Progress continues on the Steel House.  A new garage door has been built to replicate the original.  It is of Spanish Cedar and awaits priming and painting.  The fabricator continues to work on completing the repairs on the necessary exterior panels.  Some of the panels have been repaired and are ready to be metalized and coated as part of the multi-step process to their completion.

All salvaged thermal wood spacers have been repaired along with salvaged steel U-channels and reassembled.  New replacement thermal wood spacers have been made, but await their new U-channels from the fabricator.

Some of the interior wood doors, frames, and trim need restoration, which has begun.  The existing bathroom and kitchen fans have been restored.  In addition, a new fireplace screen has been made and fitted to the existing frame.

 Repaired & reassembled exterior door

 Repaired & reassembled windows

 Interior wooden cabinets

 Repaired and reproduced garage interior components

Repaired and treated fireplace components

Steel House Progress

There's been more progress made on the Rusty's restoration!  Unfortunately we're still behind schedule, but Rusty is getting closer to completion.  The existing doors have been restored and reassembled along with window sashes, frames, trim pieces, and interior wooden cabinets which have been repaired, repainted, and reassembled.  The brass hardware components have also been stripped of paint and polished.  Work has also been completed on the garage: the existing roof railing components have been repaired, and three mesh panels have been manufactured to replace original ones.  The fireplace components have also been restored, and, along with the garage components, have been blasted and coated with a high-performance (Tmenec system) epoxy primer and urethan topcoat.

New stainless steel base angle to be installed. Holes are for anchor bolts, which will be driven into the foundation at an angle.

Adam Jenkins of MCC uses a grinder to remove rusty tabe used for anchoring the original base angle at the steel house. MCC is preparing the concrete slab foundation for installation of a new stainless steel base angle.

David Facenda and Adam Jenkins from MCC are back at Conn this week to do some work on the foundation. They are cleaning out a gap around the edge of the poured concrete foundation that was probably originally filled with some sort of thermal spacer. The original filling of this gap was probably organic and has almost entirely rotted away. As a replacement, they will fill it with urethane foam. Parts of the edge of the foundation have also chipped away, especially around the back door, and these chipped edges will be replaced with more concrete.

Finally, they have also brought a new stainless steel base angle to replace a similar one that originally sat around the perimeter of the foundation but was too rusted to be reused. They will install the new base this week, and it will then be used to attach the wall panels to the foundation when the house is reconstructed.

Wooden spacers restored, or milled to replace damaged originals found in between the steel panels

One of the exterior doors that has been repaired, treated with preserver, and primed

Rusty's front door, repaired, and painted with it's final coat of paint

Window parts that have been restored, and are awaiting final painting

More news from MCC about Rusty! All window sashes, frames and exterior pieces have been stripped of paint, repaired, treated with preservative and primed. All the exterior frames and sills have been painted, along with some of the restored sashes. Once all the window parts are painted the windows will be put back together.

The exterior wooden doors, frames and trim have also been stripped of paint, repaired, treated with preservative, and primed. Painting has begun on the exterior doors.

The wooden spacers included between the metal panels have been restored or recreated as necessary, and the milling of the replacements has been completed. The milling of other necessary wooden pieces that need to be replaced has also begun.

The steel panels have been sent off to the welder for repairs.

We’re making progress on Rusty’s restoration, although there’s still lots more to do. There’s still not a definite date for reconstruction to start, but they’re still aiming for sometime this spring.