Plaster Walls: Repair Them or Replace With Drywall?
Every pre-war Westchester home eventually has the conversation. A crack stair-steps across the living room wall, or a patch of plaster bulges gently away from the lath when you press it, and two opinions arrive with it: repair the plaster, or rip it all out and hang drywall. The first voice belongs to the house […]
Cape Cod Dormers: Why They Leak and How They’re Fixed Properly
Eastchester’s capes carry their dormers like eyebrows over the front slope — small gabled rooms punched through the roof to bring light and headroom to the bedrooms upstairs. And a stain on the bedroom ceiling below a dormer is one of the most common roof complaints in post-war Westchester, and one of the most common […]
7 Signs Your Chimney Needs Repair Before Winter
A chimney fails from the top down and from the outside in, and it does most of its failing in winter, when freeze-thaw works the cracks that summer’s rain found. The good news is that a chimney announces its problems early, in plain sight, to anyone who walks across the street and looks up. Here […]
Repointing vs Tuckpointing: What’s the Difference — and Which Does Your Home Need?
Ask three masons what tuckpointing is and you may hear two answers, because the trade uses one word for a repair and another for a finish — and the internet has cheerfully merged them. Here is the short version. Repointing is the repair: removing failed mortar from the joints of a brick or stone wall […]