Masonry Magazine September 2005 Page. 39
Mobile splitter for Masons.
Faster than a saw! Cuts bricks and blocks instantly! It's a chopper! It's a splitter! It's a mason's best friend! Affordable, Portable, Durable.
* Easy operation and access!
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* Great for walls, veneers and walks!
CIRCLE 175 ON READER SERVICE CARD
Rebuild, Stabilize, Restore
THE STRUCTURES of both towers between belfry and spire were so deteriorated they had to be completely demolished and rebuilt, and the remote-controlled self-erecting tower crane Consigli had placed on-site began to prove its usefulness right away. First, the façade stones were carefully removed, catalogued and placed in massive storage bins, as they would later be replaced over the newly reframed spires. Since the crane is controlled from the actual site of the work being done instead of from the ground, the operator knows exactly what's needed where. He was able to remove stones and place new materials at the work site with the utmost precision and flexibility. Once the façade stones were removed and the top sections of the towers demolished, a second, hydraulic crane was brought in to pick the massive pre-cast concrete units, which formed the new framing of the towers from the belfry up. With the use of the Manitowoc crane, the disassembly of the north tower went much more quickly than anticipated, so the Consigli team was able to start disassembly of the south tower well in advance of the scheduled date. Fortunately, the rest of the building was in better shape than the tower tops, although 150 years of freeze-thaw cycles had caused considerable spreading and bulging of the façade. The Consigli team set about a key part of the restoration effort - permanently stabilizing the towers with Cintec anchors. Initial attempts at dry-coring through the stone to place the anchors accomplished little more than the destruction of one drill bit after another because ice lenses within the wall had melted and clogged the dry core bits. The decision to move to wet-coring proved the right one, although when the temperature fell into the single digits-not an unusual occurrence during a Maine winter - the project team faced the added challenge of having to temporarily heat the scaffolding so the water used for the drill wouldn't freeze.
Back to the Quarry
ALTHOUGH THE MAJORITY of stones removed from the façade were restored and put back in place, Consigli had to solve the problem of how to fabricate roughly 1,400 new pieces and how to match them to the older granite. The solution was obvious: re-open Grant's Quarry in Brunswick, Maine, the source of the original stone. While obvious, the solution was not necessarily simple and, anticipating the long lead times needed to request and receive approval to re-open an abandoned quarry, the Consigli team
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