Melting McGrath receives facelift

Published 1:16 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND – Dale and Susan Sherman were still basking in the beauty of their building when they noticed it appeared to be melting in the first few months of this year.

As owners of the historic McGrath Building in downtown North Bend, the Shermans had gone through great pains and a lot of money to renovate it to its present impressive state. Their efforts won them several county and state historic preservation awards.

So when they found streaks running down the outside of their building in the winter following their renovation, they became a little concerned.

They called on the trade group Northwest Wall and Ceiling Bureau to come and take a look at the walls to diagnose the problem.

It took the bureau about 15 minutes to discover that the stucco the subcontractor had used on the exterior of the building was gypsum-based and meant to be used only on the insides of structures.

When the stucco used on the McGrath Building’s lower level got wet, it deteriorated and eventually flaked off.

Dale Sherman had a hard time finding the words to describe his feelings once he discovered the problem and realized the work that would have to go into rectifying it.

“I really couldn’t believe it,” he said.

For the complete story pick up a copy of this weeks Valley Record