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Federal-Style Home > Episode 4: Cornice Reconstruction and Mantle Restoration

Adding Detail to the Plaster Cornice

Project: Federal-Style Home, Episode 4, Part 1

Bob joins contractor Richard Marks to review progress on the cornice reconstruction, following water damage, and the painstaking restoration of the elaborately carved and inset fireplace mantle. Also, Bob returns to the William Gibbes house for a tour of its one-acre garden.

Part 1: Adding Detail to the Plaster Cornice: Bob observers the expert plasterer add detail to the cornice, which is under reconstruction due to water damage. The scratch coat is complete and the white coat is underway. Several types of plaster are combined and each batch is workable for only 5 minutes before it hardens. A template is pulled across the spread plaster to form the cornice profile.
Part 2: William Gibbes House Garden Tour
Part 3: Decorative Woodwork Restoration

Bob Vila tackles the revitalization of an exquisite Federal-style home, built in the early 1800s, which survived the Civil War but barely survived Hurricane Hugo in 1989. A major aspect of the project is the painstaking process of restoring the original plaster ornamentation and woodwork to their original detail.

Also from Federal-Style Home

Episode 1 - Selecting the Site
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Description:
Bob sets out on a carriage tour of historic Charleston, SC to get a feel for the elegant and well-preserved architecture of one of the most beautiful cities in the South. Richard Marks, the restoration contractor who's responsible for much of the expert work being done in and around Charleston, gives Bob a tour of the elegant, though quite run-down, Federal style house whose revival this project chronicles.
Episode 2 - Discussing the New Addition
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Description:
Bob gets a look at how the newly framed addition will blend gracefully into the back of the old house, adding a considerable amount of expanded living space. Restoration contractor Richard Marks explains how they're reproducing damaged sections of the elaborate, early 19th-century plaster cornice in the dining room. And Bob takes a tour of the spectacular home of Nathaniel Russell, one of Charleston's wealthiest merchants of the Colonial period.
Episode 3 - Installing Windows and Repairing the Roof
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Description:
The new addition receives Federal-style windows that were made on-site. The siding is also cut and detailed to match the Federal Style, which the existing portion of the home exemplifies.<br> <br> Bob takes a tour of Charleston's elegant William Gibbes House. And back at the site, the roofers are using age-old techniques to repair and expand the slate roof.
Episode 5 - Molding Plaster Details
Episode 6 - Drywall Joints and Glass Cabinet Doors
Episode 7 - Painting the Siding and Installing Shutters
Episode 8 - Building the Portico and Restoring the Fireplaces
Episode 9 - House Tour and Decorative Painting

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