Old House Repairs in St. Joseph

Why St. Joseph houses move

Much of St. Joseph's upland is built on loess, wind-blown silt deposited along the Missouri River bluffs. The U.S. Geological Survey describes it as "thickest (more than 30 m aggregate thickness of all loess deposits) along Missouri River bluffs." The two most common soils in Buchanan County, Knox and Marshall, both formed in loess. The USDA maps much of the city's hillside housing as Knox–Urban land and Marshall–Urban land on slopes of 4% to 30%.

Loess stands up well when dry and loses strength when it gets wet. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals put about 63% of St. Joseph's annual rain in April through August, and May is the wettest month (4.87 inches). The city also averages about 126 nights a year at or below freezing.

Soil and weather provide context for an assessment, but they do not diagnose a particular crack, sticking door or leaning pier. Record changes and visible drainage problems, such as a downspout emptying at the foundation. Persistent or worsening movement needs evaluation by the appropriate building professional, including a structural engineer when indicated, before cosmetic repairs.

What St. Joseph's older houses are made of

Brick, even on small houses

After the Civil War, "the fierce competition among the city's ten brick works and a dozen sawmills and mill work companies produced vast amounts of inexpensive building materials." Load-bearing brick appears "not only for middle-income and upper-income homes, but also for a surprising number of lower-middle and working-income homes in the city."

Not all of it is the same brick. Local kilns made hard-fired brick from the 1840s, but the cheaper, less hard-fired "salmon" brick "required that a brick residence be covered with a layer of stucco." Hard brick got much cheaper after the mid-1880s, and brick veneer over framing became common after about 1890.

For repairs: if stucco is coming off a brick house, don't assume the brick underneath was meant to be exposed.

Soft brick foundations and high-lime mortar

"The foundations of most residential and commercial buildings in St. Joseph's older neighborhoods and commercial districts are constructed of brick. Often soft bricks were used in combination with a soft mortar mixture containing a high concentration of sand and lime." Some of the earliest foundations are stone.

The city design guidelines describe one mix used on pre-1900 buildings here, not a universal repair specification: 9 parts sand, 4 parts Type S lime, 1 part Type II Portland cement. Standard modern mortar is much richer in Portland cement and much harder.

For repairs: mortar should be softer than the brick, so the joint wears instead of the brick face. Soft brick patched with hard cement mortar or coated with a sealer can trap water, and freeze-thaw then breaks the faces off. Have a qualified masonry professional assess the existing brick and mortar before specifying a repair. Movement, leaning or foundation distress needs structural assessment; the size of a patch alone does not establish that it belongs in a handyman scope.

Balloon framing

"Most wood frame houses and rare surviving commercial buildings in St. Joseph built before 1940 are made of balloon frame construction, which means that the exterior side wall studs in a two-story building are continuous from the foundation to the roof rafters." The National Register study says the method was "especially prevalent in the housing boom of the 1880's and 1890's."

For repairs:

• Wall cavities can run from the basement to the attic without a break at the floors. That's a path for air and fire, and it changes how you insulate or fish a wire.
• Settling shows up as racked openings over two stories, not just one.
• Solid framing isn't always where you'd expect it for anchoring grab bars, shelves or railings, so we locate it first. → Grab bars in older homes

Plaster walls

Plaster was the standard interior finish in American houses until drywall took over after World War II, and with more than a third of St. Joseph's homes built before 1950, a lot of walls here are still plaster. Traditional plaster over wood lath holds by "keys," plaster squeezed through the gaps in the lath. When the keys break, the plaster pulls away and bulges. A skim coat hides that for a while but doesn't reattach it. → Drywall and plaster repair

Wood windows

"Most windows in the City's historic districts are made of wood and are comprised of double-hung sash." Two-over-two and one-over-one are the most common types. Counterweighted sash usually fails at the cord, the pulley or the paint seal before the wood gives out. → Door and window repair

Porches

Historic porches here have tongue-and-groove floorboards on brick piers or a continuous brick base, and beadboard ceilings. The floorboards are what fail. → Porch repair

Asbestos siding

Asbestos shingle and plank siding "were introduced in St. Joseph immediately after World War One, and they became extremely popular as an exterior cladding in both new construction and modernizations" of older houses. So asbestos-cement siding over original clapboard is something we check for. EPA guidance generally recommends leaving asbestos-containing material alone when it is in good condition and will not be disturbed. Damaged material or work involving cutting, drilling or breaking needs assessment by a trained, accredited professional, with sampling when needed, before work begins.

Roofs

Slate was the expensive choice in the late 1800s, and terne-metal and standing-seam roofs were common. Composition shingles "replaced almost all other forms of roofing after the beginning of the Great Depression." Watch the built-in (box) gutters on older houses. When they leak they rot the cornice from inside, and the city's historic guidelines specifically warn against re-roofing that covers or removes them.

Repair or replace: how we decide

For each part we look at what's original and what's later, what's actually failing and why, what a repair would keep, and what replacement would change. A sound 1890s sash with a broken cord is worth keeping. A 1970s replacement door with a rotted bottom rail may not be.

In the Hall Street and Museum Hill local historic districts, repair in kind is also the path that doesn't need Landmark Commission approval. → Historic district repairs