Before most students are awake, Jennifer LaFreda and Bill Miller are already up and working, busy restoring the eighty-year-old Boilerhouse — soon to be 200 Elm Drive — just north of MacMillan Building to its original 1924 state.
On a typical day, these masonry workers are scaling multiple floors and repairing the existing masonry of the future Public Safety building before 8:00 a.m.
With nothing but simple metal tools, these specially-trained craftsmen are able to completely transform the appearance of a building.
Though work on the Boilerhouse has yet to be completed, the difference between the original building and the restored sections is blatantly clear. Its walls have gone from worn-down, cracked and stained to crisp, immaculate and mosaic-like.
LaFreda, 29, majored in graphics design in college, but began searching for a more exciting occupation after she realized she "wasn't so good at sitting behind a desk."
Being a masonry restoration worker, she said, is the first job she has truly enjoyed. In addition to working with her hands, LaFreda said she revels in crawling around the scaffolding, being outdoors and facing the unexpected daily challenges that masonry work brings.
Women such as LaFreda are rare in this line of work. Out of the approximately 2,400 members of the masonry union in the southern New Jersey chapter, LaFreda said she knows only two other women personally, but gave a rough estimate of less than fifty female members overall.
"I don't really think about [the lack of women in the field]," LaFreda said. "I've always been the type of person who does what she wants to do."
"[But] sometimes I feel that I have to push myself a little harder," she added.
For LaFreda, the hardest thing about her job is to become as proficient as her coworkers.
"[I just try] to push myself to get up to speed with the other . . . amazing [journeymen]," LaFreda said.
Working in adverse weather is another difficult aspect of the job, "but just like every job, [masonry work] has its ups and downs," she said.
Miller, 22, began masonry work six years ago when his father approached him for help on their house in Philadelphia.
"Pretty much, my dad asked me if I wanted to make money," Miller said. "[After that], I got sucked into it."
While there is no official masonry school, every person who wants to become a practicing mason must undergo intensive training. A beginner mason must first complete an apprenticeship prior to becoming a full-fledged masonry worker, or journeyman.
The length of the apprenticeship varies from state to state. In New Jersey the program lasts three years and requires about 1,000 hours of work per year, said Chuck Rector, site foreman for Masonry Preservation Group, Inc., the company restoring the Boilerhouse.
Masonry Preservation Group also restored the University Chapel and Firestone Library.
During the training period an apprentice will usually learn a variety of tasks even if he or she decides to specialize in only one field.
Rector said his company's apprentices learn all aspects of the trade — mastering brick laying, stone setting and concrete repair — along with the pointing, caulking and cleaning primarily used in restoration work.
Restoration
The process of bringing out a building's original beauty involves much more than just cleaning the exterior.
Over time, pointing mix — a combination of cement, lime and sand that fills the gaps between the stones — loosens and cracks, allowing water and ice to penetrate the surface.
If left alone, water can penetrate to the bedding mortar, which holds the stones in place beneath the outer layer of pointing mortar. Water damage to the bedding can result in loose stones and damage to the building's interior.
To prevent this from happening, the watertight pointing mortar is typically replaced every 30 to 50 years in a process called re-pointing, Rector explained.
Re-pointing is a multi-step process that takes about six weeks for a particular section of the building, depending on manpower.
LaFreda, Miller and other restoration specialists must first use chipping guns to remove the old joints around the stones down to the bedding mortar.
The rocks are then cleaned, pointed with mortar mix and finally washed. Missing and broken stones are also replaced during the re-pointing process.
The Collegiate-Gothic architecture found all over campus typically uses several types of stones, including argillite, limestone and Wissahickon schist, which is quarried in Pennsylvania.
Hierarchy
Masonry workers are paid proportionally to their experience and time in the field. As a journeyman, Miller receives the full union pay rate — about $43 per hour. LaFreda, as a second-year apprentice, receives 65 percent of the full rate.
According to Rector, the number of people joining the masonry trade is increasing, as restoration has become the fastest growing industry sector. In the Philadelphia chapter of the union, there are about 340 restoration specialists out of the 2,500 masons.
"To be out here [doing masonry restoration], it's for the love of what it looks like after it's done," Rector said.
Masonry restoration work on 200 Elm Drive began around June and is expected to last until early 2005.
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