My internship really took off over spring break. I was able to spend a lot more hours delving into the construction and restoration side of the internship with Southwest Restoration. Our project has been to restore an old car service station down in Bassett, VA. Bassett is an old railroad town about an hour and a half south of Salem that is known for its furniture factories. The town itself is rather small, and it is apparent that it has seen better days. This particular service station was built in the 1940’s and is an excellent example of what the main street of Bassett could have looked like in its height.
The old service station has been repurposed into a white water rafting and river tubing business for the Smith River. My main project was to assist our carpenter with window repair around the building. This involved cutting aluminum sheet metal to size, applying it to the sides of the cinder block walls with a gun powder nail gun, and sealing the area with caulking. Afterwards, every metal surface needed to be thoroughly scuffed to ensure that the stucco would adhere to the wall. This metal repair was essential to waterproofing the structure.
In addition, I assisted our stone mason and the rest of the crew with raising a 400 pound steel beam infused concrete beam twelve feet in the air with a forklift. After it was in place, new cinder blocks had to the mortared into the gap above the beam. I spent several hours running up and down a ladder applying mortar to the gaps in the blocks and scraping away the excess.
Our carpenter is working on repairing the roof above the parking lot that once housed the fuel pumps. Once those boards have been replaced and the stucco applied to the walls, the painters can begin work on making it look like new.
It is a very rewarding experience to see the results of my labor right in front of me. It has been great working with our work crew so far and I really look forward to finishing up this project and moving onto the next one.
