Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 23, 1994 TAG: 9407080016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The bearded, Glen Lyn foreman is in charge of the crew for the Narrows-based Allen R. Neely Co.'s $122,000 repair job on the 15-year-old building.
The crew has been out there in the 90-degree heat of recent weeks, and had to knock off early on Tuesday because of a far-off lightning storm.
But Blankenship said Wednesday the heat hasn't been that big of a deal: He and his crew of six are used to it.
On Wednesday, brothers Roy and Gary Perkins of Pearisburg worked in the high-lift crane on the fourth floor of the East Main Street side. Fellow Pearisburg resident Scott Dean, meanwhile, worked in a smaller lift on a lower floor beside the building's main entrance off South Franklin Street.
The work on the courthouse at the intersection of Franklin and Main streets is twofold: First, the crew members are using grinders to remove cracked mortar from 40 vertical expansion joints that run from the ground to the roof on all four sides of the square building; once that's done and any defective brickwork is repaired, the crew will replace the roof, probably later this summer.
So far, the work has gone quickly and well - if not quietly for the court and county employees trying to work inside - in large part because of the hot, dry weather of June, said county building engineer Steve Phillips.
Replacing the rigid mortar with more modern, flexible expansion joints with weather sealant will allow the building, which is 100 feet on each side, to "move" to accommodate changes in air temperature. The original, mortared joints could not move sufficiently, and resulted in cracks that allowed water in.
Roof and mortar problems with the prominent, sand-colored courthouse became public knowledge late last summer, when a small chunk of brick fell from the fourth-floor exterior on the East Main side. The sidewalk below, and a basement entrance to the Circuit Court clerk's office, have been closed since, creating a minor inconvenience for some in the town's legal community.
The brick that fell and much of the recessed brickwork around the building's windows are purely cosmetic and have nothing to do with the structure's soundness, Phillips said.
Why the small chunk of brick fell remains up for debate. What isn't, is that water seepage from small cracks in the roof's flashing has caused evenly placed stains in the brick that can be seen from the street below.
That problem will be remedied by the removal of the original, stone ballast-covered roof and replacement with a contemporary, self-adhered membrane roof with a built-up, 2-inch slope beneath it to speed draining, Phillips said.
"This is a perfectly flat roof, the way it is now," he said. "Like a pool table."
Except for the problem with the leaking metal flashing joints, the roof as a whole is sound and has not leaked into the storage area - called the penthouse - below, Phillips said.
There is no firm finish date for the repairs. When it bid the project, the Neely Co. listed 90 days as the completion time. But that's contingent on weather and other factors, including if any additional work is found that wasn't identified in the original inspection and estimate by Blacksburg architects Mills, Oliver & Webb Inc.
Orders for such extra work will have to be brought to the county Board of Supervisors for approval. In January, the board voted 4-1 to pay for the repairs with a capital improvement account created with money left over from construction of shell buildings for economic development.
by CNB