wasn't all that difficult to remove, with a bit of help from science. There was only one ancient bolt holding it in, attached to the porch roof support column. Then I started wiggling it back and forth a few times. Gave it a few whacks with a hammer and a 2x4 as well. When it started feeling like it might pull out, I got some help from Archimedes. Archimedes is credited with having said, "
Give me the place to stand, and I shall move the Earth," some 2,500 years ago. He was referring to the power of the lever to move heavy, massive, or in my case, stuck objects! My lever consisted of two short lengths of 2x4. They really did the job nicely. The railing came out quite easily and in fine shape. It's heavy as well - I bet the whole thing weighs 30 or 40 lbs.
Nothing ever ends up working out that easy with an old house though. The previous owners had painted about 6 inches of the concrete floor of the porch. If you want a good bond between concrete and mortar, the surfaces have to be clean and free of paint. So I got the scraper out and got as much of the loose paint as I could. There was still quite a bit left, so an old chisel helped persuade it to move on. Then it was time to prep the blocks. These blocks are called 'Decorablocks' if you are looking for them at your local Hebron Supply yard. They only have the one pattern, and there is no pattern name, but these may be the most common of the screen or breeze blocks ever made. I've seen them referred to as the 'flower' pattern - but I think they're kind of Celtic-y. In any case, they have a good side, and a less good side. The good side is far from good when you pick these in the yard. They have all kinds of mold squeeze-out sprue that has to be cleaned up. I used my large cold chisel and some elbow grease to knock most of the crud off the good side. The less good side takes more work. There are some quite uneven parts where the concrete had been packed in. High spots need to be knocked off, and the corners evened out a bit. The blocks on the left above have been cleaned up - see the difference?
The it's all about laying block. I used Quickcrete mortar mix from home dumpster. Not fast-drying, but the normal mix. Don't make it too wet or it'll run everywhere on you, but you don't want it too dry either or you won't be able to get your blocks leveled. The proper consistency is somewhere between really sticky oatmeal and wet sand. I mixed up just enough to do one course of six blocks at a time. I have to leave a space at the end for my support column. When I get to the full height and the roof is supported and all the mortar set, I'll knock out the column and set the last blocks. The blocks I used measure a bit less than 11.5" - maybe 11 and 3/8 or so. With a 1/2" mortar joint they come out exactly at 12" - so it makes calculating the required number pretty easy. Mine varied in thickness a bit as well. I started my base course against my siding - flush, but not snug. That way if we ever re-side, there will be room to remove and replace. Just plop down the mortar on the cleaned concrete in a line a bit longer than the block, and set it in. I've already removed my string line in this picture, but I ran a string line at 12" above the base to establish level. Unfortunately, my porch floor is not level - it's piched slightly down toward the steps, so I will have to build up slightly on that side with each successive course. It's a bit tougher to get the hang of 'buttering' the side of the next block that gets set against the first one. You have to push the mortar 'into' the block with a bit of force to get it to stick. I then smooth it out so it's a bit thicker than 1/2" and then set it in. Here's what the first course looked like as laid.
After a night of drying, I was back at it today. I put in three courses of block the first day, and nearly three today. It's a bit tedious work of you want everything to come out straight and level, but well worth the effort. Here is what the 'buttered' side of one block looks like with mortar applied. Splat some mortar on the underlying course making sure you have a slightly thicker bed than you want after set. Add the block, and tap down until the block lines up with your string level. Takes a few before you really get the hang of it, but then they go in pretty quickly. On three separate occasions, I installed blocks backward, and I swore each and every time that it would not happen again. And I just swore too. I've been using the butt of my hammer to tap the blocks into place with, but a rubber mallet would probably be the proper tool to use.
Here is what a just added block looks before tidying up. This has just been leveled to my string, and tapped in so that it lines up vertically with the underlying block. You can see that there is a lot of mortar that oozes out and just kind of hangs on. I have a small 1/2" wide tuck pointing trowel that I use to push some of the ooze back into the joint to make sure that the void between the blocks is completely packed and devoid of any empty pockets that will weaken the finished joint. The scrape the remaining joint with the flat side to flatten it off. I do this to both the front and back, and then tuck the top joint as well. Then on to the next block. Every third block or so, I go back with a brick jointing trowel - a tool with two rounded profiles - I think mine has 3/8" and 1/2" rounded ends. You push this into the partially set mortar to get a nice rounded joint between the blocks. I don't like to do this right away because the mortar is too soft and the block might shift just a bit, so I let it set up for three blocks or so, then go back and do it.
I'm up to my 6th course, and it is coming out really nicely. Tomorrow I need to remove the vinyl trim covering the horizontal support beam for the porch roof, and figure out the depth of the spacer board that I will need on top of the final course of blocks to take the load off of the wooden beam that will be removed once the load is taken by the wall. Will probably let the wall set for a couple of days before allowing it to take weight, then I'll go back in and add the last block course after taking out the support column. The last course of blocks will end about a quarter inch from the lip of the first step riser, so pretty close! Once it's finished and cured for a week or two, it's going to get a coat of concrete sealer/primer, and then a cool mid century green on the inside of the block cutouts, and white on the inside and outside of the blocks themselves. The wood, incidentally, is only there because we had excavation work done on the side of the house and I need to hand dig down to finish level before we can pour a pad for the permanent location for the woodpile. Here is how it was looking at the end of the second day. GREAT improvement for the front of the house!
On the third day I got all of the block in on the house side of the post. I took off the vinyl and aluminum trim pieces covering the bearing beam of the porch roof and began contemplating what to do about the last course and bearing the weight of the porch room. I had considered a couple of options: 1) run the screen blocks right out to the edge of the porch and let the porch roof weight down onto the screen block wall; 2) build a concrete block column from 6x6" (or similar) blocks; or 3) retain the existing post and use a half block to fit between the column and the wall. All three of these options have positives and negatives. Running the screen block to the edge of the porch would mean an exact fit, but screen blocks should not bear weight. A concrete column would look pretty good, but would not extend far enough out toward the step to allow the railing to mount to anything and I'd have to figure something out for that. The third option really makes the most sense, but would cutting blocks in half be possible? How would that work? Stay tuned in Part II coming up! Here is what the block wall looks like right now.
I don't mess around. Over the winter, I had quite a bit of time inside to plan out my spring and summer projects, and now that the warm weather is here, I can't stop. It's like a switch gets thrown and I'm in DIY Bipolar mode. I go until my body breaks and I have to stop for a few days to heal. But I don't want to. Stop. This winter I planned out a couple major projects, now mostly complete: Grade the backyard and finish the retaining wall; put in a walkway (this one is not started yet); build the cedar fence on the one side of the house, and make the front entry more appropriate to the house. We had two ideas that we were pursuing for the front entry. One was partially enclosing it with breeze blocks, the other was using lintels to create a cool modern screen. Unfortunately, the particular lintels that we would need are a dimension that is quite uncommon, and ordering block is prohibitively expensive. We found breeze blocks in town, and in stock at Hebron Masonry Supply for just over 2 bucks a piece. At the right is a render of the original idea. The dimensions of my model are not exact to the house, but close enough to get the idea of the plan. The door (by the way) will not be that yellow! And yes, the plan is for a wood garage door at some point down the road.
The railing system that was in place is almost certainly original to the house. It doesn't look particularly modern, but it is definitely mid century. It's kind of a scroll pattern with cross bracing - not super ornate. We will be retaining the hand rail system on the stairs leading up to the front entry and repainting it after a thorough wire brushing. It is in really great shape, and is heavy cast steel with several layers of black paint that have kept it pretty well protected. It's got some rust in places, but it certainly has a lot of life left to it. I'm going to put in in the garage for now and see if I can find someone else who can use it for their place. They really don't make them like this anymore - and if they did, they'd be really expensive!
Nothing ever ends up working out that easy with an old house though. The previous owners had painted about 6 inches of the concrete floor of the porch. If you want a good bond between concrete and mortar, the surfaces have to be clean and free of paint. So I got the scraper out and got as much of the loose paint as I could. There was still quite a bit left, so an old chisel helped persuade it to move on. Then it was time to prep the blocks. These blocks are called 'Decorablocks' if you are looking for them at your local Hebron Supply yard. They only have the one pattern, and there is no pattern name, but these may be the most common of the screen or breeze blocks ever made. I've seen them referred to as the 'flower' pattern - but I think they're kind of Celtic-y. In any case, they have a good side, and a less good side. The good side is far from good when you pick these in the yard. They have all kinds of mold squeeze-out sprue that has to be cleaned up. I used my large cold chisel and some elbow grease to knock most of the crud off the good side. The less good side takes more work. There are some quite uneven parts where the concrete had been packed in. High spots need to be knocked off, and the corners evened out a bit. The blocks on the left above have been cleaned up - see the difference?
After a night of drying, I was back at it today. I put in three courses of block the first day, and nearly three today. It's a bit tedious work of you want everything to come out straight and level, but well worth the effort. Here is what the 'buttered' side of one block looks like with mortar applied. Splat some mortar on the underlying course making sure you have a slightly thicker bed than you want after set. Add the block, and tap down until the block lines up with your string level. Takes a few before you really get the hang of it, but then they go in pretty quickly. On three separate occasions, I installed blocks backward, and I swore each and every time that it would not happen again. And I just swore too. I've been using the butt of my hammer to tap the blocks into place with, but a rubber mallet would probably be the proper tool to use.
Here is what a just added block looks before tidying up. This has just been leveled to my string, and tapped in so that it lines up vertically with the underlying block. You can see that there is a lot of mortar that oozes out and just kind of hangs on. I have a small 1/2" wide tuck pointing trowel that I use to push some of the ooze back into the joint to make sure that the void between the blocks is completely packed and devoid of any empty pockets that will weaken the finished joint. The scrape the remaining joint with the flat side to flatten it off. I do this to both the front and back, and then tuck the top joint as well. Then on to the next block. Every third block or so, I go back with a brick jointing trowel - a tool with two rounded profiles - I think mine has 3/8" and 1/2" rounded ends. You push this into the partially set mortar to get a nice rounded joint between the blocks. I don't like to do this right away because the mortar is too soft and the block might shift just a bit, so I let it set up for three blocks or so, then go back and do it.
On the third day I got all of the block in on the house side of the post. I took off the vinyl and aluminum trim pieces covering the bearing beam of the porch roof and began contemplating what to do about the last course and bearing the weight of the porch room. I had considered a couple of options: 1) run the screen blocks right out to the edge of the porch and let the porch roof weight down onto the screen block wall; 2) build a concrete block column from 6x6" (or similar) blocks; or 3) retain the existing post and use a half block to fit between the column and the wall. All three of these options have positives and negatives. Running the screen block to the edge of the porch would mean an exact fit, but screen blocks should not bear weight. A concrete column would look pretty good, but would not extend far enough out toward the step to allow the railing to mount to anything and I'd have to figure something out for that. The third option really makes the most sense, but would cutting blocks in half be possible? How would that work? Stay tuned in Part II coming up! Here is what the block wall looks like right now.
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