Newton, MA Abbot Building Restoration Company, Inc. has completed a major restoration project for the Boston Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (BPSI). Abbot was awarded the project following a competitive bidding process to serve as the masonry subcontractor for Kaplan Construction with whom Abbot has had a long and successful working relationship.

Originally built in 1866, the building has an attractive puddingstone facade that was in need of significant repairs to the front entrance including the tower and three chimneys, the left side and half of the rear. 

Abbot initiated the project by power washing the area within the scope of work to clean and brighten the stonework. Since puddingstone units are irregular in shape, traditional mechanical restoration methods could not be used. Rather, Abbot painstakingly chiseled out all of the joints using small demo hammers or “bulldogs” as referred to in the trade. Abbot then joint tooled new mortar selected by the architect (SchwartzSilver, Boston, MA) to provide a semi-raised historic appearance.

Due to the age of the building, in lieu of patching small areas of deterioration around the stone windows, these stones were honed to remove all of the unbonded friable, cracked and soft stones to match the original detail as closely as possible.

Founded in 1933, BPSI is a leading educational institution and membership society that offers full training in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Abbot provides a broad range of masonry construction services to public, institutional, and commercial clients, including condominiums, property management entities, and private residences. The firm also acts as a general contractor for a variety of masonry building construction projects.

Specific areas of expertise include:

• Brick and stone restoration;

• Repointing and recaulking;

• Concrete repair and protection.