back in the early 1980s I rebuilt an ancient old victorian home in the
MA Bay Colony. Some one had drilled 3" holes in the ancient clapboards
to shoot cellulose int he walls and then covered the mess with asbestos
shingles.
I'm sure fore resistance was part of the sales pitch.
Oh to be sheathed in asbestos.
It was my first project in home construction and rebuilding. I started
with a window that looked cocked. I discovered that the balloon frame
had been infected with rot from the failing roofline three stories of
fifteen foot ceilings up. That rot had traveled all the way to the
first floor. Then to the sill.
I had my work cut out for me. Old peg and post wiring ( some of it
glowed red), failing lathe and horsehair plaster walls and ceilings,
springy floors decomposing plumbing of multiple metals and structural
rot and failures galore. Good thing I didn't pay much for it.
I didn't know a damn thing about the construction trades. But I
figured money see monkey do. I'd look at what was done and just
imitate it.
The sills were sort of mostly good the clapboards were mostly good. I
ended up with many cans of Bondo. Bondo turned out to be the most
marvelous stuff for replacing rotter or destroyed exterior wood
surfaces. It lasted and is still lasting today almost 40 years later.
Ya gotta paint it. But it's fabulous stuff.
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