A Heritage Restoration Specialist delivered his pathologist's report on downtown Seaforth at Huron East's council meeting this week.
Dr. Christopher Cooper had spent time looking over Seaforth's downtown area. His initial comment was the downtown area was stunning adding the beautiful 19th century buildings were exceptionally rare because they were all built in the same decade and that did not happen very often.
“Absolutely stunning downtown, beautiful 19th century buildings," said Cooper. "Very rare because of the fact that they were literally all built within the same decade, so it's very rare when you have a bunch of Italianate buildings all in a row.”
He also added the problems on the main street were not so much with the original construction but with the materials that were used in making repairs to the buildings.
“What has been used in the last forty years, that's the problem," added Cooper "The materials that are being used on these buildings today are not compatible with the buildings, so if you look at what mortar was put in between the bricks, when you look at the windows, when you look at the foundations.”
Cooper says many of the materials used in repairing the older buildings are not compatible, pointing to the fact that older bricks need to breathe. If the mortar that's used around them doesn't allow them to do that, they'll eventually fall apart.
