Norseman Carpentry

Norseman Carpentry If you can dream it, we can build it!

Brendees sagapart #3 Structural problems This next chapter of the saga isn’t the most interesting part of the story, b...
06/22/2026

Brendees saga
part #3
Structural problems

This next chapter of the saga isn’t the most interesting part of the story, but it did have a significant impact on why it took so long to reopen, so I think it’s worth mentioning.

I had said in an earlier post that the original restoration contractor had rebuilt the burned out roof structure in an attempt to seal up the building.
That attempt fell significantly short of the mark.
Aside from the poorly boarded up window openings, improperly executed rubber roofing repairs, leaking shingles, missing flashing and siding work that left exposed framing at every corner of the dormers, the structural repairs were horrendous.

When we discovered that no permits were pulled for the first floor repairs, we also discovered that the only permit they did obtain was for the demolition and rebuilding of the roof structure.
This permit included detailed instructions from an engineer on how to proceed with the repairs.
These instructions were not followed and no final inspection had ever been performed.
Furthermore, during demolition, most of the apartments original doors and architectural mill work had been removed and discarded. As well as the original spiral staircase accessing the third floor loft.

So, in order to move forward with the first floor renovations, the original permit had to be satisfied and closed out.
Given the fact that it had already been 2 years since the fire, no further extensions would be granted on the original permit and they would not grant any further permits for this address to the original contractor moving forward.

After walking through with the project manager of the restoration company, the building inspector and the engineer, it was determined that all 3 of the main supporting beams were in the wrong locations and not supported correctly.
The floor joists for the third floor were installed wrong.
The rafters were installed wrong, the drywall on the bar ceiling was wrong, no insulation was installed and all of the specified hardware was missing.
Basically, everything they had done so far was wrong.
Now we had 1 month left before the permit expired to get all of these issues corrected and inspected.
We immediately got to work.
We had to temporarily support the roof structure while cutting out and replacing all of the support beams, replaced all of the new floor joists with newer ones that actually fit, brought everything up to code and passed inspection in less then a month.

Up until this point, in order to make progress for the owners of brendees, I was still operating as a subcontractor to the restoration company.
It had been over a year since I began trying to work with this company. During that time, they had replaced their project manager 5 times and couldn’t seem to find the workers or the resources to make any progress at all.

At one point I arrived on site to find 2 unsavory characters with hair dryers, patching a hole in the drywalled ceiling above the bar which had previously been considered “finished”.
When questioned about it they revealed a misunderstanding where they had been instructed to cut a hole in the first floor ceiling in order to install 2 dormer windows on the third floor. The windows had already been stored on the second floor awaiting installation yet somehow, while standing on the second floor, looking up to the third floor at the openings these windows were intended for, they decided to cut a hole through the first floor ceiling!
If that wasn’t bad enough, it was then discovered that the first floor ceiling was not 2 layers of fire shield drywall as required by code, there was no insulation installed prior to drywall, and the windows in question didn’t even fit the location they were intended to go!

So, now that the structural issues were corrected and the original permit closed out, the restoration company was prohibited from acquiring any new permits for this project.
At this point they were told to cease all involvement with the project.
In November of 2025, 2.5 years after the fire, my crew took over.
6 months later, Brendees was completed!

Brendees saga part 2The bathroomsOnce the bar framing was complete it was time to bring in electricians and plumbers.Aft...
06/15/2026

Brendees saga part 2
The bathrooms

Once the bar framing was complete it was time to bring in electricians and plumbers.

After waiting several months for plumbers and electricians to get started, it was decided that we should turn our attention to the bathrooms while we waited for progress to resume.

The woman’s room was a poorly designed 1 toilet room that was in terrible condition.
The men’s room consisted of a toilet with no stall and a urinal that was tight against the sink yet the foot print of that bathroom was 5’ wide and 10’ long.

Unfortunately, the building code rules say that if we made any changes whatsoever, we are required to provide an ada handicap accessible bathroom.

In order to make any upgrades we had to have officially stamped blueprints from a licensed architect in order to obtain permits for the changes.

This is when we discovered that the original contractor had not gotten any permits for the renovation to the bar and had no plans of fixing or replacing any of the electrical of plumbing issues at all.

We were basically back to square one in the building process.

At this point, we reached out to the city and code administrators to come up with a plan to move forward.
Given the limited amount of space we had to work with and the amount of space required to satisfy the size requirements of a handicapped accessible bathroom, this took a fair amount of creative problem solving in order to build something that was compliant.

With our blueprints and permits in hand, we could finally get started.
The bathrooms were completely removed.
Much of the floor structure was in need of repair.
All of the bathroom plumbing and electrical was replaced.
An enormous amount of time was spent addressing the numerous electrical issues through the building.

Now we have 2 completely separate, private, unisex bathrooms that are each fully code compliant and 1 fully accessible handicapped bathroom!

We repurposed some doors that were removed from a project a few blocks away from Brendees so they are the appropriate style for the building and its age.
We reproduced all of the trim work to match what was found in the apartment upstairs.
We repurposed the original tongue and groove boards that had been on the face of the original bar for the wanescotting inside of the bathrooms.
If you look closely you can still see the wear marks from peoples knees who sat at the bar.
Then I built a steamer box in order to bend the wood for the rounded corners and added Jameson Irish whiskey to the steam box so it is literally imbedded into the wood!

Ranck plumbing did all the plumbing.
Mike Clair and Tyler Taglieri fixed all of the electrical nightmares!

This is where we started. Initially, our job was to salvage the wood facing and original bar rail with the old memorial ...
06/12/2026

This is where we started.
Initially, our job was to salvage the wood facing and original bar rail with the old memorial plaques dedicated to deceased patrons.
We would eventually repurpose them elsewhere in the project.
Then, demolish the existing bar, which was just several layers of laminate over plywood and some thick paint.
When the demo was finished, we planned on waiting for the GC in charge of the fire restoration at that time to reinstall the original back of bar cabinetry.
That had all been removed prior to our arrival in order to be “restored”.
After that, we would come back and start building an entirely new bar from the ground up, then Brendees would be back in business!

Except, that’s not at all how things played out….

Once the GC reinstalled the cabinetry, it was discovered that everything had been originally built and then reinstalled in front of a now defunct chimney. This created an 8” cavity of dead space behind the entire back bar.

Real estate for the service area was already severely lacking, so, discovering this, combined with the realization that the cabinetry had not been “restored” as was intended, but only “stored”, the decision was made to disassemble the cabinetry again, and remove the nonfunctional chimney.

This gave us the opportunity to reclaim the wasted space, but more importantly, we could actually restore the woodwork and alter it to better suit our needs.
The tap system was relocated from the main bar to the back bar, the lower cabinets were separated in the center and we created new shelving to accommodate glassware plus 2 additional storage cabinets.

Now that the cabinetry had moved back 8”, the tile floor would need to be replaced.
Once demo on the floor began, we discovered 6 layers of floor with a thoroughly rotted subfloor below it all!
So we stripped it all down to the framing, which was also in need of serious attention.
Fixed the framing, installed all new subfloor and finally moved on to building the framework for the new bar!

We thought we were on the home stretch at this point.
We certainly were not….
I’ll post another chapter to this saga when I have time🤦🏼

I’d like to thank Neal Herr and Jimmy Fritsch for salvaging the original bar rail for me, and the monumental task of demolishing all of those layers!

Some of you have probably heard that we have been involved in the rebuilding process at Brendees for awhile now. This ha...
06/11/2026

Some of you have probably heard that we have been involved in the rebuilding process at Brendees for awhile now. This has been an opportunity for me to build some really cool stuff so I’ll break it up into several different posts.
For those who don’t know the story, there was an electrical fire that started in the ceiling of the upstairs apartment back in April of 2023.
The apartment was completely burned out and the bar on the first floor suffered major water damage.
A fire restoration company was initially hired to rebuild the place.
They started with the demolition and rebuilding of the roof structure in an attempt to make the building structurally sound and waterproof.
They drywalled the bar ceiling a few times then installed the faux tin ceiling that’s currently in place today but after that, things pretty much came to a halt for the next year.
Steve reached out to me about rebuilding the existing bar while they waited for the rest of the work to resume.
That was June of 2024.
Over the following year and a half, I tried to help the restoration company move forward. It was very sporadic and frustrating and very little progress was made during that time. Finally, towards the end of 2025, I was asked to take over the project.
6 months later, Brendees is back in business!
We had been asked not to post about it during construction so I’ve accumulated quite a few pictures I’d like to share in the upcoming posts now that they’re finally back in business!

So much of what we did was just making things look like they should’ve looked all along so it’s a bit difficult to walk in there today and pick out what was fixed from what was original but I think these upcoming posts will help everyone understand the lengths we went through to bring this place back!

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Washington Boro, PA
17582

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