Help with Cornice / Mansard Roof
We have a mansard roof with a cornice on it in Chicago. This is a 6-flat building on a very narrow lot in the city. Pictures are here: http://east-village.posterous.com/east-village-building The issue we are having is with rain water running off of the roof, down the front of the building, pooling at the ground, and seeping…
We have a mansard roof with a cornice on it in Chicago. This is a 6-flat building on a very narrow lot in the city. Pictures are here: http://east-village.posterous.com/east-village-building
The issue we are having is with rain water running off of the roof, down the front of the building, pooling at the ground, and seeping into our meter room under the front steps. We cannot install a drain because we would have to do so on the neighbor’s property and tear up all of their sidewalks.
So can we add some type of gutter to the cornice? Or should it have had a gutter at some point? The building was built around 1870, but over the past few years we have had to repair masonry and various other issues in the front due to the water.
THANKS!
I do not want to remove the cornice at all, but I wonder if it has been modified and the gutter removed before we moved in? I’m not sure of any other way to manage the water issue. All of the buildings locally that have a mansard roof have a gutter – except ours.
Do you have any old photos or other similar buildings nearby you can check to see if it had a gutter? It looks to me as though it might have, but I am no expert. Here in NYC it’s mostly flat roofs with cornices in front. The roofs slope to the back and the gutter is on the rear. The water doesn’t drip off the front cornice. I think a roofer may be able to advise on this topic. If it did have a gutter, it could have been built into the wood and invisible from the sidewalk or copper. See Nash’s book “Renovating Old Houses” for more details on appropriate gutters and roofs.
It is not correct that every cornice must have a gutter. I worked on many landmark buildings with cornices and water tables. Most of them do not have gutter.
The idea of such feature is to avoid water running down the facade by creating a drip edge away from the building. They simply disperse water to the sidewalk and that is exactly what your cornice is doing. Just by doing that it probably carried your facade from 1870 to 2000.
It is to my experience and observation that by removing these features the building owners create bigger problems. After many years of weathering, old facades lacking such feature deteriorate rapidly.
I would strongly recommend keeping your cornice.
Why aren’t you seeking another solution to manage your ground surface water?
Would we replace or refit the current cornice to have a gutter?
Yes, install a gutter. In fact, have someone investigate the roof are at the bottom of the mansard section. I bet originally there was a gutter built into it.
If you have to install one, that house deserves the best….copper, along with a copper pipe down the side.
Yes, you need a gutter. They prevent water from running down the side of the building.