Buying a burned house takes imagination. Our first walk-through revealed an apocalyptic scene. Chunks of plaster and household debris were piled knee-deep in the front entrance hall and the den, where the fire started. The firefighters had broken 38 windows in the house to allow smoke and heat to escape, and shards of glass mixed with black soot covered every surface like a lava flow. Then there was the smell—nothing compares to the odor of charred wood, plaster, and plastic. But the house was pure Bauhaus, and the layout was fantastic. Despite its appearance, we fell in love.

The author's husband used a gas-powered pressure washer and rainwater to clean the exterior of the house before utilities were restored.

Cinderblock construction has plenty of naysayers (including several of the general contractors we interviewed), but the house handled the fire surprisingly well. In a stick-built house, the fire would have spread much more quickly from the den’s fireplace, destroying the master bedroom above and traveling through the roof. In this house, the second floor is a reinforced concrete slab, so there was no structural damage. Most fortunate of all, the home-owners who’d lived in the house for 52 years escaped the fire unharmed.

When our selected general contractor fell through at the last minute, we decided to take another risk and become our own general contractor. We made all decisions based on two things: cost and speed. It was a strategy that meshed well with the goals of historical restoration because it kept us focused on simply putting the house back together. An unlimited timeframe and budget might have lured us into over-renovating to the point of losing the original spirit of the house.

Flames spread from the den into the entry hall, charring the top half of the stairs.

Where There’s Smoke
The house sat vacant for six months before we purchased it. The first week that we took possession, my husband, Mike, started working to remove soot from the exterior. This was tricky since the house had no working systems, including water (the well pump had frozen). Using fall nor’easters to our advantage, Mike ran a rubber tube from the flat roof and filled our empty hot tub with rainwater. Then we rented a gas-powered pressure washer and blasted the outside soot.

For the interior smoke damage, we hired a fire restoration company, Servpro. The first step was to remove the overpowering smell of smoke permeating the house. Servpro set up five ozone generators, which ran for three days. The machines produce ozone, which oxidizes the airborne odor-causing molecules.

Then the laborious cleaning process began. “People make mistakes trying to clean soot themselves,” explains Steve Taylor, general manager of our local Servpro franchise. “Using water or household cleaners smears the soot around and can sometimes even set it into the underlying material.”

The fire restoration workers painstakingly cleaned every square inch of the interior using vulcanized rubber sponges. Their goal was to remove any loose particles so the walls could be primed and painted. Mike and I followed them with Kilz oil-based primer (which is specially formulated to cover smoke damage) and painted the interior ourselves. Thanks to this careful process of cleaning, prepping, and promptly painting, we were able to save most of the original textured plaster despite the extensive smoke damage. We only needed to replaster in the den and hall, where the fire had destroyed the walls. And after four years and three humid summers, we’ve never smelled smoke.

The living room's original built-in shelves were retained, and the concrete slab was topped with a floating cork floor.

Turning up the Heat
The house was designed in 1949 with radiant heating throughout the first floor. The concept was way ahead of its time, but the system itself was way past its prime. The life expectancy for original radiant heating systems was about 50 years, after which time corrosion tends to cause leaks in the piping embedded within the concrete floor. Our plumber tested for leaks by using an air compressor to pressurize the system. A check of the pressure gauge showed a significant loss of pressure after 12 hours—the pipes were shot. Our first thought was to install new radiant heat, which uses flexible tubing. But that meant either demolishing the floor to redo the piping or building it up by a few inches. Building up would have affected the steps to the sunken living room, as well as the room’s built-in bookshelves, hearth, and French doors.

We decided to preserve the design of the sunken living room but compromised by adding hot-water baseboard heating and leaving the slab and its embedded pipes alone. The trade-off was losing the original modern concept of having no visible heat source, but we simply didn’t have the budget, time, or stomach to tear up the entire first floor and re-pour a slab with new tubing.

However, adding baseboard heating left us with an unheated concrete floor. When searching for flooring that would be both true to the time period and insulating, we hit upon the perfect solution: cork. We laid a vapor barrier and a floating cork floor directly onto the slab.

The kitchen wasn't touched by the flames, but smoke damage was extensive.

Window Worries
The house’s wraparound aluminum ribbon windows are its main design element, adding modern luster both inside and out, but they presented a dilemma after the fire. The 1949 single-pane windows weren’t exactly energy-efficient (the previous owners had even glued wood strips to some of the interior frames to prevent water condensation), and now 38 of them were broken. Then there was the problem of the den windows—the frames had actually melted and twisted in the fire. We needed to find replacements.

Naively, I carried an aluminum frame into a window shop. “I would like to replace 38 casement windows matching this sample,” I said. I quickly learned that unless I ordered custom windows at great cost, I was out of luck finding unclad aluminum replacements. Sticking to our goals of budget and speed, we found Gary Moliterno of Moliterno Glass, who was able to fit double-paned glass into the frames that were still intact.

But what about the melted frames in the den? We shopped around for standard casements and found that a line of Andersen Windows had the thinnest profile, which best matched the thin aluminum-frame windows. We chose a paintable exterior option for the vinyl-clad windows and painted them a light gray to match the appearance of the aluminum windows.

New high-gloss IKEA cabinets mimic the look of 1940s-era metal versions.

Friendly Fire
Ironically, the biggest projects we tackled on the house had little to do with the fire. If the house hadn’t burned and we’d purchased it at market rate, we probably would have put nearly the same amount of money into upgrading the outdated systems, windows, flooring, and kitchen. The fire not only lowered the purchase price, but also deterred other would-be buyers. After the eight-month restoration was complete, a friend visited our house. She told us, “There is an old Korean superstition about living in a house that has had a fire. The fire cleanses old energies and brings good fortune.” It’s certainly proven true for our house.

Barbara Rhines, a longtime collector of 20th-century decorative arts, serves on the Board of the Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln (FoMA), a local group working to preserve the town of Lincoln’s collection of early Modern houses.

Online exclusive: Check out other Bauhaus-influenced houses in Massachusetts.

Decorative shingles and Stick-style detailing also warm up the home’s appearance, and better match the neighborhood’s high-style homes.

From the beginning, Helen Raynham loved the old-world feel of her circa-1900 Queen Anne in Winchester, Massachusetts. “It had a turret and a leafiness around the building. I remember going inside and seeing a window with sheer curtains blowing in the breeze—very Victorian—through which I glimpsed the trees outside,” she recalls. Helen and her husband, Richard Colvin, also appreciated the building’s location near the center of town on a quiet, established street. But the house wasn’t a perfect fit for the couple and their three children.

While its two and a half stories boasted nearly 6,000 square feet, it had been built as a double, intended to house two families. And its exterior was ensconced in aluminum siding, bereft of the architectural detailing so prominent on the other fine, fancy Victorian buildings in the neighborhood. “The house had a lot of potential and the space seemed great,” says Richard, “but it hadn’t been well-maintained for a long time.”

The couple knew it would take a major overhaul to create the house they wanted for their family’s home. So they turned to Mathew Cummings of Cummings Architects to help them transform the drab duplex into an up-to-date single that pays homage to its neighborhood’s roots.

The challenges began at the front door. “The house was cut right down the middle, with an egress on each side, so we had two main entries we had to connect,” explains Mat. The building also sat further from the street than its neighbors, which made it seem disconnected from the rest of the neighborhood.

To create a more appropriate and inviting entry, Mat extended the two side porches into a big wraparound typical on many Queen Annes, and added a front porch gable. “The wraparound porch brings the façade closer to the street,” he says, while the gable, with a custom-designed scrollwork decoration, points visitors to the new front door. To further help the front façade, Mat added a beefed-up balustrade. “The handrail fits the era, but it’s intentionally large because we’re trying to break down the scale of the house from the street view.”

Two-to-One

The Queen Anne began life as a double house, with a firewall separating the two sides on all three floors. An aluminum sided exterior became inviting with the addition of a wraparound porch.

Inside, two separate homes were thoughtfully blended into one, keeping original staircases, mantels, and double French doors, but reworking many other details to create both public and private family spaces.

In the kitchen, for example, the couple knew they wanted a combination of living and cooking areas. So the floor plan evolved into a space that was bright and defined, yet visible from adjoining rooms.

On one side, Mat used a half wall with columns as a divider to facilitate easy views and a sense of connectedness, while a centrally located island serves as a gathering place.

“In first period homes, the fireplace was where people gathered. This island is like the first period fireplace—everything revolves around it,” Mat says. “I love the kitchen; it’s the whole focus of the house,” adds Helen.

Two walls were removed to create the new space—something Mat rarely recommends—but in a nod to history, their imprint remains in the bottom of the half wall and as a dark border inlaid in the kitchen’s new wood floor (which matches originals in other parts of the house). “If the first homeowners walked in,” says Mat, “they could see 100-year-old layout behind the new one.”

Eggplant walls in the living room are punctuated with new book-matched doorways, providing access to the dining room beyond.

In and Out

It would also be easy to recognize the previous lives of the dining room and den, since they began as mirror-image spaces with matching fireplaces along a common wall. New doorways now flank the fireplace mantels, connecting the rooms and facilitating easy access between the two. “We wanted to create a nice, era-appropriate opening between the rooms,” says Mat. “Now if you want to sit down in the den after dinner, it’s easy to do.”

The den’s lighting selections, like those in the rest of the house, match the architecture and help define the room. Its turret boasts a chandelier that hangs low, inviting visitors to sit down and get comfortable in the cozy space.

“Once we have a feel for a house, we use lighting to embellish areas,” says Mat. Likewise, recessed lighting appears only in the kitchen and the family room. “We never use recessed lighting in the public spaces of historic homes,” explains Mat, “only sparingly in family places. Recessed lighting has every opportunity of ruining the architecture.”

Such thoughtful attention to details extends outside the house, too. The rear yard, reached via French doors through the living room, boasts a pergola that echoes Victorian-era garden features, while allowing plenty of light to filter into the back rooms of the house. The pergola helps soften the home’s rear view, which was also initially out of scale.

“The beginning house was very boring, and certainly not deserving of the neighborhood,” says Mat, referring to the surrounding mix of Second Empires, Queen Annes, and Stick- and Shingle-style houses. So Victorian-era exterior detailing was added via some Stick-style ornament and shingles in the gables, and the addition of shutters on second- and third-floor windows.

“We wanted to preserve the existing window locations, but too much of the home’s exterior was taken up by siding. Shutters help make windows look bigger, bringing the house down to a more human scale,” he explains. Architectural styles were evolving so quickly during the Victorian era that these houses can have a little bit of several different styles thrown in, says Mat. “It’s kind of like making chicken soup; you can mix different things together and get the flavor you want, as long as you use the right ingredients.”

The master bedroom boasts a cozy seating area inside the turret.

Helen used a similar approach in furnishing and finishing her home, pooling a team of talented professionals that included interior designer Jean Verbridge, landscape designer Laura Kuhn, and interior and exterior color consultants Bonnie Rosser Krims and The Color People. “I believe a lot in designers,” she says.

In the end, the blending of styles and specialists paid off; the couple is quite happy with the way the house has turned out. “We wanted to make a comfortable home where our family could grow up, a fine Victorian house that fit in with the character of the neighborhood,” says Richard.

Helen agrees, but her favorite parts still seem to revolve around that turret—the one that made such a strong initial impression. “We have a treadmill inside the turret on the third floor,” she says. “You can run there with almost a 360-degree view, which is fabulous. It does shake the chandeliers a bit…but not too much.”

For many years the embassy of Indonesia, this 1903 French-inspired mansion was built for Thomas Walsh, who made his fortune in gold mining.

The Beaux-Arts style, also called the American Renaissance, is about as formal as architecture can get. Based on classical European precedents—primarily French and Italian palaces and palazzos of the 16th to the 18th century—this grandly formal style transformed America’s major cities between the 1880s and the 1920s after being introduced at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to an eager nation that had begun to tire of Victorian excesses. Soon, Beaux-Arts architecture was swept along by the turn-of-the-20th-century City Beautiful Movement, which left in its wake a sea of magnificent public buildings of polished stone, from state capitols, courthouses, and city halls to train stations, libraries, and museums.

Beaux Arts also produced some of the most costly and beautiful private homes ever seen in the United States—not only in cities, but also in resort towns and on country estates. Newly minted millionaires in Newport and San Francisco—and virtually all points in between—celebrated a prosperous new century by hiring the finest architects to build eye-popping mansions in the best of taste.

Take Washington, D.C., for instance. Washington emerged from a swampy marshland dominated by frumpy Victorian red brick and brownstone to become a sparkling city of white marble and limestone, its classically inspired buildings set among broad, axial avenues studded with monuments and reflecting pools. Under the leadership of Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham, who had created the fabulous “White City” of the Chicago exposition, City Beautiful principles and Beaux-Arts architecture brought forth a capital city worthy of a great nation. More than a century after Pierre L’Enfant laid out his plan for Washington, his ambitious scheme finally moved toward reality.

This 1909 mansion, home to the International Eastern Star Temple, was designed by Eugène Sanson and Horace Trumbauer.

Formal Notes

In addition to French and Italian palaces and palazzos of the Renaissance and Baroque eras, Beaux-Arts inspiration came, albeit less frequently, from English Georgian or Classical Revival homes. But Beaux-Arts designs were never (well, almost never) direct copies of earlier buildings. Instead, they were original, creative interpretations of Renaissance ideals and prototypes.

The essence of a Beaux-Arts building lay in its attention to classical forms and perfection of finish details. Beaux-Arts design was relentlessly logical, demanding rigorous symmetry, sophisticated use of axis and cross axis, and exquisite proportions.

In other words, it was the exact opposite of the fussy, rambling, picturesque, High Victorian styles that had preceded it. And civic America was more than ready to embrace it.

Building Beaux

Since wooden buildings lack the gravitas the style required, Beaux-Arts structures were invariably constructed of masonry, usually a light-colored, smooth-surfaced, ashlar-cut stone. Some buildings—such as those based on the English Georgian Revival style—were made of brick with stone decoration.

But the term “stone” needs to be qualified. Decorative exterior elements on these stone buildings weren’t necessarily carved out of solid limestone or marble. They might very well have been made from cast stone (a composite of ground stone and cement, much like some of today’s engineered stone countertops), or from molded terracotta, or even from pressed tin painted to look like stone. When used atop a large building, these substitute materials were almost indistinguishable from ground level. They were also much lighter and easier to work with—not to mention infinitely cheaper—than the real thing.

These French-inspired mansions are now the embassies of Pakistan, left, and Haiti, right.

Earmarks of the style were symmetrical facades, pedimented porticos, and columns and engaged pilasters with capitals, bases, and fluted or plain shafts in correct Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian orders from ancient Rome and Greece. There were often colonnades and columned entryways, which sometimes were elevated a full story above ground level and frequently had cast-iron-and-glass marquees and ornate wrought-iron decoration. Porte-cocheres and rounded pavilions also could be featured at the ends of buildings. Porches replaced formal terraces and conservatories. Buildings in the French idiom might feature mansard roofs, French doors, and curved window tops above fancy casement windows.

Architecture, landscape, and art were essential components of good Beaux-Arts design. Beautiful, formal grounds and gardens with vistas and sculptural accents abounded.

Interiors were heavily decorated with classical ornament. Decorative plaster ceilings, frescoed walls, and marble and tile-mosaic floors completed the décor, while collections of paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and ancient objects proclaimed their owners’ cultivated tastes.

Powerful as the appeal of Beaux-Arts’ “splendid excess” had been to the American imagination, it could not hold on in the face of the Great Depression. By 1930, it had lost its appeal for residential building, and even the federal government was having second thoughts about building such expensive real estate. Washington, D.C.’s Federal Triangle, the cluster of Neoclassical-style government buildings located between the White House and the Capitol and built between 1926 and 1938, became the last hurrah for the grand old style.

The sunny living room features built-in cabinetry, refinished hardwood floors, new double-hung wood windows, and a restored fireplace complete with a wood-burning insert and a cast-in-place chimney flue.

It’s not unusual for old-house owners to find themselves challenged by their restoration needs. Bringing an old house back to the glory of its youth can be a daunting proposition, and without the time to research specific period details—and the skills to re-create them—repairing older houses can be a daunting prospect. But what if you had someone on your side who already knew the process inside and out? Enter a design-build contractor.

Boston homeowner Kim McLanahan had a couple of awkward additions and a laundry list of other problems to contend with in her 1870 Second Empire, and she knew she needed a contractor with old-house expertise to help her sort it out. She hired my company, Charlie Allen Restorations, to help her solve her home’s many challenges.

Her list of concerns included a turn-of-the-century rear addition that interrupted the mansard roof; a kitchen expansion that was cold, awkward, and out-of-date; an exterior covered in vinyl siding; a cyclone fence; a brick foundation in need of repointing; rotting cellar windows; loose and drafty wood double-hung windows with aged aluminum storms; and a mansard roof that had been updated in three-tab fiberglass shingles. Kim also wanted to add a shower to a first-floor powder room. In addition to these tangible challenges, Kim was on a tight budget, and she needed to live in the house throughout the work, which meant the process had to be phased over several years.

A skylight added to the second-floor bathroom ushers plenty of natural light into the space. Beadboard wainscoting, a built-in cabinet, and an antique mirror contribute to the period feel of the room.

We started by taking a step back to do some planning. Kim wanted the three second-floor bedrooms and her living room and dining room walls, windows, and doors to remain largely undisturbed. They were the most original portions of the house, which hadn’t been subjected to earlier remodeling endeavors.

The kitchen and baths, on the other hand, had all been remodeled more than once in the 20th century, and Kim wanted to reverse the damage. The “work” in these rooms was done on paper first, and the designs went through several iterations until Kim felt the proposed changes would create the spaces she needed and wanted while maintaining the integrity of her old house.

Refinishing the staircase proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of the restoration. After it had been completely stripped, the risers were painted to match the trim, treads were given a natural polyurethane finish, and the railing, balusters, and newel post were stained a rich brown for contrast.

The planning helped us figure out how to phase the construction work in an efficient way that would prevent us from going back to previously completed items or through finished spaces while undertaking work in the future. Our road map also helped us define what items to address in each phase so Kim could continue to occupy the house. We planned to stagger the bathroom renovations so Kim would always have a bathroom free to use. A basic, temporary kitchen was established in the dining room so Kim could prepare meals.

Once the kitchen had been gutted, however, our best-laid plans started to unravel. We could see that what was formerly the end wall of the house (before the addition had been tacked on) had been left unsupported. Two layers of kitchen ceiling and three layers of second-floor bathroom flooring had helped conceal this condition and the resulting stress. We couldn’t put in a proper beam and straighten the sagging floor joists without compromising the second-floor bathroom, so we had no choice but to take it offline, which left Kim showering at the gym for several weeks. And while working on the second-floor bathroom, we discovered damage to the roof rafters from a previous house fire. Fortunately, much of the damage was cut out to make room for the skylight, but we did have to resupport a small portion of the hip roof framing.

Exterior projects such as removing the vinyl siding, installing new lattice panels, and selecting historically appropriate paint colors crowned the decade-long restoration process.

A few smaller projects over the next several years then addressed the bedrooms, study, and living room. Logically, Kim saved the dramatic exterior restoration work for the end of the process. It was joyous work for us all, as we removed the vinyl siding, the cyclone fence, and aluminum gutters; restored the original window sills and mansard window buttresses, providing appropriate window and door backband moldings; and fabricated lattice panels and reestablished wood gutters to aesthetically tie the addition back into the house. We also worked with the local historical commission to determine appropriate paint color options. The exterior restoration received a local Cambridge Historical Commission Preservation Award.

As Kim discovered, the challenges of an old-house restoration can stymie even the most eager old-house restorer once a project gets underway. But working with professionals on a restoration project doesn’t have to be equated with letting go or losing control—it’s just another way to get the job done.

Charlie Allen owns Charlie Allen Restorations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and serves as a councilor on the Cambridge Historical Society.

Online exclusive: See our list of questions to ask when searching for an old-house contractor.

Henry B. Hoover House (1937)
Designed by Henry B. Hoover

Although it put Lincoln on the Modernist map, Gropius’1938 family home was not the first modern house in Lincoln. A year earlier, Harvard-educated architect Henry B. Hoover built a home for his family that embodied American Modernism with its use of natural materials, open floor plan, and integral connection with nature. Primarily a residential architect, Hoover designed more than 100 houses across the country, 50 of which were located in Lincoln. The Hoover House is sited on rocky terrain with views overlooking the Cambridge reservoir. The house’s connectedness with its site reflects Hoover’s early affiliation with noted landscape architect Fletcher Steele.

Photo courtesy of Historic New England

Walter Gropius House (1938)
Designed by Walter Gropius

Wanting his home to reflect New England building traditions while adhering to Bauhaus principles, Gropius combined locally popular materials like clapboard, brick, and fieldstone (often employed in innovative ways) with new concepts like glass block, chromed banisters, and acoustical plaster. The result was a revolutionary house that incorporates such cutting-edge concepts as passive solar heating, natural ventilation, and a kitchen with a garbage disposal and automatic dishwasher. Other Bauhaus contemporaries, including Josef Albers and Marcel Breuer, contributed furniture and artwork to the home’s interior. Today, the fully intact house is operated as a museum by Historic New England, and is considered one of the foremost showcases of Bauhaus architecture in the U.S.

Francis C. Gaskill House (1940)
Designed by Quincy Adams

A descendent of former presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Lincoln-based, Columbia-educated architect Quincy Adams met Walter Gropius shortly after his arrival in Lincoln and became enamored with the Bauhaus style. In addition to the fire-damaged home featured in OHJ’s November/December issue (which was built for Adams’ sister, Abigail), he also designed the 1940 Gaskill House, which demonstrates Modernism’s embrace of new building materials (concrete-block construction), flat roofs, and simplified ornamentation and moldings. Although Adams promoted Modern design, he cherished the New England landscape, and was alarmed by the pace of 20th-century property subdivision and development. He donated hundreds of acres of his family’s land to be preserved as green space, and served on the Lincoln Conservation Commission for 29 years.

John P. Monks House (1941)
Designed by G. Holmes Perkins

A Harvard University faculty member who helped bring Walter Gropius to Harvard in 1937, Perkins went on to hold the deanship of the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1950. He designed five residential houses in the Boston area, including an International Style house for Dr. John P. Monks in Lincoln in 1941. The home, said to be Perkins’ favorite among his designs, features a graceful plaster spiral staircase in the entryway, a spacious living room designed to hold classical music concerts, a pinwheel-shaped floor plan, and south-facing bedrooms that overlook the expanse of lawn and trees with a continuous balcony that runs the entire width of the house. The house received national recognition when it was featured in The Architectural Forum in June of 1945 and numerous books on modern residential design. The surrounding New England landscape and terraces were designed by Perkins and Christopher Tunnard, who published the classic manifesto Gardens in the Modern Landscape in 1938 and went on to influence a whole generation of landscape architects and planners.

This blaze at a historic home in Marblehead, Massachusetts, was reportedly caused by the process used to remove exterior paint. Kris Olson photo

When most people walk into a historic house, they’re looking to step further into the building to explore original details like stained glass, beautiful carved wood moldings, or magnificent parquet floors.

When Chuck Jennings steps into an old house, the first thing he thinks of is how to get out—especially if the structure is filled with the heat, smoke, and darkness of a blazing fire. That’s because Jennings, an avid preservationist who loves old houses (he owns two—a 1918 Foursquare and an 1880s Queen Anne), is a professor of fire science at New York’s John Jay College, and one of the nation’s leading fire safety consultants.

Chuck Jennings, an avid preservationist and one of the nation’s leading fire safety consultants, lives with his family in an 1880s Queen Anne home in upstate New York. Tony Seideman photo

Conversations with Jennings and other fire safety experts present a classic good news/bad news picture of old houses. With their thick plaster walls and usually robust construction, older homes are in many ways safer than modern ones. On the other hand, older houses often sit in poorer neighborhoods, which statistically puts them at greater risk. Many older buildings are also owned by older people, which can mean deferred maintenance, lacking resources, and consequently greater threats.

Perhaps the most important point to consider on fire safety is that in most cases, houses don’t burn down by themselves. Human activities are the overwhelming reason most fires happen. In a way, that’s good news, because people who recognize this can take the necessary steps to protect themselves.

Prevention

Keeping fires from happening is the best way to reduce the risks they present. Jennings says one risk tops all others when it comes to fire safety: the restoration process itself. “The number-one threat to historic homes from a fire-safety perspective is contractors,” Jennings explains. Any time a home’s basic fabric is disturbed, it is vulnerable. But the real risk, says Jennings, comes from working with open flames.

Extension cords are a major fire hazard—especially during the holiday season. Never overload cords or place them beneath rugs. Dave Raboin photo/Istockphoto.com

If at all possible, try to avoid this type of work, which is typically concentrated to plumbing and roofing. Stephen Tilly, owner and principal of Stephen Tilly Architects, knows from personal experience how dangerous open flames can be in roof work. “We repaired a fire-damaged roofing job site that started when roofers were working on some flashing with a torch. Old tar paper beneath siding can go up in an instant. The workers didn’t notice that this had happened, and the flames traveled up one side in a wall, burning out an entire room in the house.” Torch-down roofing—a process where a modified bitumen roofing product is installed on a flat roof with a blowtorch—remains popular among many roofers, but it must be applied with extreme caution.

As for plumbing, Jennings advocates a “fire watch” any time an open flame is used. A lookout should observe the site for at least an hour to avoid the “lunch syndrome”—i.e., when a plumber has sweated a joint, goes out to lunch, and comes back to find half the local fire department surrounding a smoking wreck. Jennings isn’t a big fan of heat guns, either, and says using torches to remove paint is just a bad idea.

Establishing strict rules for work on your house—and following them—is vital. “Make sure your sprinkler system isn’t completely turned off,” Tilly advises. “You also can set up additional temporary smoke detection.”

Roofing and plumbing repairs requiring welding must be carried out very carefully. Alex Winner photo

After preservation work, the riskiest activities for historic homes are similar to those for newer ones. Food preparation ranks high among the cause of blazes. Adolescents and the elderly—both prone to distraction and forgetfulness—tend to pose the greatest risk. For adolescents, strict controls and definite rules can help reduce risks. Be clear about when they can cook and how. Rules can help the elderly as well, but technology can also provide an assist. Today there are tools available to increase cooking safety for older chefs, such as systems that keep pots and their contents from getting hotter than the ignition point of oil.

While cooking causes the most fires, blazes related to smoking are the most deadly. Once again, a few simple rules can significantly reduce risks. Never smoke in bed or when you’re sleepy. Always use a big ashtray, since larger ashtrays will contain cigarettes better and are less likely to spill. There are fire-resistant cigarettes on the market that put themselves out if they are not inhaled within a set period of time, so if you do want to smoke, you can avoid setting conflagrations. Or, best of all, you can quit.

Once human error is reduced, the next step is to examine the fabric of the house and the condition of its appliances. Bad wiring is a common cause of fire in old houses, Jennings says. Knob and tube electrical systems, when in good condition and not overloaded, are fundamentally safe. But many older homes have been subject to an endless variety of bad electrical work over the years; an inspection is always warranted.

Water leaks can cause fires by creating short circuits as moisture hits wires and electrical devices. Old appliances can be risks, as can improperly vented dryers. Extension cords are an all-too-common source of disaster. Use them with caution; make sure they are appropriate for the task at hand. Putting an extension cord beneath a carpet is incredibly dangerous, and has caused damage or complete destruction to many a historic structure.

Keep a 36" clearance around furnaces. Improperly vented clothes dryer vents can cause fires. Inspecting chimneys for damage—and keeping them clean—helps prevent fires. From left: Bruce R. Cassi photo; Jeremy Stanley photo; Nathan Winter photo

Chimneys and wood stoves are another risk. Inspect chimneys annually, especially if they are connected to a wood stove; creosote buildup is a fire hazard mitigated through regular cleaning. Use adequate fire protection anywhere a wood stove is set; check your manual or call the manufacturer for guidelines, which vary by stove. You may need a permit to install a stove; not getting one could create problems with your homeowner’s insurance. Even regular furnaces should never stand alone—they should be surrounded by some type of fire-resistant enclosure, even if only drywall. Keep materials and debris a safe distance away from furnaces as well, at least 36″.

Protection

Because he’s a thoughtful, careful, demanding purchaser, Jennings’ old homes didn’t need many alterations. But one thing he installed immediately was a hard-wired, battery-backup smoke alarm system, which will keep the house safe even during brief electrical interruptions. Every place where people sleep should have a smoke alarm, he says. Kitchens should have an alarm, too, but it should be placed far enough away from cooking surfaces to ensure it isn’t constantly triggered, which can make it a nuisance and tempting to disconnect.

A device that fits over burners, keeping temperatures in check, can prevent fires caused by forgetfulness. Carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and smoke detectors should make an appearance in every house.

When it comes to alarm systems, Jennings recommends following the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 72 standard. While wireless installations can reduce the cost and damage of installation, hard-wired systems do better when it comes to power outages and reliability. In hard-wired systems, all the alarms are connected to each other and to a central station, while wireless systems use small radio transmitters to communicate with each other and a central locale. “Wired is always better,” says Tilly, and many building codes require hard-wired installations.

Sprinklers are another useful safety feature, albeit an expensive one. But costs—and damage from installations on historic structures—are far less today than they once were. Major innovations include the use of heat-resistant, flexible plastic pipes (PEX tubing) and high-pressure systems that produce a mist that can suffocate a fire without destroying historic materials. In many areas, sprinklers are only necessary at exit routes and high-risk areas to meet code demands and significantly improve safety. In recent years, states have adopted the International Building Code (IBC), but many have modified the overall regulations to meet the needs of their localities and regions. Check with local authorities before moving forward.

Most experts agree that every historic home should have fire extinguishers in kitchens and anywhere flames are likely to occur. Jennings himself isn’t a fan of extinguishers, because he’s seen homeowners add to disasters by trying to fight blazes themselves. Generally speaking, unless you are trained in the use of extinguishers and have the temperament to keep calm during an emergency, your time is better spent evacuating than attempting to fight fire with a handheld extinguisher.

The Brokaw-McDougall house in Tallahassee, Florida, installed a fire sprinkler system with flexible PEX tubing during renovation. MLD Architects photo

Planning

Unfortunately, despite meticulous preparation, fires can still happen. But some basic planning can make a huge difference in saving lives and preventing injuries if or when a fire occurs.

If you have an historic preservation society, get them talking with the local fire department about minimum-impact firefighting, says Tilly, who recently had to deal with the impact of two fires—one in a community where preservation was a priority, and one where it was not. Though the fires were similar, the damage was exponentially greater in the town where preservation wasn’t high on the radar. It’s possible to fight fires without taking a house apart, and there’s nothing wrong with asking fire departments to use this approach.

Once a serious blaze starts, you have just one to three minutes to safely get out. Always keep low; heat rises, and temperatures at head height can scorch lung tissue. In addition, smoke from a house fire is full of potentially lethal toxins and gases—another reason to stay close to the ground.

In a significant fire, the smoke is usually so thick that visibility rapidly drops to a matter of inches. That’s why some people get lost—and die—within feet of safety. “Fire is destructive, and it’s permanent,” Jennings says. But it isn’t inevitable, especially if you invest a relatively small amount of time and energy in preparation, prevention, and planning for escape.

After an in-depth repair project, the leaded glass door fronting the author's built-in 1906 china cabinet looks good as new.

Looking at the missing panes and broken cames of the leaded glass doors fronting our 1906 built-in china cabinet, my husband, Todd, and I wondered how hard it would be to fix them ourselves.

“Can novices repair leaded glass windows?” we asked each other. Like most old-house owners, we like the challenge of repairing our home’s broken pieces—and our brick row house in Brooklyn, New York, has had plenty of parts in need of fixing. So I decided to look into the logistics of leaded glass.

After much research and some project trial and error, I found that repairing leaded glass is possible, but it’s not easy. It’s a daunting task that requires a high level of skill. You need to be comfortable working with both glass and some toxic materials—it’s more than just the lead that’s harmful—and it also helps if you have some soldering experience. In other words, repairing leaded glass is not for the faint of heart—but it can be done.

A

Step 1: Assess the Damage

Take stock of what you have to work with. Simpler patterns are easier to repair, while more complex designs—windows with a curved pattern, for example—require more dexterity.

The leaded glass door on our cabinet had myriad problems: cracked glass, missing panes, broken lead came, and broken, bowing solder joints that were causing the remaining intact glass to loosen. We knew the damaged glass and came had to be completely replaced, but we tried to save as much of the old came (which has a lifespan of about 100 years) as we could.

B

Step 2: Prepare the Work Area and Materials

For the work surface, we laid a piece of 3/4 ” plywood on a worktable and attached two furring strips (1 1./4 ” x 2″) at a 45-degree angle to help hold the window in place while we worked. Check that everything is squared before attaching the strips with screws. For glass-cutting, we kept a 2′ section of low-pile carpet handy to work on to help prevent cracking the glass.

Next, you need to stretch the lead came to make it rigid enough for use. Put one end of the lead came into a vise attached to the worktable and grab the other with pliers or lead stretchers. (Tip: Cut the 6′ lead strip in half so it’s a manageable size.) Keep the came straight, and pull the lead so that it stretches about 1″ to 1 1/2 “. Because lead came is soft and bends easily, support it with two hands when moving it. If the nubs are closed up, use a putty knife or a fid to open them. (Alternatively, you can buy stretched lead from a local supplier, as we did.)

C

Step 3: Liberate the Glass

Glass needs to be worked on a flat surface, so we removed the door from the china cabinet and took the window out of its frame. Working from the back side of the door, we gently pried the trim from the window with putty knives. Slip the putty knife between the trim and the frame, and use a gentle rocking motion to pry the trim loose [A]. Next, pull out any remaining finish nails [B].

We used the putty knives to loosen the window from the frame, then slid it out onto the work surface [C], laying it front side down. When working on a leaded glass repair, it’s best to work on the front first because lead can slip through the joints when soldering, leaving unattractive solder joints on the back of the piece. But our piece was so fragile that we decided to work on the back first and clean up any unsightly joints on the front after the window was stable enough to turn.

D

Step 4: Make a Template

If you have a missing pane of glass, a template can help create a replacement piece, or it can be laid underneath the window on the worktable as a guide. To make the template, take a piece of paper large enough to cover your window and secure it atop the window with tape. Using a pencil, make a rubbing of the window’s design [D]. Be sure to capture all the details before removing the template from the window. You can trace over the lines with a marker to make them clearer. For intricate windows, number and mark each piece on the template to keep track of its correct location. Measure the length and the width of the window and record them on the template.

E

Step 5: Begin Repairs

Wearing safety glasses, we used a rotary tool with a 1″ circular blade attachment to cut the lead joints along the left edge to access damaged areas [E]. Cut only halfway through the joints, and be careful not to cut adjacent glass. After completing one side, flip the window to do the other side. Because our window was so brittle, we slid it slightly off the edge of the worktable, keeping the glass supported while hanging just the edge over the side, and made the cuts from underneath. (If you try this method, make sure you have a helper.) Another option is to cut a piece of plywood to fit over the window and plywood base, creating a “sandwich” that can be turned over.

F

We began assembling the bowed areas—where joints were cracking and the glass was loosening from the cames—trying to save the old leadwork where we could. We cleaned out the cames with putty knives and box cutters, then tried fitting the loose glass back in the cames. Next we gently tapped the old lead came and glass back into place using the hammer and the wood handle of the putty knife or a small piece of scrap lead (hitting directly with a hammer can cause the glass to crack) and secured it with German glazing nails. The glazing nails should be lightly tapped into place so you can still move them easily.

G

Step 6: Cut the Glass

When cutting replacement panes, we were lucky enough to have an intact original pane to use as a template. (If you don’t have an intact piece, you can use the paper template as a guide.) Using a black marker, outline the template on the glass, then remove it. Next, score the glass with the glass cutter [F]. Make sure to score inside the black lines; otherwise your replacement will be too big.

H

Hold the glass cutter between your middle and index finger, fitting it snugly against the joint between the two, and grasp the bottom with your index finger and thumb. Keep glass-cutter oil ready in a shallow bowl, and dip the cutter each time you score the glass. For straight scoring, butt the glass cutter against a ruler. Keep the cutter upright, and press firmly but not too hard, moving in a steady motion down the entire sheet. Practice on scrap glass first to perfect your technique.

I

There are two ways to break scored glass. The first is to use breaker pliers, which I found easier as a beginner. Line the white line on the pliers up on your scored line and press down to snap the glass in a straight line [G]. You also can slide the scored portion off the worktable’s edge and use the rounded head of the glass cutter to tap along the scored line, then grasp the edge with your free hand and press down until the glass snaps in a straight line. Once you’ve created replacement panes, check the fit in the window by either comparing the panes against the template or against the remaining lead panes.

J

Step 7: Cut and Solder the Lead

Next, cut the lead came to fit. As beginners, lead nippers were our tool of choice (professionals use a lead knife). The flat side of the nippers makes a straight cut; the concave side a mitered one. Place a length of came where you need a new section. With the nippers, nick the spot [H] where you want to make a cut—it should be slightly beyond the end of the glass to leave room for soldering—then tap the lead into place with glazing nails [I].

K

To effectively solder old lead joints, you must expose fresh lead, either by scraping the joints with a box cutter or by using the rotary tool with a wire brush [J], which tends to go much faster. Whatever the method, always wear a face mask for this work, as it creates a lot of dust and scraps. Clean up afterward with a shop vacuum.

Next, brush flux on all joints to be soldered (flux helps solder flow freely and adhere) and on the tip of the hot soldering iron, then clean the tip on a wet sponge (you should see water when you press on it). Glass cutter cleaners—sponges in a hard plastic case—aren’t very expensive, but you also can substitute an ordinary sponge in an appropriate container.

Place the solder near the joint and melt it with the iron [K]. Don’t use too much solder, and don’t extend it past the joint. In a circular motion, move the iron across the joint, smoothing the solder into and across the joint. Don’t leave the iron on the joint for more than two or three seconds, or you risk melting the came. You may get solder drips on the glass, but they should easily slide or scrape off or with light scraping.

Check the joint—if you’re unhappy with the soldering, let it cool and then work on it again, bearing in mind that the came can melt. When you’re done, wipe down the window with paper towels and glass cleaner, then turn the window over and repeat the soldering process.

L

Step 8: Cement the Window

The last step is cementing the panes in place with putty and whiting. Glazing putty has a shelf life—it should be moist with some oil showing on top. If your putty gets too hard, add a touch of linseed oil to soften it up, but don’t overdo it—putty should be firm, not runny.

Wearing latex gloves, take a ball-size portion of the putty and knead it for a minute or two. The putty will soften as you work it—some lumps are normal, but most smooth out. You can add a light sprinkling of whiting to the putty for strengthening, but we preferred the putty alone because too much whiting can dry out the putty.

M

Secure the panel with glazing nails, then take some putty and press it into the cames to fill spaces between the glass and the lead came [L]. Don’t put too much pressure on the window—you don’t want to crack the glass. Some putty may leak through to the other side. Once you’ve completed the panel, clean around the seams with an awl or a fid, and remove excess putty with a little roll of the putty itself or a natural-bristle brush.

N

Whether or not you used whiting during kneading, you’ll need to sprinkle some over the window at this point. Wear a face mask and sprinkle the whiting gently; try not to create a cloud of whiting dust. Next, gently spread the whiting around by moving a natural-bristle brush in a circular motion along the cames [M]. The linseed oil should start drying up, and the lead will start to oxidize (turn darker), which is your cue to vacuum up the whiting. If there is residual oil, repeat the process with a second coating of whiting.

Take your natural-bristle brush and sweep the lead to create a dark patina. Doing this by hand can be tedious and labor-intensive, but we liked the results. A faster method mounts a bristle brush attachment on a drill. It’s a good idea to break the brush in on the edge of the worktable first so bristles polish the lead instead of scratching it.

With the patina ready [N], we returned the window back its door frame and reattached the trim, giving our 1906 china cabinet a new lease on life.

Former OHJ staffer Lynn Elliott is a copy editor for Random House Children’s Books and has written numerous articles on repairing and decorating old houses.

Online exclusive: Download a list of materials needed for this project.