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Discussing Antique Brick Work at the Burtch-Udall House

Bob meets up with Professor Tom Visser from the University of Vermont to learn more about the antique year old brick used in the Burtch-Udall house in Quechee. The wall was built in the 1820s with bricks made on site. The brick is a high quality sand-struck brick. It's laid in a standard bond pattern with headers and then nine courses of stretchers. The wall is two courses of brick thick. The bricks were laid using a lime and sand mortar. Looking closely, one can still see the original tooling that was done. The bricks have never been re-pointed and never been cleaned and are still in excellent condition after nearly two centuries.
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Discussing Antique Brick Work at the Burtch-Udall House

  computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" Well, Tom this is a brick wall built in the 1820s----"

" 1820s."

" So, it still qualifies as federal period, right?"

" That's right."

" And the brick were made right in this region of Vermont?"

" Yes, they were made right here on site."

" Okay. So, it was wonderful that they had this quality brick to build with. What type of brick is it?"

" What we have here is a sand struck brick----"

" Uhm."

" A high quality sand struck brick. If you'll look closely you can see a little bit of the glimmer of the sand on the surface."

" Okay. And what kind of pattern did they lay it in?"

" It's laid in a standard bond. Here we have the headers and then we have 9 courses of stretchers."

" Okay. So, the head or the end of the brick is out to the facade and it serves to tie the whole wall together----"

" Right."

" So, these are 2 courses thick, right?"

" That's right. So, you'll have one of headers and then 8 or 9 of running and then another one of headers up here."

" Uhm. Uhm."

" Okay."

" What type of mortar were they using?"

" This is a lime and sand mortar. Just lime and sand uhm, if we look very carefully at it, we can"

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