Custom Decorative Corbels pt.1

How do you replicate 100+ yr old exterior items on a home with new items that look identical to the original ones and stand up to the weather? If you are lucky, there is already a matched piece made by one of the many manufacturers of synthetic architectural accents and trims (like Outwater or Fypon) that is worth its higher cost over traditional materials because of its projected lifespan. If budget is no concern, you can have a mold made of the original and new pieces cast in a resin or other synthetic material by a specialty manufacturer.

Or you can utilize the best available materials that will resist the weather and you can pay extra special attention to the assembly to promote the longest lifespan possible. That is the route most conscientious custom builders in historic districts will take – and for good reason.

Generally, if you buy precast synthetic trim and accent pieces you pay a premium and often the items are not an exact match. Another complication is that many construction  synthetics (and pretty much all plastics) don’t take paint well unless it is very light-colored paint and specifically formulated for that synthetic/plastic material. If you have the item custom-cast for the project, you will need to order a very large quantity or the cost will be 10 times (or more) than the precast cost and if the casting is done in synthetics you face the same problems posed by the precast.

Which brings me to the project where we faced this problem on virtually every item.

Original Post Corbels that disintegrated when touched

A truly enjoyable project, this porch offered challenges for every piece installed. I will discuss the decking, spandrels, spindles, handrails, newels, accents,  guttering with integrated crown and so on in a later post.

Note the shape and construction of the corbels. Everything had to match perfectly as the City Historical society oversees construction in historic preservation districts such as this one. Further, the need for painstaking accuracy was elevated as it was also reviewed by the Lafayette Square Restoration Committee who walked past and reviewed it daily. And as an added layer of project oversight, the many neighbors of this home in the Square would visit regularly and request that the porch be accurately rebuilt. At first (when we tore the old one down -basically we just hit it once with a hammer and swept it up), we thought some of them might run home and grab torches and axe handles, form a mob, and return to pummel us. But we reassured them that it was going back with looks exactly identical to what it was, and as it took shape they gradually became much more friendly. By the end they were as neighborly and welcoming as any neighborhood I have worked in.

So back to the corbels. The original pieces on the porch were 3-piece layered construction, and we decided that they had lasted this long, we’d do the same. See pt. 2