Brick Wall Constructions of Old Houses in Ottawa

Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur: Building Research Note, 43, p. 9, 1963-11-01

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Brick Wall Constructions of Old Houses in Ottawa

Ritchie, T.

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C A N A D A Ser

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BRICK WALL

CONSTRUCTIONS OF

OLD

OTTAWA

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BRICK WALL CONSTFEIJC7IONS OF OLD FIOLJSES IN OTTA.WA

by T. RitchL?

A c a v i t y w a l l of concealed boniZing b ~ i c 1 ~ ~ used in a house

constructed in the late 1800's in Eastview, Ontario, w a s d e s c r i b e d in

Building N o t e 41 (1); - A d i f f e r e n t t y p e of cavity urall w a s found t o have

been used in a house constrtzetcd in O t t a w a in 1873, and an u n u s u a l b r i c k

veneer wall was u s e d in another house built about t h e s a m e time. The

purpose of this N o t e is t o record a description of these buildings, which

a r e considered t o be i n t e r e s t i n g examples of early methods of h o u s e

construction in t h e Ottawa ar ea,

House on MacKay Street

T h i s large two-storey s t r u c t u r e served as t h e residence for t h e minister of St. BarthoLornewrs Church. A c c o r d i n g to t h e manager of

t h e wrecking crew it h a d been b-nilt in 1 8 7 3 a n d w a s being torn down (in 1963) to make w a y f o r the construction of a church hall,

The walls w e r e constructed of r e d bricks with a yellow brick t r i m at the c o r n e r s and around windows. The b r i c l w o r k appeared t o be

in sound condition at t h e t h e of demolition a n d t h e r e was no indication

of damage from its many y e a r s o f exposure to t h e weather,

The building r e s t e d on atone rnaaonry foundation walls, Cavity

walls

and

4

h.

_An

the outer and i n n e r p a r t s of t h e wall, Strips of i r o n a b o u t 1/32 In. thick averaging about 18 in, long a n d 1; in. wide (but highly variable in length

i

and width) had been laid diagonally across the w a l l with the eude embedded in the mortar joints. Many of t h e s e ties were examined during t h e

demolition of the building and it was seen that although t h e r e was rust and in some c a s e s _{a s l i g h t scale on parts of the t i e s , they w e r e apparently in}

~ a u n d condition,

The connection between t h e roof and t h e w a l l s was not observed

and therefore it i s ; nat known i f t h e r o o f l o a d was carried by both parts of

the cavity wall (as would be expected). It w a s seen however that the inner part of the cavity wall alone carried the floor system of the second storey. The heavy f l o o r joist^ r e s t e d on a length of 2 by 4 wood which t o o k t h e place of one o f t h e courses of bricks of the inner w a l l , The brickwork was c a r r i e d up between t h e joists and w a e continuous again above them. The

floor eystem i s ehown in F i g u r e 1, which is a p h o t o g r a p h of t h e south

w a l l of the building. The yellow brick t r i m at t h e corner and zround

windows is a l s o shown.

The e a s t wall of the building, v i e w e d from t h e floor of t h e

second storey, I s s h o r n in Figure 2. _{The metal s t r i p s} used to tie t h e

outer and inner walls a r e a l s o shown. In some parts of t h e cavity wall

bricks were laid c r o s s w i s e in the inner wall, projecting across t h e cavity and abutting, but not bonded to, the outer part of the _{wall, The}

purpose served by these bricks is not clear; p e r h a ~ s they w e r e intended

to a d d to the lateral sirength of the outer part of t h e wall. The inner

eui-face of the w a l l s of the building was finished with plaster applied

directly to t h e brickwork,

R e c t a n g ~ l a r "cut" nails w e r e n s e d in the woodwork of t h e

building. Case iron w a s e x t e n s i v e l y u a e d In the hardware, for hinges, locks, window catches, window counter-weights and coat-hangers. The door hinges were sf interesting d e s i g n . T h e y w e r e marked "Baldwin"

and I'Patent, " and probably had been made at the Baldwin Iron Works, a

factory that was destroyed in the g r e a t Ottawa _{f i r e of 1900 (2)- A sketch} of one of the hinges from the building i s shown in Figure 3. Both e n d s of

part "B" of the hinge are solid, no hole having been made for t h e pin,

Had parts "All and IBB" been c a s t separately, it would have been i m p o s s i b l e to b ~ i n g them t o g e t h e r and then to f i t a pin through them, other than by

the u s e of a spring-operated pin, but no spring was found when one of the

hinges was cut through, T o make the hinges one would probably c a s t part

"A, then fit t h e pin in place in it (or possibly have the pin encased in

part " A m t when cast), Part

lTBIr

" A H

sufficient differential shrinkage of the parts so that, after casting, part

T'B1l

It

described, were used in one (at least) of the buildings assembled to form

"Upper Canada Village, This is a collection of mid-1800 and earlier buildings that w e r e re-located from areas which w e r e later flooded in

the St. L a w r e n c e Seaway project to a site n e a r M o r r i s b u r g , Ontario. The particular building in which Baldwin hinges w e r e u s e d is Building No. 3,

I1The

House on Wildwood Street

This l a r g e brick veneer house was t o r n down by the National Capital Comrnis sion in t h e summer of 1963, t o make way f o r highway con-

struction. The history of the house has been given in a pamphlet of the

and is g i v e n a8 an example of N e o - G o t l ~ i c RcvLval A r c h i t e c t u r e . A

photograph of the front of t h e building is s h r n v n in F i g u r e 4.

The house was built on a ~ t s r t c rnafionry fo~indation, T h e w a l l s

consisted of a veneer of red, soft-mud bricks, which was t i e d t o an interior wooden structure by means of long rol~nrf nails e m b e d d e d in t h e

mortar joints. The interior s t r u c t u r e of t h e w a l l consisted of 3-in.

studs (of rough lumber usually 2 in. in t h e other d i ~ n e n s i o n , btlt variable)

with l a i n , sheathing boards nailed to both s i d e s of t h e sturls, La.ths were p l a c e d over the boards but were separated from t h e m by battens which w e r e themselves laths placed vertically on t h e boaxds

.

w a s a p p l i e d to t h e laths. An _{air space of about}

$

$

brick veneer f r o m the plaster. The wall constr~tction is sketched in

E i p r e 5 , and a corner of the partly dernoliahed wall showing the inner

conatruction is shown in Figure 6 .

The use of Lath and plaster between sheathing b o a r d s and brick veneex and the use of round nails to t i e the veneer ta t h e wooden s t r u c t u r e

are the unusual features of this building. Several o l d brick veneer houses

have been examined in Ottawa and the normal brick veneer construction of t h e period in the late 1800's appeared to consist of t h i c k sheathing

b o a r d s nailed t o the studs and heavy building paper applied t o the sheathing, held by strips of wood; the brick veneer w a s t i e d to t h e sheathing and

studs by means of rectangular '"cut" nail5 which projected into the m o r t a r joints. (This type of construction had been used, f o r example, In t h e

house at 187 Bay Street, occupied until. 1899 by the poet Archibald Lampman;

the h o u s e was torn down a f e w years ago.)

Although h does not seem probable, t h e r e is a possibility that

the house on Wildwood Street had originally been built with plaster (stucco)

as the finish on the outside and was later veneered with brickwork. The

u s e made of round nails appears t o support this, since such n a i l s a r e thought to have started t o replace cut i r o n nail8 about 1880, appr oxirnately twenty years after t h e date given f o r the conatruction of t h e house. There

was, however, no indication that the woodwork of the building around wall openings had been ltbuilt outr' to match a new wall surface which the

additioa, of brick veneer would have necessitated.

In

was very weak and contained hair, a further indication that i t was not

intended to be an e x t e r i o r wall finish. C o r r o s i o n of W a l l Ties

Attention is again drawn to the apparently insignificant corrosion that has taken place in the metal ties and in t h e nails used as ties in the

buildings. It has been observed in other old buildings in whish "cut" nails were u s e d to t i e brick veneer to the wood frame that the nails have appeared t o be quite sound even after d e c a d e s of sexvice,

It

the metal would corrode rapidly in masonry which at some periods

during the year becomes quite darnp. The e r n a l l degree of corrosion t h a t haa o c c u r r e d , however, suggests that the t y p e of mortar u s e d in

the masonry of old buildings (undoubtedly lime-sand mortar) may have

a

Conclusions

The demolition of two old brick houses in Ottawa revealed two

unusual waU constructions, one a metal-tied cavity wan, the other a

brick veneer wall with a plaster -covered wood fr arns beneath the veneer.

Nb

service close to a century. The good condition of iron ties and nails u a e d in old brick walls has been noted, and suggests a corrosion-inhtbiting influence of the lime-sand mortar.

References

1, Ritchie,

To

National Re3 ear ch Council, Division o f Building

R e

Building Note 41, February 1963.

2. Shorter, G,W, Ottawa-Hullfire of 1900.

N a t i o n a l Research Council, Division of Building Research, Fire Study No. 7, June 1462. { N R C 6802)-

3. National Capital Cammission, Information and Historical Division, 'Wotice of old building to b e demolished, Ottawa, M a y 7, 1963.

F i g u r e 1 Support of F l o o r on Inner P a r t of Cavity W a l l

FlGURE

3

B R I C K

VENEER

A I R

SPACE

-I-

S f 4 L _{€, INCHES}

F I G U R E

5

B R I C K

VENEER

CONSTRUCTION

OF

A HOUSE BUILT