An extensive repair of stucco, waterproofing and masonry restored the Charleston County Court, almost 300 years old, in their colonial glory in the middle of one of the most occupied pedestrian corners in Charleston.
Built in 1753, the court was originally used as a state home for the British royal government for the South Carolina colony, in the Congress Library, which says it was partially destroyed by the fire in 1788 and rebuilt with an addition and updating of the third floor in 1792.
After numerous changes and additions, it was restored in its historic neoclassical appearance of 1792 in 2001, and is currently home to the Charleston County Proof Court. It is one of the “four corners of the law”, referring to the four buildings of the intersection of broad and gathered streets: the court, the City of Charleston, the Post Office of the United States and the court and the Episcopal Church of San Michael.
“For the last 300 years, it was burned once in 1788 and almost demolished in various different natural disasters,” says Mac Davis, responsible for the WXTite project, a Greensboro -based field of work, NC -based, reconstruction, waterproofing and conservation, which completed the workplace of approximately $ 2.5 million in February after 13 months, according to Davis.
The project team was able to cause Maó from the period of a nearby project through Facebook Marketplace.Photo courtesy wxtite
At the beginning of the work, the outside began to fall into poor condition, with much of the drainage stucco and the humidity that went to the building to aggravate the damage, says Davis. The firm repaired more than 6,000 square meters of stucco to the brick. All that stucco, along with the 11,000 square meters of the building’s stucco, was perfected.
Seventy-three windows were reset and approximately 300 hurricane anchors were installed for the window coverage system.
The work included excavating around the building of the building up to 3 feet deep, installing a tremo water system, critical protection on the Charleston Peninsula, says Jamie Donaldson, a WXTite regional manager, most of which was built on Dirty Son in Marshland.
Although there were some speculations on what they could find through this excavation, the only surprise was some old steps in renewals and additions in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The location gave the project team a different headache during the year or so, adds.
“It is a famous and busy intersection, possibly one of Charleston’s most busy intersections,” says Donaldson. “Keeping everyone sure was paramount to what we had to do there, and still allowed the court to be open and operational throughout the construction.”
It marks it as one of the main challenges that the project faced. During the play, the scaffolding wrapped the entire building, which also provided access to the four chimneys that are often difficult to access by historical structures, adds Donaldson, especially in this case with a historical whiteboard roof that the team worked for not to damage.
The team members underwent training on the historical stone restoration to repair the architectural features in the court.Photo courtesy wxtite
The scaffolding also provided access to the building’s wrap, where more than 2,500 linear feet of mortar articulation were repaired, and about 300 square feet of vintage brick was replaced, says Davis, who presented a particular challenge to the team.
He says the team was lucky with a Facebook market list for approximately a brick pallet suitable for the period of a nearby property where a historic cistern was being removed to make room for a pool. The pause took place after the team had already evaluated the sample bricks of several local suppliers, given the detailed attention of the project.
The plans developed with the help of a conservative were sent to the Board of Architecture Review of the City, a long process ended before WXTite is hired for the work.
“This was also unique because it was a county court owned by the county, but within the city of Charleston, so we had several parts to obtain all approvals,” including separate inspections, adds Donaldson.
Some detail work included repairing capitals of stoneware ornamented with a restoration product by cathedral stone products, according to Davis, which is used as a repair mortar, but it is specifically that it coincides with the existing stone. This work required sending some members of the team out of place to train in the historical stone restoration.
The project also included work in the Blake Delundle-on-side building, built between 1760-1772, where WXTITE was completed by about a mile of review in the brick wrap, replaced the aging wooden beams with reinforced concrete beams and installed structural steel to support the floor.
