Utmost Renovations was invited and strongly encouraged by the Casto Construction and Homeport Partnership to bid and perform the historic stone and brick masonry restoration of the Barrett School Renovation on Deshler Avenue in Columbus, Ohio fall of 2015. This old historic building is being renovated into modern apartments by CASTO and Homeport. This project is a major undertaking as it is nearly 40,000 square feet of exterior masonry facade and a landmark in German Village.

Utmost Renovation’s scope of work for the Barrett School Renovation includes the following:

1. Chemical cleaning all the exterior sandstone and brick masonry
2. Removing hundreds of deteriorated sandstone pieces on the foundation, entrance, and balcony and replacing with new Cleveland Buff Sandstone to match existing closely
3. Patching scores of spalled and slightly deteriorated sandstone with Mimic/Matrix Stone Patch (similar to Jahn Mortars by Cathedral Stone)
4. Re-tuckpointing approximately 15% of the mortar joints in the brick (including eight large chimneys on the roof) and stone foundation, bands, water tables, etc. with new historical mortar colors to match existing,
5. Relaying some brick areas, infilling several old window openings with new brick to match, and caulking stone butt joints on stone bands, water tables, etc.
6. Removing and replacing several stone sills that are deteriorated beyond repair and
7. Paint stripping paint and tar on original stone otherwise in good condition

The Barrett School Renovation project will take approx. six months from start to finish and, thus far, Utmost has performed superbly and has completed the building cleaning, most of the tuckpointing preparation–grinding out mortar joints, some of the caulking on the building, and will start back up in the spring on the stone replacement and finish tuckpointing, etc.

Before	After

We will revisit this project in the spring once the stone replacement is in full swing with more pictures and updates. For now, gander at the before and after pictures of the sandstone cleaning. On a side note, Utmost did not initially bid this project but after a personal request from CASTO agreed to do so and Utmost is very glad, indeed, that it did provide a bid and was awarded the contract. Thanks to CASTO and Homeport for their insistence and loyalty. A special thanks to Dana and Tammy!  They are great to work with and we have enjoyed a long term mutually beneficial business relationship for years.