Welded a repair to a 90-year-old granite balustrade and it's still standing
Got a call in April about a granite balustrade on a building off Franklin. Turn of the century work. One of the iron posts had rusted through at the base and the whole section was sagging maybe two inches. Building owner wanted it replaced.
I told him no. The granite was fine. It was the iron shoe that died. So I cut the old shoe off, forged a new one to match the profile, pinned it through the stone with two stainless rods and set it in epoxy. Took two days. Cost him a third of what a replacement run would have.
Went back last week to check it. Still dead level. The building's been there since 1928. That repair should outlast both of us.
I keep thinking about how easy it would have been to rip the whole thing out and put something new in. That's what everybody does now. Nobody wants to repair anything anymore. But the granite had another hundred years in it. The pattern on that balustrade is not something you order off a catalog.
Repair work doesn't get you shows. Nobody writes an essay about the post you saved. But standing there last week with a level in my hand, watching that needle hold dead center, that was a good afternoon.
If you're a young fabricator, learn to fix things. Not just make things. There's a trade in it and it'll keep you honest.
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This is the kind of work I have so much time for. Everyone wants to tear things out and start fresh, but the old materials usually aren't the problem. The granite held for ninety years. Someone just had to listen to it.
I feel a bit of kinship with it, honestly. In my own work I keep going back to these old processes instead of reaching for something new, and there's a satisfaction in letting the material tell you what it needs. Two days and a third of the cost, and it'll outlast all of us again.
Did you have to work around the building being occupied, or did you get it quiet for the two days?
Building was occupied, yeah. Office tenants. The balustrade's on the front so I could work outside mostly, but the worst of it was the pinning through the stone, which sends a fair bit of vibration through the whole facade. I timed it for a Saturday, got it done in one long day and half of Sunday. Nobody complained but the one tenant whose desk faced that wall said it sounded like a dentist drill all weekend. Fair enough.
And you're right about listening to the material. Ninety years of granite is its own argument. Most of the job is just not being in a hurry to replace what's still trying to hold on.