We schedule our workshop training at certain fixed dates or around your schedule using our various pre-packaged professional “Kits.” The cost of the workshop is the cost of the kit. The cost of each kit is the retail price for an assembly of our products needed to train and to supply the serious end user in becoming familiar with and moving into the use of conservative repair material in an on-going basis.
Workshop Program #1 (3 day) - Working with the “Graveyard Kit”
For Conservators of Cemetery Monuments, Head stones, and memorials we run a three day workshop to train participants to use our “Graveyard Kit.” During this workshop participants will learn to use the items in the kit to make a natural glue for interior repair work and repair broken masonry elements and consolidate friable masonry using environmentally friendly repair materials. Cemetery Conservation Philosophy is discussed and there is a formal outline provided with the program which is delivered by a seasoned memorials conservator. Cost is $350 with a $100 non-refundable deposit. Minimum group size is 10 participants per program. If any organization gathers a group of at least 10 participants we will schedule a program at the group’s chosen cemetery location in the USA.
Graveyard kit images:
Please call LimeWorks.US for this tentatively planned workshop in the fall of 2010
Old Trinity Church
Reading, PA
Description:
Using the LimeWorks.US “Graveyard Kit” which is designed for Conservators of Cemetery Monuments, Head stones and memorials a three day workshop will transpire to train participants to use our masonry conservation products. During this workshop participants will learn to use the items in the kit to make a natural glue for interior repair work and repair broken masonry elements and consolidate friable masonry using environmentally friendly repair materials. The object of this workshop is to slow the decay of the frail historic objects and stabilize this cluster of head stones found in a center courtyard of Old Trinity Church, Reading, PA. Cemetery Conservation Philosophy is discussed and there is a formal outline and lecture provided with the program being delivered on the first day. The guest conservator is Robert Mosko, Chief Conservator of Mosko Cemetery Monument Services of Hanover, PA. The Cost is $350 per person which is the cost for each Graveyard Kit. Each participant will receive one kit to use and take home. Limit is 10 participants per program. There is a $100 non-refundable deposit.
Workshop Program #2 (1 day) - Color-Simulating Lime Mortars for Historic Building Repointing using the LimeWorks.us “Mortar Kit.” (Includes receiving a set stock of material for inventory at your shop)
This program is designed for all Professional Masonry Restoration Practitioners who want to make the change. This is a one-day hands-on workshop held near Allentown, Pennsylvania. The workshop is prepared for high-end historic masonry restoration companies that want to use Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL) mortars in their work and utilize no Portland cement when original mortars had no Portland cement. The commitment by participants to “make the change” is a pre-requisite by receiving the set stock of material that will be given to each participant as part of the workshop fee and will therefore be available to use on upcoming projects. The cost is $1000 per participant and there is a $100 non-refundable deposit. The equivalent retail value of NHL material is stocked at the restoration company’s headquarters by LimeWorks.US, so the cost of the training is in effect free. Cost of shipping is extra. Contractors can take the $1000 of various blended materials which they learn to use with them on the day of the event and save on shipping costs. (Weight is <1 ton or 1 pallet).
The hands-on workshop will cover tips and tricks in the proper mixing, placing, texturing, tooling, curing and cleaning when performing repointing work using Ecologic® Mortar. Ecologic® Mortar is simply a prepared blend of Natural Hydraulic Lime binder/aggregates and pigments to which you just add water, mix and go to work. Ecologic® Mortars come in 9 stock colors and the workshop shows how a professional can produce hundreds of new shades by blending them in various degrees and install mock-ups for architects. We will show how to add such inclusions as marble dust, mica, slag flecks, oyster shells and regional sands and then how to simulate a weathered surface of an historic mortar joint in order to create a close to indistinguishable match to original historic mortar. By using these techniques in patch pointing and full repointing work the object being taught is attention to detail and readying your crew for "museum-quality" work. Small Quantities of these specialty aggregates are included in the take-home stock. We also explain our services for properly sending a sample to our lab for custom color simulation and networking with us on obtaining new projects where LimeWorks.us Ecologic® Mortar is called for. If any organization gathers a group of at least 10 participants we will schedule a program at the group’s chosen location in the USA.
Scheduled Workshop: (Every Second Friday of the New Month)
March 12, April 9, May 14, June 11, July 9, August 13, September 10
October 8, November 12, December 10, 2010
Field School Program #1 (Extensive)
For all Professional Masonry Restoration Practitioners. This is a four-day hands-on workshop held at a historic site which will actually have substantial repair work accomplished during the program time. The intent is to instill a global mind-set for understanding and keeping on track the goal of historic masonry preservation. A global mind-set is an all inclusive understanding of the building in its environment, its importance, how it was constructed, by who and why it came into existence along with why it and any significant architectural details should be kept in conservation. These are questions that every practitioner of historic building repair work should ask before engaging in a repair intervention. The workshop shows end-users how to better decipher the original mortars or plasters used to build the vintage building and spot the inappropriate forms of intervention used to create well-meaning but un-complementary repair work done over the subsequent years from the time of original construction. The inappropriate repairs may not be sympathetic to what was the architect and builder’s original intent. The intent of the workshop is to get the fix back on track with what is interpreted as the original intended design details. This workshop reviews performing a visual mortar analysis and one using an acid-digestion process of the targeted mortar(s) which is planned to be simulated for reinstallation by repointing. Visual observation of the original sand color and sizes found in the original mortar is reviewed when the mortar sample is sifted and separated into various gradations. Methods to properly prepare the historic masonry walls by cutting and squaring back original mortar joints will be addressed in repointing workshops. To ready walls for repointing, techniques for cutting without irreversibly damaging historic masonry units will be practiced, along with cleaning the masonry in preparation if needed. Placement of new materials and especially incorporating the reconstitution and reinstallation of original historic fabric will be carried out whenever possible. This program is specifically a Repointing or a Re-plastering workshop. Details will be listed on the Tentative Calendar Schedule. Cost is $750 per participant and there is a $100 non-refundable deposit. Minimum group size is 4 participants per program. Underfunded historic sites can use this opportunity to host this workshop. By doing this they can leverage the value of the participants help in reducing the overall cost to complete the needed repair work that can be accomplished during the program. Please inquire.
The following are examples of training work we have done. We have provided training for volunteers of non-profit run historic sites and for contractors as specified by preservation architects for other projects:
Here's an example of an all volunteer workshop lead by Andy deGruchy over a two week period. The group saved the little historic bridge and did it for no cost to the Weisel International Youth Hostel and the Bucks County and Nockamixon Park Systems. deGruchy Masonry, Inc. contacted the Heritage Conservation Organization in Boulder, CO who put the word out and organized the workshop. Andy deGruchy has a philosophy that a workshop for masonry restoration should not be done inside a building where work is practiced only "In theory" and then the work is torn down and material and labor wasted. Instead, Andy believes that using the labor and material to accomplish a needed work for an ailing structure serves many purposed simultaneously. One purpose is to accomplish some needed intervention immediately rather than talking about it and letting the historical object fall down while well-intended plans are being made. Andy was the "fearless leader"
and worked along side everyone to coach and encourage all the participants until the final completion. Oddly the work began on a September 11 morning, a poignant date that counters the painful legacy it conjures up by instead having a group of committed people choose to start saving, healing, helping and rebuilding.
A small historic country bridge in Bucks County, PA was stabilized with NHL lime/sand/casein grout and then repointed after laying up all the fallen stonework using Pure Natural Hydraulic Lime mortar throughout.
In 2006 we coached a crew of masons in mixing up St. Astier Natural Hydraulic Lime #3.5 with black slag inclusions to reproduce a similar mixture tooled to an inverted-V style joint on the Burgess Foulke House Museum in Quakertown, PA.Previous Portland cement patches held water into the bedding mortar so that after the Portland cement was removed we took moisture meter readings to see that the levels of moisture in the wall dropped prior to repointing. This workshop was done at no additional cost to the Historic Society that owns the building after they awarded the bid to the lowest qualified bidder at a fixed, quoted cost.
We demonstrated to local crews the use of St.Astier Lithomex and Natural Hydraulic Limes for applications on the St. John the Divine Church in New York City.
deGruchy Masonry, Inc trained a local crew in Atlanta, GA to use deGruchy's DGM 50 colored mortar for repointing work at the historic Fox Theater.
deGruchy's DGM 50 colored mortar was used by another contractor that we trained in the correct application of the mortar to fully repoint the Eldridge Synagogue in Manhattan.
We provided training for another set of contractors who did the repointing work performed at the Ephesus
Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Harlem, NY who also utilized deGruchy's DGM 50 colored mortar and St. Astier Lithomex stone repair material to repair the damaged brownstone on the church.
The National Park Service hired deGruchy Masonry, Inc. to train and inspect work done by a contractor to the new Visitor's Pavillion at Grey Towers, the home of the founder of the National Forest Service. They used St. Astier Natural Hydraulic Lime for interior and exterior plaster and for building stone walls.
Follow us on Twitter 
Mortars
Previous Portland cement patches held water into the bedding mortar so that after the Portland cement was removed we took moisture meter readings to see that the levels of moisture in the wall dropped prior to repointing. This workshop was done at no additional cost to the Historic Society that owns the building after they awarded the bid to the lowest qualified bidder at a fixed, quoted cost.
DGM 50 colored mortar for repointing work at the historic Fox Theater.
