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Three-family in East Boston evacuated after exterior wall partially collapses
By adamg on Sun, 07/31/2022 - 5:20pm
The Boston Fire Department reports 11 people, one cat and one dog were displaced early this morning when the masonry veneer on one wall of 282 Sumner Street mostly collapsed into the narrow alleyway separating the three-family building from its neighbor.
ISD determined a structural engineer will have to come in and extensive repairs be made before the building is habitable again.
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Comments
How much you think they are
How much you think they are paying for rent to live in a rotting building ? Market rate? Where’s the money go…not to repair their house apparently
We’ll, with all those walls
We’ll, with all those walls open, repair work ought to be a breeze!
And it's a good opportunity
to update the insulation.
lol
The way this neighborhood works now, I guarantee the owner cashes out and the parcel is redeveloped as fauxury condos.
Underwear
Was this a masonry wall? Kind of interesting to see one of these inside out.
Lath and plaster
The way they did it before sheetrock.
Edit: Not lathe. That's a machine tool that turns work.
On the interior, yes
But I'm talking about the exterior part that collapsed.
lathe and plaster?
Is this lathe and plaster on an external wall?
That's the outside of the inside finished wall.
The brick is a curtain wall, not bearing any weight other than its own mass. The frame of the structure is wood. the curtain wall provides weather proofing and a nice cosmetic finish. This one probably hadn't been pointed since it was constructed.
Rats burrowing underneath
Rats burrowing underneath building can make a house sink and build cracks in walls.
That area is where a substantial amount of large housing developments have been going and still is .
Exterior wall gone, framing
Exterior wall gone, framing exposed, lath visible on the inward-facing side of the framing, plaster providing the interior surface visible through gaps in the lath.
Scary
Um that's kinda scary considering.. well I thought this... that concrete blocks and brick are thought to be supporting in most cases where its a wall like this.
But then again, neglect something long enough and it's going to eventually come to a head... or fall down like this. And considering its obvious by the bowing and the mismatch/patch job on the wall if you look at street view.. that wall had issues.
It almost looks like there
It almost looks like there used to be a structure attached to the building there. Maybe the wall wasn't original.
It was masonry veneer
Not real solid brick work.
Those thick wooden posts
are the bones of the house. On a lot of houses around here you'd then have wooden sheathing nailed to the outside to support the siding (1x8s or similar? never looked closely.) I guess on this one they had brick instead. I'm not clear on how a masonry veneer is supposed to be attached.
ties to frame laid within brick
the problem is the older ones typically rot/rust, and when they are weakened, the veneer will bulge and eventually may completely let go as in this case.
Never ever buy an old brick
Never ever buy an old brick building in Eastie it could be a future money pit..