The Port Townsend School of Woodworking is offering a series of weekend classes in practical historic preservation in September and October 2010. These classes are taught at Fort Worden State Park.
These classes are primarily designed for the homeowner but we believe that contractors wishing to work on older homes or on historic preservation projects (any project that would be subject to the Secretary of Interior's Guidelines for Historic Preservation) will gain a lot of useful experience from these classes.
Building Storm Sashes for Old Windows with Kevin Palo
September 18-19, 2010
Energy conservation is a big issue these days. Windows are a major source of infiltration and energy leakage. That loss can be mitigated by installing storm windows.
Storm windows can get you most of the benefit of installing replacement windows plus they retain the character of your home. In this two day class we’ll show you how to make and install wooden storm sashes.
We have a professional millwork shop set up at Fort Worden where we'll demonstrate building a traditional storm sash. We’ll also show you techniques to that scale to a home shop. You’ll learn how to use mortise and tenon joinery to construct the windows. We’ll also explore the use of some more contemporary techniques like using the Festool Domino for loose tenon joinery.
These will be plain and simple storms. We’ll take you through the priming, painting and glazing. We’ll show you how to install the storms with permanent hardware or how to install them so you can take them down in the spring and reinstall them in the fall.
We’ll cover the materials, where to source them and look closely at how to add long lasting seals to for a tight and durable fit.
Come dressed prepared to work indoors and outdoors (so layers are good) and you should bring a dust mask, ear and eye protection.
Class size: 20
Cost: $175
Repairing and Restoring Old Doors with Kevin Palo
October 2-3, 2010
Traditional frame and panel doors can take a lot abuse over the years. Hinges can move, rails and stiles get broken, panels get kicked in and the locks can fail. Much of this damage can be fixed by the homeowner.
This course focuses on the repair and restoration of existing doors and will cover:
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Rehanging doors
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Repositioning hinges (by hand or router jig)
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Getting the door square in the aperture - shimming hinges
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Patching after multiple locks
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Replacing panels (demonstration)
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Weatherizing existing doors - installing weather stripping
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Replacing and repairing door hardware
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Locks - rim, mortise
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Hinges
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Finish Analysis (a brief introduction) - how can you tell the original color of the door and plan to match it.
Max enrollment 20
Proposed cost $175
Class size: 20
Cost: $175
Restoration of Interior Finishes with Pam Chestnut
October 9-10, 2010
The details of this class are still being worked out. The class will focus on the skills and materials you'd need to restore interior finishes for houses built in the Victorian era on the West Coast.
The class will be a mixture of site visits, demonstrations and hands-on sessions. The current list of topics we're discussing is shown below but it is realistic to expect it to be trimmed a little. Feel free to let us know if there are topics you'd like to see us cover.
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Faux finishes and wood graining
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Shellacing
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Varnishing
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Proper use of historic paints - (a brief introduction to colour analysis)
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Wallpaper
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Stencilling
Class size: 20
Cost: $175
Repairing Masonry with Mark and Alec Liebman
October 16-17
When the mortar between the layers of bricks starts to fail you need to understand how to repair and replace the mortar so that the building survives. Choosing the wrong mortar can be catastrophic. Mark and Alec will take you through the steps of identifying the different types of mortar so that you can make the correct choice for your building.
There’s an art too, to the removal and replacement of the mortar. Getting the mixture correct, having the right tools available and then learning the correct way to prepare the wall, and install and cure the mortar are all important steps.
This course will cover the history and theory of working with mortar; a series of site visits to look at how different mortars and the surrounding masonry untis have aged; the indicators that you will need to understand to appropriately repair the mortar on your building; plus a hands-on session where you’ll get to learn how to correctly repoint.
Come dressed prepared to work indoors and outdoors (so layers are good) and you should bring ear and eye protection.
Day One:
8:00 – 9:30 Brief history of masonry mortar
9:30 – 9:45 Coffee break
9:45 – 12:00 Lime slaking and mortar mixing
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 3:00 Wall preparation and mortar installation
3:00 – 3:15 Coffee break
3:15 – 3:30 Travel to downtown Port Townsend
3:30 – 5:00 Walking tour of select repointing projects including Old City Hall, the Cotton Bldg, the Eisenbeis Bldg, and Jefferson County Courthouse
Day Two:
8:00 – 9:30 Building with historic mortar
9:30 – 9:45 Coffee Break
9:45 – 12:00 Mortar removal
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 3:00 Mortar joint tooling
3:00 – 3:15 Coffee break
3:15 – 5:00 Discussion of mortar sampling and analysis and general Q&A
Tool list for the class to be provided
Class size: 20
Cost: $175
Brief Bios
Kevin Palo
Kevin is lead faculty for our Historic Preservation program. Kevin has more than 33 years of experience in millwork, historic preservation and consulting on historic preservation projects. Full bio for Kevin
Pam Chestnut
Pam is a graduate of the College of the Redwoods Historic Preservation program.
Mark and Alec Liebman
Mark is a forensic preservationist and materials scientist; he works as a senior consultant for Golder Associates. Mark's son Alec also works for Golder Associates where they collaborate on many projects. Mark is also NW chapter president of the Association of Preservation Technology. Mark has consulted on many projects in Port Townsend and has been especially vigilant on the brickwork during the restoration of the Cotton Building on Water Street.
