At drw our primary focus is on designing and building new buildings, as well as additions and alterations to existing buildings. Occasionally we have been approached to do repair and restoration on architecturally interesting projects, such as the Forest Park Midcentury Modern a couple years ago. Earlier this summer, one of clients asked us to do some restoration work on their beach house, which was designed by Saul Zaik, an architect we very much admire. (There is a good essay about Zaik's work at Portland Modern.)
On the whole, the house has aged very well, but the weather at the Oregon Coast can be much less forgiving than in the Willamette Valley. As such, some of the shingles and guardrails around the deck were in need of replacement. Our team, including David, Clay, Mitch & Jacob spent the last of September's good weather working on the restoration work.
Our first step was to demo the area in need of replacement.
We then installed new plywood sheathing.
Followed by new building paper.
The next step will be to hang new shingles, which will be carefully selected to match the existing.
During the course of our work, we were very careful to ensure that we continued to respect the architectural intent of the original design. One example of this is the guardrail cap, which needed to be replaced.
The guardrail cap was cut from a 6x6 Douglas Fir post. The first step was to miter cut the whole length of the post, so that it could be installed at a 45 degree angle. We then chamfered the corners, to ensure there were no sharp edges. We also a cut a kerf for the shingles to be let in into, to create a good drip-edge. The guardrail cap will be left unstained, as the original was, so that it will weather into the same silvery-gray color that the rest of the house has.