Harris Pargework Ceiling

Harris county Courthouse Pargework Ceiling

Old Historic ceiling

Last year I told you about this ceiling at the Harris County courthouse.

( See blog) Hard to believe it was over a year ago. We have now made molds of the elements, cast all the items needed to recreate the ceiling and installed the pieces. The ceiling was framed in and plastered, and finished in a slick white coat finish by Golden West Plastering of Houston Texas. They did an exceptional job. We typically like to control all the plastering as it is hard to find plasterers that understand how to plaster a ceiling that is flat and true to plane, any imperfections will make it tough to install the pieces but in this case the work was perfect.

In this photo we have laid out control lines to install all the pieces to. It is extremely important to flow the lines as any deviation will show up as you look down the ceiling.

After checking the layout and making sure all the electrical devices as well as the fire sprinklers will fit into the pattern correctly we start installing the pieces. After installing all the pieces we will “tool up” the joints and make the joint lines disappear. Tedious and slow work for sure. blue lines are the centers of the elements the red lines are the edges of the corners in the quadrennial. We then labeled the elements to insure we alternated the elements.

The crown mold and frieze that runs along the wall both have a pattern in them that requires us to start from one direction and make all the cuts correctly to keep the pattern flowing all around the ceiling. Tougher than it looks but it  makes a big difference. We started out from the only original piece left in the room and kept the pattern flowing. The trick is to find the most inconspicuous place to hide this. The old way was to find a door the opens against a corner of the room and hide the joint there. That way as you enter the room you would have to turn all the way around to see the miss pattered joint.  However we had to start from the historic piece and continue around the room and end up on the other side of the historic piece. I challenge you to find the bad joint. (I know where it is but as of yet no one else has been able to find it)

Our decorative painters have also started painting the ceiling. It also is a very labor intensive painting project. It has two colors on the ceiling a yellow ceiling paint and a glazed painted surface on the ornamentation. Glazes tend to show all the imperfections in the plaster but luckily none showed up.

So here is the completed mockup area . Now that we have complete acceptance of the paint procedure we can finish the paint. We will be doing so in the next two weeks.

Finished ceiling

Harris Courthouse Pargework ceiling

Tuesday and Wednesday of last week I finely got to see how the lead paint removal was going. They had completed the removal on the sixth floor and Matt Bailey of Vaughn Construction had called a meeting with all concerned to discuss the issues at hand and to insure we were proceeding correctly. After viewing the area on the sixth floor I was relieved that extreme care had been taken and no damage to the plaster decorations was apparent. We discussed the edges of the paint where the loose paint was removed and the bonded paint was still adhered. On the ornamental plaster this did not seem to be a problem for me as only minor areas will require attention to repair but the flat wall plaster was going to have to require some additional work to make it look acceptable. The lead abatement contractor stated that the sealer he is using was white not clear. That created a problem as I needed to document the pattered ceiling that was left on the top floor. He gave me permission as long as I did not scrape on any substance and remove any paint.

This ceiling was not a part of the original construction originally the sixth floor was not finished out. It was finished out around 1915. The ceiling is a suspended flat plaster ceiling with plaster ornamentations installed to create an intricate ceiling. This type of ceiling called pargework or some times called Jacobean was very popular in the early 1900's. Ornamentation was installed directly to a flat ceiling to create a patterned panel look. This ceiling was outlined by a straight frame 6" away form the edge of the crown molding and then a alternating diamond and "cloverleaf" (My word as I don't know what the correct word for this design is) connected with straight runs of the same plaster molding. The ceiling extended along one side of the rotunda walkway approximately 40 feet long and 16 ft wide. However only an area approximately 12 by 16 is left and that area is severely deteriorated. (see Photo) The metal lath has rusted and is barely holding the weight of the plaster

I previously removed one complete diamond shape and ½ of the cloverleaf shape before any work was started because of my fear that these elements might be lost and they were the only elements available to recreate the ceiling. They came off almost too easily and it reassured me that that was the best procedure and any vibration would have caused these to fall to the ground and thus destroying the elements. You can see where the plaster ornamentation was installed by the white "ghosting" outline. The original elements were stuck to the ceiling using molding plaster or Plaster of Paris and then painted. So when they fell or was removed it leaves a clear definition of where they were installed. On one side there is still a portion of the original crown molding in place and you can see in some places its "ghosting line on the ceiling continuing around the outside of the ceiling. When the loose lead paint was removed you could also see the original layout lines that the original craftsmen used.

I stuck a clear Mylar sheet across the largest area of the ceiling keeping it square to the edge (see Photo). This allowed me to draw the outline of the ghosting and also draw the layout lines. After completing this I removed the Mylar sheet and stored it safely in a tube keeping it for use when the new ceiling in installed. I feel confident now I can correctly reinstall the ceiling and keeping the original layout as close as possible.