History + Concrete = Our New Front Walk!

After a few weeks of truly disagreeable weather, we are making steady progress on our exterior restoration.  The painting continues, and this week, we began work on the front entry itself.  After demolishing the old front walkway and removing the temporary door last week, we began this week with an empty hole in front of the front columns.  This demolition, however, was nothing if not a proud moment for the Society in its work to restore the exterior of the Sanborn.

Within two days, our subcontractors had formed the structure of the new concrete and brick front path.  The front walk will be in keeping with the historical appearance of the original walk, a brick path anchored and bordered by concrete.  The formulation of the concrete has been a fascinating process, as a number of us put our heads together on how to best replicate the appearance of the original design.  Considering the natural wear and weather damage to the original, this was a surprisingly creative process.  After reviewing samples of rock mixture and concrete, we finally came up with a formula for the walk:  a smooth concrete base, with a 3/8” aggregate of two sizes of black rock broadcast on top of the concrete.  As you may not be aware, the art form of creative concretework using specialized aggregate is relatively scarce in New England.  After conferring with a number of aggregate specialists, however, it appears that this method will most resemble the original walk.  New concrete methods – as well as attention to ADA-accessibility! – only increases the overall value of the front walk.

Following the setting of the concrete this week, we will then be able to lay the brick, install the new column bases, and put in the new front door.  For those of you who plan to join us for Town Day on Saturday, June 4^th, there will be a number of new elements to explore at the Sanborn House!