Are you interested in living greener?
Tomorrow night we're offering a special workshop on practical, sensible ways to make your living space greener and healthier.
When you hear phrases like "green design" and "sustainable technologies," you may think about new construction with high-tech energy-saving gizmos, but as you probably know, reusing a building is the best way to go green on a big scale! Of course, existing buildings can and should be sensitively upgraded so that they operate as efficiently as possible. At tomorrow night's workshop, Jay Tovey, president of Tovey Co., a Certified Green Professional and a nationally recognized expert on energy efficiency in home remodeling, will share practical tips on making existing houses and renovation projects greener and healthier for you and for the planet. He'll provide specific tips about greening historic houses, but the workshop is applicable to old and new houses alike. Don't miss it!
The workshop will be held this Wednesday, November 18, at the Rochester Home Builders Association, 20 Wildbriar Road in Henrietta, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 advance, $30 at the door, free with new membership in The Landmark Society. Advance registration is strongly recommended - buy online or call us at 546-7029.
Architects can earn two AIA CES credits for attending this workshop.
For more details, see our website.
Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Live greener, and save money, too!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Confused about lead? We'll help you get the facts.
I have young kids, and I live in a house built in the 1920s. Naturally, I have wondered at times whether the lead that is undoubtedly in some of the paint used on my house before the 1970s is posing any harm to my kids. There seems to be conflicting information everywhere: I hear that the paint is safe as long as my kids don't eat it; that they are in danger if they touch a windowsill even if there's no visibly peeling paint; that the lead around my foundation is likely contaminated; that the best thing to do is leave it alone - or strip it - or keep my windows closed - or clean regularly - or replace my windows - or...
What's a parent to do? And what about people who don't have young kids at home - do they need to worry?
To get some answers, we asked the folks from the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning to share their expertise on this issue. They'll help us sort out when and why lead paint poses a danger, and how to safely deal with it in ways that also respect the integrity of your historic house. This practical workshop will be held at the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, 1150 University Avenue, on Monday, November 9, at 6:30 p.m. The workshop is $25/advance, $30 at the door; or free with a new membership to The Landmark Society. You can register using our secure server. For more details, see the full schedule of Your Old House workshops or call (585) 546-7029.
Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services
Monday, September 28, 2009
A wealth of weatherization resources
Our beautiful September weather (in Rochester, anyway) has just turned blustery and cold! As the weather changes, you may be thinking about making your house more energy efficient. The National Trust recently put together an excellent Weatherization Guide for Older and Historic Buildings to help homeowners with this very topic. Here you'll find practical information on a variety of topics, including:
- How and why to start with a home energy audit
- Windows, windows, windows: why they matter, how to identify window types, how to decide when to repair or replace, how to make simple and low-cost repairs, and more
- A guide to the various incentives for weatherization
- A nifty illustration of the features of old houses that provide protection against cold weather (those 19th-century builders knew what they were doing!)
- Tips and strategies for specific parts of your house, including the roof, insulation, and mechanical systems
- And for any other questions, a very thorough "Whole House Resource Guide" with case studies, articles, and much more.
Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Your Old House: Masonry Repairs
Marty Naber has been spending the past week on the roof of our headquarters building, the historic Hoyt-Potter house in Corn Hill, where he is faithfully reconstructing our chimneys. Some masons do not particularly enjoy working on chimneys, steeples, or other locations high in the air, but Marty and his team thrive on it! Chimney restoration is his favorite type of masonry project. Most homeowners will not (and should not!) attempt to restore their own chimneys, so the portions of Marty’s talk devoted to his work with chimneys were not so much about hands-on projects that homeowners should attack themselves, as about what a contractor should be doing. For example, Marty mentioned that most homeowners do not go on their own roofs, cannot see all sides of their chimney, and may have no idea that there is a problem with their chimney until a roofer mentions it. In that situation, ideally, the chimney should be repaired first, followed by the roof, but in reality, roofers will often finish their project first, then tell the homeowner, “by the way, you need your chimney rebuilt.” Marty’s team can deal with this sequence, but he said it is much better to do it the other way around. Marty showed illustrations of the right and wrong ways to repair chimneys, some of the most common types of repairs his company makes, and explained why these repairs are necessary. In addition to their chimney work, Marty’s company does stucco and cobblestone repairs the old-fashioned way (with results virtually indistinguishable from the original work), and repairs brick and stone walkways, steps, and so on. His presentation showed fine illustrations of all of these types of projects. Our workshop participants (including myself) came prepared with questions about their particular masonry dilemmas, and we discovered that our group included people with early-19thth century. century houses all the way up through the early-20 I was glad to find out that the discoloration on my stucco house, which initially really bothered me when I bought my house but which I’ve since come to appreciate as a “patina,” can be cleaned if I want to do so but is a normal and harmless phenomenon. I was also surprised to find out that Marty is not opposed to all masonry sealants; he said there are some one-way sealers that form a barrier while allowing the masonry to breathe, and under certain conditions, these products can be helpful. (That said, I wouldn’t advise anyone to experiment with these unless you know what you’re doing!) We warmly thank Marty for his presentation, and for his careful work on our historic building!
I am a little delinquent in writing up my impressions of the April 27 “Your Old House” workshop, featuring Marty Naber of Naberhood Restorations. My tardiness is in no way a reflection of my enjoyment of the workshop – it was a very informative session, and I learned a lot!
