[Via Chicago]

yeah, they advised even against power washing the face brick and ive come around to the patina. they used some sort of non-caustic putty mixture on the limestone (not sure which but guessing it pulled the dirt out of the pores), let that set, and gently washed that off a few different times. definitely one of the only firms Ive found that has a preservation oriented mindset. if there are others out there id love to learn about them.

its definitely satisfying brining those little touches back. theres lots of boring expensive work that needs to be done to homes like this as you know, but anything involving a flourish on the facade is one of those really enjoyable and fun projects to see come to fruition. and it wasnt particularly expensive either in the scheme of things, just a quick day project they squeezed in amongst bigger stuff. one of these days we'll get a nice stained/leaded glass popped back in that opening, but that'll be the cherry on top once we get a lot more important stuff done lol. and theres quite the list.

but yeah, contractors are a minefield and places like Yelp arent super helpful especially for nuanced things like masonry, because most people reviewing dont even know what they got vs what they SHOULD have gotten. "tuckpointing" especially.