Not your typical chimney

[ady5008]

The diagonal marks were likely cut on a circular saw mill and the others on an older reciprocating sash type mill. Circular saw mill technology began replacing the older sash mills in the 1800s.

No, I know circular saw marks and these are definitely not those. They're a straight line diagonal across the board. They could be from something other than a saw for that matter, but they're definitely some kind of tooling mark. There were lots of circular sawn boards in the house, but they were in stuff that was clearly added later. Found a few covered in a Philadelphia newspaper from 1875 actually.

 

[ady5008]

I agree. If we had seen these photos first, I would have given a very different opinion, the first round of photos made it look like all of the parging or pointing was gone.

I'm no chimney pro, but if this were mine, I'd leave that parging alone, and just re-point the exterior. You're already taking care of the brick courses up top, and can address the missing interior pointing from above at that time.



There are likely hundreds of photos of my house and multiple chimneys on this forum, to the point where the regulars are probably getting tired of seeing them. I have five chimneys containing nine flues, although I am only presently using one flue each in four of the chimneys, two being for wood stoves. Three of the four were recently shown in this post:

Show me your mantel and hearth

Hi all, getting my fp25 installed Oct. 10 and looking for ideas on mantels and hearth. I will post all pics of the build soon. TIA

www.hearth.com

The one of which I was speaking earlier is this one, which like yours is stone, and also has a brick replacement above the roofline. It measures 5 feet by 8 feet exterior, and I could likely crawl up thru it. There are three thimbles tied into it, one from the basement in a separate flue that joins the main flue at second floor level, and then fireplace and thimble on first floor, and another thimble on second floor. I'm just using it as a mechanical chase for an insulated liner. That fireplace is shown in this thread:

Stove for large fireplace, max heat

Hi, I’m looking to put a wood stove into this fireplace, the house was built in 1775 and would like something that fits the house. The dimensions of the fire place are 78”x36”x27” I have a wood stove insert in the living room that heats that area but I’m looking to generate a lot of heat with...

www.hearth.com

What's not shown there is the chimney, which I'll attach here.

First, a view of either side of the fireplace, after I removed the failing interior stucco in the firebox, although you can see it remains above the lintel and above the lockers on either side.

View attachment 248533 View attachment 248534

Here's a photo taken in the 4th floor attic, showing where the chimney transitions from stone to brick. This appears to be a later repair or cosmetic change, not original.

View attachment 248538

Here's a view of that chimney from the back of the house. You can also see the chimney for the other stove in the old summer kitchen (now a sun room) to the left, which contains another wood stove.

View attachment 248537

Very, very cool Ashful. I love colonial era houses. I see what I think you referred to as lockers, the cubby holes behind the mantle. Pretty interesting. Ours has one, but only on one side of the fireplace, and on the outside instead of inside. There was also this shelf on the living room side of the chimney which appears to have been patched in with stone later, in two stages. I'd like to preserve it, but with the crack in the header stone above it, we may need to fill it back in, or at least make it smaller with another header underneath the original.

 

[Ashful]

The diagonal marks were likely cut on a circular saw mill and the others on an older reciprocating sash type mill. Circular saw mill technology began replacing the older sash mills in the 1800s.

Where are you seeing circular saw marks? I didn’t see any in these photos, but I didn’t zoom in on every one.

Normal for the supposed age of this house would be hand-hewn or pit sawn for anything long (eg. over 20 or 24 feet) and recip sawn for anything shorter than the local mill’s maximum carriage. In my house, the 1775 addition is a mix of hand-hewn and recip sawn, based on length of each beam.

Hey ady, why are you removing all of that plaster? Some of it appears to be in good shape! I’d save it, if at all salveagable, and you believe it to be original. I’ve only been stripping what’s required, as it falls apart. That tall 4-story wall in my last photo was sadly stripped and pointed just this summer, as the original stucco was failing after almost 245 years.

 

[ady5008]

Where are you seeing circular saw marks? I didn’t see any in these photos, but I didn’t zoom in on every one.

Normal for the supposed age of this house would be hand-hewn or pit sawn for anything long (eg. over 20 or 24 feet) and recip sawn for anything shorter than the local mill’s maximum carriage. In my house, the 1775 addition is a mix of hand-hewn and recip sawn, based on length of each beam.

Hey ady, why are you removing all of that plaster? Some of it appears to be in good shape! I’d save it, if at all salveagable, and you believe it to be original. I’ve only been stripping what’s required, as it falls apart. That tall 4-story wall in my last photo was sadly stripped and pointed just this summer, as the original stucco was failing after almost 245 years.

Unfortunately it's too late now. We wanted to expose the stone and logs and didn't want to deal with having the logs exposed outside. In some places we may have been able to save it and in hindsight I wonder if we should have. On the other hand, I definitely wouldn't want to deal with it crumbling after we're living there; I'm already sick of that dust. It had been patched in some places and was broken in spots too. It would have been tough to preserve it while doing all the other work in there. I'm guessing our place was a little rougher than yours when we bought it. The green wall in the first picture is covering the fireplace. The living room side of the chimney would be just out of the picture on the left in the second picture. Our house is a continental plan layout, nearly identical to the Morgan Log House in Lansdale if you've ever been there. Pictures of the planks with a line parallel to the marks are attached. I thought it was just a pattern in the wood at first but then I noticed others. 2 planks in the attic and one boxing in the basement stairs.

 

[Ashful]

Those floor boards are hand sawn, either single-handed or more likely in a pit with a double handled saw. No circular mill, there.

 

[SpaceBus]

Unfortunately it's too late now. We wanted to expose the stone and logs and didn't want to deal with having the logs exposed outside. In some places we may have been able to save it and in hindsight I wonder if we should have. On the other hand, I definitely wouldn't want to deal with it crumbling after we're living there; I'm already sick of that dust. It had been patched in some places and was broken in spots too. It would have been tough to preserve it while doing all the other work in there. I'm guessing our place was a little rougher than yours when we bought it. The green wall in the first picture is covering the fireplace. The living room side of the chimney would be just out of the picture on the left in the second picture. Our house is a continental plan layout, nearly identical to the Morgan Log House in Lansdale if you've ever been there. Pictures of the planks with a line parallel to the marks are attached. I thought it was just a pattern in the wood at first but then I noticed others. 2 planks in the attic and one boxing in the basement stairs.

I've been following this thread because my wife and I considered an old home like yours that had been "updated" over time, and in one case moved as well. I do not envy you and I assume there is a special punishment for putting foam ceiling tiles in a Colonial Era log cabin.

 

[ady5008]

Or painted the kitchen to match a circa 1940 submarine interior different styles for different times I guess. If I knew everything we were getting into when we bought it that would have made it a lot more difficult but we won't trade it when we're done.

 

[bholler]

Or painted the kitchen to match a circa 1940 submarine interior different styles for different times I guess. If I knew everything we were getting into when we bought it that would have made it a lot more difficult but we won't trade it when we're done.

Lol you think you will be done. The work never ends with an old house. That's why I sold mine.

 

[Ashful]

Lol you think you will be done. The work never ends with an old house. That's why I sold mine.

You’re not kidding, I could send another kid to college for what I spend on annual maintenance of this place.

 

[charger4406]

Lol you think you will be done. The work never ends with an old house

You’re not kidding, I could send another kid to college for what I spend on annual maintenance of this place

I can second that,and mine has been in the family for generations,also have an early 1700's log cabin on the property
that we use for storage, I don't dare to try to renovate it to be livable.