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News and Insights on the Masonry Repair and Maintenance of Institutional, Commercial, and Condominium Buildings in Eastern Massachusetts
Volume 13 No.4
September/October 2021
In this issue, our Case Study article describes a masonry repair project on a 6-story commercial building in the heart of downtown Boston. Our Masonry 101 article defines copper patina and its formation.

We hope that the information in this publication will be of benefit to you. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us by phone at 617-445-0274 or by email at steven@abbotbuilding.com.
Sincerely,
Abbot Building Restoration Company, Inc.
Case Study
Abbot Completes Masonry Repair Project on Downtown Boston Commercial Building
Abbot recently completed a masonry repair project on a prominent 6-story commercial building situated at the corner of Portland Street and Valenti Way in the heart of downtown Boston. The brick and stone building façade had deteriorated over the years and was in significant need of repair.
 
Abbot secured the project via a referral from an engineering company with which they have a close mutual relationship.
 
The project was originally intended to begin in 2020 but was pushed back to the spring of 2021 due to the pandemic.
 
Prior to initiating repairs, Abbot erected pipe staging to access the work area starting on the Portland Street elevation and then extending to the Valenti Way elevation. After the staging was in place, Abbot performed the following repairs:
 
  • Cut and pointed 100% of brick and stone joints
  • Caulked all windows
  • Patched any spalls in the stonework
  • Coated all of the stone on the bottom two floors
  • Scraped and painted all windows and trim
  • Repaired copper roof cap and replaced a section that had been displaced with matching patina copper
 
A complex portion of the project was to replace a missing cast iron inlay between the windows at the bottom floor of the Valenti Way elevation with a fiberglass replica to match the aesthetics of the existing inlays. 
Masonry 101
Copper Patina
In the Case Study article above, we mentioned that we replaced a section of the roof cap that had been displaced with matching patina copper.
 
Ever ask yourself, “Why does copper turn green?” The formation of patina on copper is similar to the formation of rust on iron.

Both happen when oxygen in the air interacts with the metal atoms in the presence of water.
 
By definition, patina is a thin coating of various chemical compounds that forms on the surface of copper, brass, bronze and similar metals, due primarily to age and exposure to atmospheric elements.

The word patina comes from the Italian patina (shallow layer of deposit on a surface) derived from the Latin patĭna (pan, shallow dish).

The Statue of Liberty is perhaps the most famous copper patina in the world. It is hard to imagine that it was brown when it was first assembled back in 1875.
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Boston, MA 02119-2933
Tel: (617) 445-0274 * Fax: (617) 445-0277
Email: steven@abbotbuilding.com