Masonry Magazine April 2007 Page. 39
After bricks are salvaged
After bricks are salvaged, general labor is needed to clean them and remove old mortar. Problems can arise if specifications call for 50 percent of a building to be salvaged and reused, but only 10 percent is salvageable. "The specifier needs to be sure what is realistic [concerning] what is salvageable," he said. High prices for salvaged materials can also present a challenge. "The cost of demolition is exponentially greater than buying new brick. You're performing surgery and have to handle with care," Frake said. "When it comes to salvaging historic brick, point one and point two are it's not going to save money from a labor standpoint."
After bricks are salvaged, general labor is needed to clean them and remove old mortar. "It costs $400 a day for labor, before you make a nickel cleaning the brick," Frake said.
Getting reusable materials to the building also can be problematic, such as in the case of the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center project.
"A big challenge was transporting the heavy materials the 80 miles to the job site," Needle said. That issue was solved with heavy-duty trucks.
Another challenge, installing masonry ties that wouldn't disturb the insulation, required a slightly different anchoring system. Two, L-shaped anchor clips were screwed to the wall, then a 3/8-inch galvanized bar slid through the holes in the clips. A seismic tie was then attached to the bar (pictured on page 36). "It's the first time I've ever seen something like this," said Jim Sullivan, president and CEO of Sullivan Stone in Conyers, Ga., and the mason contractor on the project.
Needle emphasized the importance of keeping the rigid insulation intact. "We needed a system that allowed the masons to anchor without butchering the insulation," she said.
Sullivan Stone had four crews of six men working on the project. Since the granite weighed a hefty 180 pounds per cubic foot, setting it took time. "It doesn't go up quickly," Sullivan said.
Bidding the project, however, was business as usual. "I bid it by the square foot," he said. "It's not hard to count bricks and sticks at the end of the day."
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