It was brought to our attention that the opening of the article “Fort York’s brick masonry restored” in the October 2018 edition of The Fife and Drum unintentionally dismissed decades of restoration efforts on the part of numerous professionals then and still working in the field: city staff, heritage architects and qualified contractors. For this, we apologize. We know that the best of the work done in the recent past was in fact to the highest standard.
While it is true that over the last 200 years there have been unsuccessful or inappropriate restoration projects at Fort York, 200 years is a long time, and the science of building conservation has developed considerably. As knowledge increases and material science is refined, the resources available to conservation professionals improve.
The era of using Portland cement-based mortar has long passed, and masonry projects at Fort York during the last 40 years relied on traditional lime-based mortars. Replacement bricks of an appropriate size, material and colour are now much more readily available. The study of traditional lime-based mortars, sometimes also with cement, has increased beyond the realm even of many conservation professionals, which is why laboratory-based testing was used for the most recent interventions. The lessons learned this way will be shared and so can be applied to future masonry projects.
Bob Kennedy
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