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◆ The Preservation Plasterer
Maintenance helps preserve
buildings ... and saves money
Ice dams can form as a result of poor insulation.
by Rory Brennan
Essentially, maintenance is the
insertion of small amounts of
capital into a building over an
extended time frame. When you own
a building, these steps are undertaken
to preserve the equity that you have
invested in your architecture. Th ere
are inspections, adjustments, cleanings
or replacements that should be done
regularly to ensure proper functioning
of all the systems in a house and to avoid
costly emergencies. Maintenance is a
continuing process.
This is what the preservation
movement is all about.
To maintain a building’s structural
and elemental integrity, materials
are replaced only as necessary. The
Photos courtesy of Rory Brennan
embodied energy within the existing
building’s materials gives credence to
the philosophy that keeping the original
material in place as long as possible is
the best economic choice.
When it becomes necessary to
replace the original building, the
choice of replacement materials is the
paramount factor affecting the longevity
of the repair and the preservation of
your home.
About now you’re wondering what
this has to do with plaster. Over the
past 30 years there have been a couple
of times I’ve been asked to repair the
plaster in a building, which I did, only
to be called back to fi x my repair. It
always turned out there was a reason
Spring 2008 ◆ www.Hawk-n-Trowel.com ◆ 5