iron fence

Brownstone Restoration – Iron Work


The fence components were welded together in the shop and brought to the site as two large panels.

We no longer had the original posts but we were able to find stock posts that resembled the original posts.

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The ironworkers restored the original gate and extended the bottom so that the height of the gate would align with the height of the new fence panels.

Below are photos of the newly installed iron fence and gate.

The brownstone finish coat was applied to the retaining wall after the new fence was installed.

The original security bars were repainted and reinstalled at the garden windows. The bottom of the vertical bars were originally embedded directly into the brownstone but the ironworkers welded a horizontal bar at the base so that there would only be 2 anchor points to the brownstone.

Brownstone Restoration – Iron Fence


The brownstone retaining wall beneath the iron fence was cracked and uneven so the masons repaired it as well. I never liked the existing iron fence and wanted to replace it with something that looked more like the original fence that most of my neighbors have. I still had the original gate but was missing the original posts and fence panels.

The image below is of my neighbor’s original fence. I hoped to find this exact design in a salvage yard but didn’t have much luck. The ironworkers did find a matching panel, but it was only panel about 2′ wide. It would have been extremely expensive to custom cast new panels to match the originals, so I decided to find stock decorative iron fence panels that would have the same general look and feel. Since my house is not in a Landmarked district, I was able to choose any fence design I wanted.

Below are some stock cast iron fence panel designs that I considered.

I wanted to mock up a few panels on site before the ironworkers welded everything together. They brought over 4 panels so that I could see the repeat of the pattern. Although this panel design does not match the original fence design, I thought it looked pretty good.

After the metalworkers removed the iron fence, the masons came back to chip off the brownstone retaining wall and apply a new scratch coat. The brownstone finish coat will be applied after the new iron fence is installed.