The Porch: The Field Modifications – Encasing new requirements in old materials, etc. It’s not 1897 anymore…it just looks like it.

The building permit brings with it a series of inspections.  Unlike what we had heard, the inspectors were nothing but helpful.  The porch is attached to the main building with a ledger, in our case a piece of 2x12 that provides the support for the decking and, indeed the rest of the structure. When we uncovered the ledger, we found that it at least it wasn’t rotten but it was attached with only a few nails.  The inspector “suggested” that we attach it with 12 inch long lag bolts every two feet.  We did.  You could park a truck on the porch now. The porch ceiling rafters were undersized.  We needed to maintain the same slope but use larger lumber than we had planned.  We cut the 2x10 rafters at the same slope so that we ended up with the required minimum 2x8 on the small end.  A different slope would have changed the porch roof look.  This made it seem the same but met today’s code.  The code required a strapping together of the roof components to account for the high wind speeds (hurricane strength in the winter) prevalent here.  We were able to hide the straps inside the molding. Essentially everything was done to imbed the new code requirements inside the historic look and the inspector certainly assisted in this effort.



The Quest for Materials

The Secretary of the Interior Standards for work on historic buildings emphasizes keep as much old material as possible.  When we looked at the front of the Hotel the white clapboard siding which was original was in almost perfect condition and needed only some limited repair. That feature certainly fit the definition of “Preservation.” The other parts of the project, however, were a different story.

The structure of the porch and especially its covering materials and trim details were beyond repair with the exception of the posts.  The decking appeared to have been replaced earlier and it was worn out again.  The stone foundation was a 1970’s addition replacing an open area below the porch deck.  Because of wildfire concerns we decided to leave that stone work. We found that the framing was probably a 1970’s vintage.  We decided to replace some weak members and bring the framing up to code. The ledger which served as the attachment of the porch to the building needed code modifications.  The material that made up the ceiling of the porch may have been original but it was deteriorated beyond repair. The corrugated metal roof was worn out. A few pieces of the original trim remained and the corbels were obviously different and, as we learned later in an oral history recorded by a 1950’s owner, had been remade at that time.  Essentially what we had was a caricature of the porch but two great photographs of the original.

The front windows presented yet a different set of problems.  The three windows on the second floor had been replaced in the 1970’s. The window in the dormer was original but it was beyond repair. The windows on the first floor along with the entry door had been modified in size sometime after 1950.  The original first floor windows were storefront windows that were oversized reaching almost to the porch deck.  There was a transom above the front door.  The photos showed this and the exact size was obvious when examining the patched clapboard front.

The sign was missing probably blown east to Boulder sometime in the early 1900’s.

We had skilled labor; we had the constraint of the current building code; we knew what we were building first from the photos and the oral histories; what we needed was the right materials.  Remarkably, the porch flooring and soffit material is still made today. We scaled the ridge to ridge measurement for the corrugated roofing from the photo and found the exact material. Both the lumber and roofing we bought at Boulder Lumber (http://boulder.citysearch.com/profile/1864929/boulder_co/boulder_lumber_co.html ).

We cut off the rotten bottoms of the original posts and found post material of the same age at Resource 2000; a recycled building materials center in Boulder. ( www.Resourceyard.org ). The trim and corbels, however, presented the most interesting challenge.  We found Denver’s Stark Lumber ( http://www.starklumber.com ).  Stark has been in business since 1879 producing high quality trim for customers throughout the Rocky Mountain West.  We took a surviving section of each type of porch trim and a tracing of the original corbels from the front photo to Stark.  There is a good chance that they made the original trim for the Hotel in 1897.  They milled the replacement trim and purchased a special saw blade to make the corbels. This took a month but the outcome was well worth the wait. Without the County grant we may not have decided to spend $1,000 on the corbels.  The grant money made the use of the right material possible.

While we were waiting for pieces of material to arrive we worked on the sign.  It became obvious that the sign was made from left over pieces from the job.  The left over porch deck material was used for the face of the sign.  We had some left over plywood used as sheeting for the porch roof so we used it as the backing of the sign.  Plywood was certainly not an original material but we used a technique that runs through this whole project.  We met current code with current material but encased it in historic fabric.  In the technique section I have provided some detail about this technique with a couple of examples.

We were fortunate to have time and grant funds to do this project.  In my mind I am not certain which of the Secretary of the Interior Standards we followed.  A little was “preservation,” some was “rehabilitation,” some was “restoration,” and there was probably some was “reconstruction.”  Overall our goal was “preservation of those materials, features, finishes, spaces, and spatial relationships that, together, give a property its historic character.”



The Porch: Finding Skilled Labor (not just anybody can do this)

Our porch, dormer, painting, window project was not large enough to attract some large construction firm and I am not sure that would have been the right path to take.  What we needed was a skilled carpenter who was willing to work with the historic requirements and who knew enough about the current code to make that work.  When we started this project builders did not have to be licensed.  That changed in the middle of the project effort but for the work on the front of the Hotel because the building permit had already been issued, licensing was not an issue.  But insurance and payroll taxes were an issue.  There are a number of skilled artisans here but none have insurance.  I could just envision someone falling off the porch roof or even worse from the dormer thirty feet above the ground.

The work broke down into three basic components; the carpentry, the window construction, and the painting. First the carpentry.  We were fortunate enough to find Christian Hansen, a resident of Eldora with a family history in the area. That might be the basic requirement. A person with skill who has a vested interest in doing the job with the history in mind.  Christian was able to find an insurance broker who would insure him.  Christian works alone so the project took quite a while but the outcome was worth the wait. Some of the delay was caused by people walking by who wanted to talk about the project or in a few cases took Christian off the job to go and look at their own cabins.  That certainly built community support but it added to the time.

Next the windows.  The staff at County Parks and Open Space use a window builder who is able to build windows to historic standards yet meet current energy efficiency requirements.  The windows designed and built by Colorado Sash and Door ( www.colosash.com ) were essential for the project.  A copy of the window design is in the resources section.

Finally the paint.  I have a friend, Amy Bayless, who is a painter.  In the end she painted the sign but did not do the building painting.  She did, however, recommend a painter’s supply store and that store recommended a painter.  (That information is in the resources section.) They did the job before the winter snow with little notice and they did it well.  We did have one difficulty; the paint on the porch deck was designed to take weather and traffic but when it gets icy the deck is really slippery.  We are fixing that problem now by adding grit to the paint.

And then the little things.  The original sign must have blown off a few years after it was constructed.  Subsequent owners added a sign on the side of the building but we had proposed to put the sign back on the front.  We used that photo documentation; scaled the size of the sign to determine the exact original size and placement; had Christian build a sign using the same materials as the original; asked our friend the painter to paint the sign; had a local blacksmith design a bracket that matched the original as evident in one of the photos; put six rather than just two brackets on the sign, and bolted it to the porch roof.  This is the first winter for the sign.  We will see if it survives.

All of these pieces have the same theme.  Work with artisans who have a vested interest in the history of the area.



The Porch: Applying for a Building Permit (just because you submit a document doesn’t mean they’ll take it)

A popular bumper sticker seen here (and, I am sure elsewhere):  “Make welfare as hard to get as a building permit.” While this sums up popular opinion, it was not our experience but it is the first thought many of our neighbors have.  Some go so far as to remodel, or in at least one case, build entire houses with no permit. In a neighboring town building inspection was not done until a “fly by night” builder constructed a whole addition in the winter with the snow pack as the foundation.  He sold the property before the snow (foundation) melted. Still, the building permit process is approached by many as worse than a root canal.

We began with no understanding of what was really under the deteriorating porch decking.  The ceiling of the porch was even more of a mystery.  We knew from discussions with some who had worked in this area in the 1970’s that some of the porch had been rebuilt before. We hoped that they had included an acceptable foundation.  Our task was to merge the most recent building code with the need to have an accurate historic restoration.

We had a plan drawn (a copy of which is in the resources section along with the building permit) but we realized that it might have to be modified after we uncovered parts of the deck and ceiling.  The building permit is based on more and more (and some say more, more, more) requirements.  A lot of these requirements make sense.  A deck over thirty inches high requires a hand rail; a hand rail requires protection so that a child cannot get his or her head stuck in between the uprights; all of that would really change the look.  Fortunately, the deck is about 29 inches above the street thus no rail.  A building that is open to the public is subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act.  That would have required a ramp which would have changed the look.  Fortunately there is an appropriate side door at street level with an appropriate 36 inch width that provides the required access; thus no ramp. Windows in bed rooms need to be large enough to provide egress.  Fortunately, the windows met that requirement. In the end the front of the Hotel built over a hundred years ago met today’s code.  That won’t always be the case but it was for us.

The building permit also triggers a number of other reviews.  Is the building served by approved water and septic? Is the roof material that which meets wildfire codes? There is a whole list.  Success again, at least after we had that vacated street added to the historic designation. But then, you begin to uncover the hidden. Our county building inspector was instrumental in helping us make appropriate field modifications.  I will describe that outcome later.

Building permits also cost a fair amount in fees and taxes.  A wonderful benefit of the County grant program is that all of these fees are waived.   



The Ongoing Quest for Documentation – photos, oral history, public documents

The basic question is “what are we building?”  This theme continues through the whole restoration project particularly with a building that has lost a lot of its historic detail.  We, fortunately, had perfect photo documentation.  The front view of the Hotel and an oblique view were shown in photos that we had acquired earlier.  The gold miners of the 1800’s are gone with little documentation but the people who replaced them have tracked and handed down their history through several generations. Eldora is rich is photo documentation and we were the beneficiary of it. In future projects, we had the benefit of oral history and conversations with people who lived here during the later construction of the Social Room but for the front porch we had two photos and it was those photos that guided our work. 

The detailed photos that we took for the first grant show the deteriorated condition of the front of the Hotel but particularly the porch. Fortunately, there was enough original material to use as a template for the milling of new wood that matched the original. We also happened to find that the original lumber yard that had made the original trim detail was still in business. More on that later.  For this first project, the answer to “what are we building” was easy to find.  People take photos of the important sides of buildings; the sides facing the streets usually.  Later parts of this restoration on the non-street sides became more difficult.