282-year-old farmhouse porch restoration in Flatbush Brooklyn New York

[John Webber]

Landmarked Dutch Farmhouse Porch Restoration, in Flatbush Brooklyn.
The talented Simon Abrams produced this wonderful short video documentary of the process we here at John Webber Woodwork completed in July. One of the last three dutch farmhouses still standing in New York City. It was an honor to be chosen to do this restoration.

JohnWebberWoodwork.com

 

[MARK.B.]

Great to see a restoration like this, all to often you see this sort of project done by ripping out the old and replacing with cheap timber or worse still plastic.You are proud of your work and rightly so.

 

[Orraloon]

Great work. Good to preserve an old house like that.
Regards
John

 

[clogs]

brilliant job....nice to see someone caring.....
mind 1/2 the battle is decent affordable timber....

just for fun John what was the cost in lumber....?

 

[Jacob]

Sorry to be a bit negative but that isn't "restoration" in the normal sense of the word. They are just constructing a fake imitation of the original using modern detailing and construction.
Restoration usually means repair or copying exactly e.g. the columns would all have been solid timber and all mouldings would be copied exactly.

 

[John Webber]

brilliant job....nice to see someone caring.....
mind 1/2 the battle is decent affordable timber....

just for fun John what was the cost in lumber....?

Hello and greetings,

Glad you like the job

The blue stained handrails and balusters are western red cedar. The top started out with two 2 x 4s and the bottom was one 2 x 4. Each 2 x 4 was $7.29 per foot. The balusters, before machining down to 1.375" x 1.375" were to buy two 2 x 2 at $2.13 per lineal foot
The columns were cut from Sheets of Medex (a Roseburg forest product). It is a water resistant, bug and rot resistant MDF (medium density fiberboard) Lock mitered and glued with tightbond 3 waterproof glue surrounding a Southern yellow pine pressure treated 4 x 4 core. (A nasty material because of the chemicals added to resist rot and termites, but it does the job)
The sheets of Medex or 4' x 8' by 3/4" are $112 each sheet
The 4 x 4 posts are about $1.50 per foot.
The tongue and groove flooring was clear Douglas fir. The industry generally calls it "5/4 by 4 vertical grain clear Douglasfir tongue and groove flooring". $1.94 per linear foot

I'm happy to answer these questions for you. May I ask you to click subscribe and like to my YouTube video?

Cheers!

John
JohnWebberWoodwork.com
347-400-0311

 

[John Webber]

Sorry to be a bit negative but that isn't "restoration" in the normal sense of the word. They are just constructing a fake imitation of the original using modern detailing and construction.
Restoration usually means repair or copying exactly e.g. the columns would all have been solid timber and all mouldings would be copied exactly.

Hello and Greetings Jacob,

Thanks for your comment and you are correct, it's not a true restoration.
I did what I could within the budget constraints I had and the desire of the customer who lives there to maintain the look and feel of the this home. We kept the costs of this "restoration" reasonable for homeowners.
A full and complete 100% restoration would be near impossible. It would be a challenge to find old-growth timbers, and cut them the same way those hard-working persons did hundreds of years ago. A true restoration would also involve using the original tools (adzes and large ripping saws) to show the original tool marks and any finishes applied would be a challenge (and sometimes toxic) recipe.
In addition this home was moved 99 years ago from its original location and we only have photos going back to just before the move even though the house is around 280 years old. Many details like doors, windows, exterior porch parts, etc. have been changed countless times making it near impossible to duplicate what was originally installed.

I'm happy to answer these questions for you. May I ask you to click subscribe and like to my YouTube video?

Cheers!

John
JohnWebberWoodwork.com
347-400-0311

 

[John Webber]

Great to see a restoration like this, all to often you see this sort of project done by ripping out the old and replacing with cheap timber or worse still plastic.You are proud of your work and rightly so.

Hello Mark B,

Greetings and thanks for the comment!
It's a challenge to faithfully reproduce parts made a long time ago. I had to make some compromises but plastic was not one of them!
I am proud of this one, if I can't be proud of it I won't do it.

I'm happy to answer these questions for you. May I ask you to click subscribe and like to my YouTube video?

Cheers!

John
JohnWebberWoodwork.com
347-400-0311

 

[John Webber]

Great work. Good to preserve an old house like that.
Regards
John

Hello Orraloon,

Greetings and thanks for the comment!
It is good to preserve some physical remnants of the past especially a house that made it that many years without getting taken down. The house is 280 years old! There are only three of those original Dutch farm houses in New York City occupied by residents. The current owners of the home feel they are more caretakers with a responsibility to maintain the place.
I was honored they chose me for the task of the porch repair.
Again, thanks for your comment.
May I ask you to click subscribe and like to my YouTube video?

Cheers!

John
JohnWebberWoodwork.com
347-400-0311

 

[Jacob]

Hello and Greetings Jacob,

Thanks for your comment and you are correct, it's not a true restoration.
......

That's all I'm saying. Not that you haven't done a neat job!

There's a lot of conservation work goes on in the UK. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
In the absence of any original features "restoration" would mean research and find out what most likely would have been there in the first place and to replicate that as far as possible, e.g. solid timber, even if not old growth. In any case they most likely would have used small stuff - relatively new growth, as it would be much easier to extract those sizes, then as now.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

So, a bit of a Ship of Theseus.

 

[Jacob]

So, a bit of a Ship of Theseus.

Or like an old broom with replacement heads / handles but with all new parts as near as possible identical to the original!