Flat Roof Watch

Meteorologists often forecast rain, snow, wind, and sometimes even sunshine. They should add to their repertoire 'acorn showers'. With our MCM under a huge 50 year Pin Oak tree, we must succumb to the seasonal fall showers. It starts with the paradrop of caterpillars in the spring and ends in the winter as it drops its canopy slowly through fall and winter. In the beginning of fall we roller skate across our driveway as the Oak tree bombard acorns everywhere. All this proves to be bad news for our flat roof.

Current conditions indicate heavy acorn dropping patterns followed by repetitive roof brooming with potential slippage and irritation. The great shade our house enjoys comes at a cost. A couple of months have gone by since the roof repair band aid was done, so I decided to see how it was fairing. I had already gotten up a couple weeks ago to sweep the water and then 'baby' acorns off the roof and install some drain strainers.

We had some rain a maybe a little over a week ago, and there were only a couple of small puddles left on the band-aid area. A couple hundred acorns lay scattered across the roof. The strainers were surrounded by acorns aching to get in the drain lines. About this time every year we get a drain clog in our utility room during a rain storm. When unclogged a ton of acorns come shooting out the drain. Apparently our roof drain, exterior drain, and interior utility room drain all tie into the same line.

Operation 'keep acorns out of drains' has been in operation for almost two weeks. A quick sweep and drain cleaning had everything on the roof cleared off and dry. It has to be a humorous sight to see someone sweeping off their flat roof. Our patch job has proved to keep it dry with no sight of any water penetration inside. Dreaming of tapered insulation and no pools of water on my roof has not yet come to fruition. Future forecast calls for acorn showers to lighten up and flat roof homeowners a final sweep of relief.

Mid Century Modern Curb Appeal Part 1

Our latest and greatest project has been our ever ongoing work to enhance the exterior 'curb appeal'. As mentioned in an early post, the outside of our MCM had a fun 80's exercise in the school of 'Gened up'. The first photo is our first look at the house on a very rainy day in May of 2005. Note some of the Gene interventions: fake green shutters; new electric meter on the front of the house with hideous galvanized pipe; angular lumber enclosed planting beds; vertical slatted blinds; and a lovely glass front storm door, complete with beveled glass and brass detailing.

We have had our work cut out for us with a complete 'curb appeal' overhaul, having done most of the completed work in 'mini-project' approach. A couple years ago, I pulled out all the front landscaping, including the wood enclosures and white gravel. We then poured the front concrete porch, a maturation of the original exterior concepts. I left the existing concrete landing and wrapped it with a new slab and inset step to match. The new concrete color juxtaposes nicely with the old weathered landing. Most likely the landing will get painted dark grey to match the house.

The large air conditioner was removed last summer, with glass replacing it's huge chunkyness on the front of the house. Last summer I scored an awesome 1950's MCM front storm door from a local salvage company, Building Values. It took 6 months to come across the right door, but this one might be a duplicate of the original. The door is simply trimmed with a removable glass frame, even the color almost matched our original maroon color.

This past Spring, a bad storm caused the next door oak tree to drop a huge limb that ripped out our entire electric service, meter and all. Long story short, we lived for almost a week off a generator. In the end we had the new meter and service installed on the side of the house, the required piping, etc was installed very cleanly next to our downspout to conceal it from the street view, photo to come in follow up posts.

We also installed two lines of aggregate pavers that were sitting stacked out back when we bought the house. The smaller ones are set in gravel next to the porch and along the entire front of the house with aluminum landscape edging. The larger ones are offset parallel to the porch. Part of our larger idea is to have a long rectilinear planting bed between these two walkways. Currently we are debating on whether to pour concrete or to set some patterned pavers for the landscape enclosure. The jury is still out. The outline of this new enclosed area can be seen in the fifth photo. Currently I've dug the trench for the concrete or paver enclosure.

With the studio roof recenlty fixed we've shifted gears to working outside while the weather is still nice. Painting the front of the house and getting the landscape enclosure finished is the goal before fall sets in. We've decided to go with a dark grey for the front color of the house (see sample in the third photo). We think this will compliment the red of the brick and keep the color scheme simple. The existing tan is going to remain on the flat roofline until next spring, unless we get our act together and go painting bonanza.

Around the new front storm door, we have patched all the gouges and nailheads from the installation. Since I reused the original redwood, I knew I had this tedious chore coming, much of the jamb face had damage, insert wood putty. A lot of ivy once covered our house, a ton of its remnants have left their mark on the concrete fascia and soffit. We decided not to paint the concrete finish, but to clean it and patch as necessary.

We certainly have had a few good laughs at how our house has looked, oh, for the past year or so. With a red front door, a white primed window, the other windows sage green, and chicken pox on our front door, how can you not laugh? The antique house numbers on the mail chute door have been removed and its come time to work on the windows. I have re-glazed several windows on the house and have to say, reinstalling new glass in a metal casement window is no easy task. We are focusing on painting the front 'wooden rectangle' face with a lot of window prep work before painting. We are going to extend around to the redo the two studio windows in the next phases.

This past weekend we scraped all the old caulk around the wood and windows in preparation to re-seal all the material connections, currently the front wall is quite drafty. I started reglazing with the largest window, you can see some process in the last three photos. Basically, you warm the glazing up in your hand, roll out small ropes and finger apply the glazing compound into a 45 degree angled profile from the glass to metal frame. Followed with several passes with a 1" putty knife, you work the putty to a nice smooth finish. It took me 4 hours from start to finish on the large window and the smaller adjacent window. The fresher the window glazing the smoother the job.

CF3 Coffee Chat - Hermes Residence

Cincinnati is a unique city. The many hills and enclaves make it a difficult city to navigate at times, yet provide many varying terrain neighborhoods with individual character. The west side of the city is my old stomping grounds, having grown up for awhile in Western Hills. The west side is notorious for confusing, up and down roads that give way to some really private sites, with mostly local traffic.

The Hermes Residence is no exception in its discreet location and intimate integration into the site. The house has been owned for 15 years by the current owners, relatives of local Cincinnati Mid Century Modern architect Rudy Hermes. A long winding driveway climbs the hill to find the Hermes Residence perched at the end of the deep lot. The house consists of a series of flat roof boxes that follow the profile of the site and step away from each other as they descend the hill.

The mature landscape gives little sense of the overall composition on first approach. From the bottom of the site, one enters the house at the end of the line of boxes between two parallel garages. The garage on the left is a very appropriate newer addition to the house by the current owners. The newer roof overhangs the adjacent garage volume that adds a more complex composition to the front entry.

Built in planters and stepped slabs of concrete lead you to the front door complete with center mounted doorknob and glass globe light above. Inside the intersection of the various rectilinear volumes provides a great datum to all the extended spaces. Original materials abound with diagonal terrazzo floors, exposed brick from the exterior, pecky cypress wood, and various other materials.

The most interesting feature in the central space is the integrated koi pond lined with white Bisazza iridescent tile and surrounded by a built in planter. My daughter thought this was the coolest thing ever, a life size aquarium. Above, a set of skylights aligns with the pond. Beyond, a fire engine red painted wall backdrops a pair of black leather Marcel Breuer designed Wassily chairs. Another cool feature in the space is the curvilinear sunken built-in bar complete with curved doors.

To one side of the central space the large eat-in kitchen is decked out with all high end stainless appliances within the original custom wood cabinetry. Cork flooring surrounds the large island that runs the length of the room. The east side of the kitchen is bound by a large expanse of windows. With a built in wine cooler and trash compactor, the kitchen is indicative of the level of luxury noted throughout the house.

A double sided fireplace with integral wood storage splits the formal dining area from the living space. Like many other MCM houses, the fireplace chimney block extends as a mass outside to the large patio. The living area has exposed wood beam ceilings and newer built-in cabinetry. A MCM mobile overhangs an Eames lounge chair and ottoman.

Steps from the central space ascend to the bedroom wing. Interestingly, the master bedroom is closet to the public area of the house and is open to overlook the entertainment space in the entry area. The master bathroom features a curved wall with original grey rectangle mosaic tile. The other bedrooms fill out the rest of the house and each have their own bathroom. The house in total is 3 bedrooms and 3-1/2 bathrooms.

Heading back outside, it's obvious the homeowners have groomed every bit of the peripheral landscape and hardscape. An extensive art collection can be found integrated into the landscape throughout the property. Around the bedroom wing, a gravel bed bound by metal landscape edging is functional, clean and maintenance free. Connecting one side of the house is a large patio that steps down to landscaped terraces. An open wood lattice screen wall partitions a small patio off the kitchen.

The Hermes residence is an outstanding example of MCM residential design. A true party house, the open connection to all the public (and even private) areas would allot a great party. Although the architect is currently unknown, the design of the house echoes that of the western case study style. Seeing a MCM home that has been well maintenanced and cared for is a true delight.

Flat Roof Repair

As the bathroom was coming to a wrap earlier this year, we went ahead and had the upstairs studio partially demolished. The work included ripping out 3 layers of ceiling containing the original 1-1/2" plaster with the radiant heating water lines exposing the existing flat roof 2x10 rafters. In all about 4" of ceiling material was removed along with the door and part of the non-load bearing wall was taken out.

In the first photo you can see the remnants of the door/wall removal, the old electric exposed. The concept for the wall removal is to open up the studio as a space to the main living area and allow more air flow from our sole AC in the studio. The wall between the living and studio now is a simple plane unobstructed. The new opening will be about 4 feet clear. Exposing the joists now allows us to put some insulation in the ceiling since we have none elsewhere.

After the demolition was complete and the dust had subsided, we realized we had more problems than a simple room remodel. We kinda anticipated something was up with the roof before demolition, but since we had to put buckets out to catch the drips. All of the framing around the masonry at the chimney was rotted along with several low points of sagging plywood. The main vertex of the sloped roof and the studio flat roof is where there was the worst damage.

It's been one rainy season here in Cincinnati, which has left almost no weekends to do flat roof work. Finally, a somewhat dry weekend came the 1st of August, a call from the roofer on Friday with a go for Saturday, it was on. Climbed up Friday afternoon, swept ponds of water off the roof. The second photo shows the roof area dry prior to Saturday rip off. I can't recall seeing the roof dry, ever. It offered a different perspective, the problematic spot had a previous patch as well.

The original intention was to pull out the low spots of rot, replace plywood, build roof back up, and apply patch of new EPDM. We only had Saturday until the rain forcasted for Sunday. I should note, I'm in no financial condition to replace and repair the roof the way it should be done, maybe one day. The plan was to repair the bad spots over the studio and phase through the future repairs until we can eventually put on a new roof. Additionally, we had a sea of mechanical fastener patches across the roof that were starting to back out and peel up in need of attention. The third photo shows the area of rubber roof cut up, and the super wet underlying fiberboard.

The fourth photo shows how juicy it was/is under the rubber, wait a minute, isn't the rubber supposed to keep the water out? So as we dug throught the layers of history, here's how the roof has been constructed. The original roof was built up tar and gravel, check. An unsuspected second layer of rolled asphalt roof caught me by suprise. Finally, brown fiberboard has been mechanically fastened through all other layers, and to it EPDM roof membrane has been glued.

The fifth photo is what we ended up digging into, queue the 6pm trip to Home Depot to get more plywood and 2x10's. We had gotten way further into the roof than I expected, nor did I realized the extent of my roofing future. Having ripped up all the bad plywood, we had exposed a good portion of th studio roof to the sky. It was much easier to replace the bad 2x10's from above. The sixth photo shows the view looking from in the studio, you can see the missing framing at the chimney.

After all the framing was good, we fastened new plywood down, then built up the roof by fastening down several layers of fiber board. We built up some roof pitch where there once was the large pool with fiberboard. It was about 8pm and starting to get dark about the point we started putting the new EPDM down. Between 4 of us, we had already patched the sea of fasteners and in about an hour, we were flashing around the chimney, everyone way ready for a shower.

It didn't rain that night so the final two photos are the next morning, 'how did we do?' inspection. Everything looked much better, climbing up the ladder and seeing pitch where there once was none is comforting. You can see in the photo the darker 'form flashing' that ties the EPDM to the brick chimney. Also note the darker patches all over the roof, why they ever put that many holes in a membrane is beyond me. I'll chalk that one as a 'Gened up' decision.

There are two other lower spots that probably have to do the same remedy on in the next couple years. Since the replace we had a good 2" rain, the next day revealed only a couple of small puddles over the studio, a significant difference from before. The roofer said all the patches will probably keep the roof dry, maybe long enough for the sponge factor to start drying out a bit. On Sunday we cleaned up a couple spots, and we have been dry ever since.

Mid Century Modern Scavenger Hunt - Zig Zag Roof

I've been doing some scavenger hunting lately for local zig zag roofs for a local modern residential consulting opportunity and thought I'd share some of my scavenger finds. The zig zag form, whether in plan, elevation, or section is signature character that evolved as an element of mid century modern aesthetics. Quite often the tails of the zig zag are left flipping up as can be seen in most of these examples. Part of my mission was to verify the better condition and also see what I could find.

The first building is the Ridge Road Urgent care building. It still has the old exterior bullet lights if you look close. I think this building was originally brick and has been covered over with EIFS on the majority of the exterior and painted the typical suburban 'what shade of beige would you like?'. If you look close you can see the original stacked courses of brick at the windows accompanied with the vertical protruding brick accents. Personally I think if this building was white with dark grey accents it would have more street appeal.

Next are a couple of MCM zig zags we pass by on the way to our Pediatrician's office in Finneytown on Winton Road. The first is a small traditional church that had a 50's entry addition. The architect of this project designed this entry that exhibits a 50's 'time of the now' approach. There is also an excellent obelisk put adjacent to the entry that's not pictured. Shortly down the road from this is a little dry cleaners I've always enjoyed. The cantilevered fly outs are awesome with the dark paint hefting the form over the storefront glass, I bet it looks great at night.

A trip up north in the Lebanon area revealed a small MCM elementary school with a zig zag entry canopy. The rest of the school is a very 'Cranbrook' campus style of school design. The majority of the rest of the building is typical low slope large overhang hip roof boxes connected by flat roof glass corridors. I'm sure the kids love the use of the colors throughout this project, it's good to see they are maintaining what they have.

Next is a recent renovation project of a formerly delapidated MCM building on Victory Parkway by Eden Park. Having gone by this one on my way to work for the past four years I've gotten to watch it sit vacant, then go through the pictured renovation. The original building had some unique aggregate faced concrete panels on the exterior that looked very dated and did not survive the renovation. The new building is a step in the right direction, albeit a bit of a suburban intervention probably developer driven. I'll admit the color scheme is not something I agree with, so I went black and white with my photos.

Last, and certainly not least is Princeton High School up in Sharonville. This is another Cranbrook style school with a cluster of building functions tied together by glass hallways. The building on first pass does not jump out, but a closer look makes a trip to see it worthwhile. The zig zag canopy frames the bus drop off similar to the Lebanon elementary school and is totally made of concrete. There are many playful MCM details and forms in the exterior treatment and daylighting techniques. The original exterior mosaic tiling accents clad angled reveals that are north oriented to avoid direct southern light. The gymnasium facade is folded with stone cladding beyond other numerous MCM details. Certainly it's worth the drive to take a quick exterior tour, it's right off I-75 at the Sharonville exit.

Thrift Shop Scores - Polish Glass

The cat has been out of the bag for quite awhile. Beyond front porch stalking, Thrift shopping can provide some great modern treasure finds. This past weekend we had a yardsale complete with modern furniture we no longer need. Of course at the end meant a carload of donations to the local thrift stores. I can't just drive by these places either, I always, to the chagrin of Wendy, must go in even with the echo of her common call "We don't need anything else!".

Now I should be upfront, unemployment means lots of free time and no income. The yardsale was an effort to purge some old stuff and to maintain some cash flow. Really I had no place stepping a foot in the Thrift shop door. After donating I decided to roam the floor anyways and found a cool old 50's glass set, perfect for a friend collecting such. Then as I was walking out, this glass vase caught my eye from across the room. At first look, the piece was totally out of any price range (that being $0), so I snapped a picture with my cellphone and went home. There's a sticker on the side as pictured "Design Guild, Made in Poland". The piece is pretty hefty as well. The glass is really thick, and the striations in the glass lead me to believe it was hand blown. I didn't know I liked Polish glass.

Once home I showed Wendy, who approved "why didn't you buy it?" and did some quick searching on the internet to see what I could find about the 'Design Guild' and Polish glass. The search came up empty which got me excited, usually unknown stuff has more value right? She handed me some yardsale cash and sent me back to make an offer. Quick negotiations indicateded that the vase had been on the floor at the thrift shop for 2 months, which means discount apparently. The manager took 50% off the asking price. Within a half hour I had the piece cleaned up and on display near our white Ikea dining set. Speaking of Ikea, they sell a very similar vase: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70124506, Ikea does mock-offs sometimes of more famous pieces don't they? Nonetheless this piece is 28" tall and 10" at its widest.

The monetary value of any modern purchase always plays weight in our decision making process of what we should and shouldn't buy. Ikea stuff is easy, it's cheap. A $3 Eames fiberglass armshell chair yardsale grab is a no brainer. More expensive things tend to weigh on my mind, call me frugal. First and foremost, we have to like the piece, if it has good value, that's a bonus. Honestly, I prefer investing in our artwork, I know if I had to sell our collection of modern furnishings, we'd at least break even. I have referred to our Charlie Harper prints in the past as being like hanging savings bonds on the wall to enjoy. For now, I think we'll enjoy my little find. If anyone knows anything about the piece, I'd love to hear about it.