What is considered a historic home, building, or structure?
Was it built 50+ years, or even 200+ years ago?
Is it listed or monumental?
Connected to significant events
Connected to significant individual
Located in a historic district
Your home provides important historic information.
If you are unsure if your masonry, home, building, or structure is considered historic, if one of the six descriptions above coincides with you, your home, building, or structure can be regarded as historic.
Another determining factor for historic masonry is the masonry material type. Closely analyzing your mortar joints, brick, stone, or block can identify your material type, style, architecture, and materials to be used to complete a historic masonry restoration.
A natural stone home built 50+ years ago or even 200+ years ago has features corresponding with its time. Typical stone types include but are not limited to limestone, travertine, slate, quartzite, sandstone, adoquin, onyx, and more. These are the most common. These materials are quarried from the earth and were used 3,000+ years ago, and are still being used today as building materials and decorative additions to your home. Noting the material type can be the first step in your historic restoration project for your historic stone home.
A historic brick usually consists of clay and can be called a sun-dried brick, fired brick, or molded brick. A more modern brick is traditionally made with cement and is cut to size with machines using thin wires to cut the clay/cement bricks. Noting if your bricks are historical is a determining factor in how your brick masonry can be restored.
A historic block is usually found to be a “rock face” block or just a smooth flat face. Starting around the late 1800s, these blocks were used to build homes, foundations, and or porches. There are many types of rockface block designs. Seeing a wavy or irregular rock-looking appearance, which shows bumps and depths of the face of the block, can be observed as a historic block. In modern masonry, a block is usually flat and made with concrete of all different styles/textures. If your home has a “rock face” block and was built in the late 1800s, you may have a historic block that signifies a historic character of your home. Knowing the type of block and the age of your home helps with your historic masonry restoration.
The restoration and preservation of these material types depending on the area's exposure, the mortar type, and the architecture or existing character of the home. First, analyzing the kind of mortar, brick, stone, or block is the first step to restoring your historic masonry home, building, or structure.
A historic brick, stone, and block preservation specialist can determine your brick, stone, or block type, restoration scope of work, and materials needed to restore your home, building, or structure to its original appearance from when it was first constructed.