CLIENT: Private REPAIR DISCIPLINES: Stone replacement, mortar repairs to ashlar and decorative elements, mortar grouting, lime mortar pointing, burnt sand mastic application, lime wash, casting balustrades
THE PROBLEM These impressive Georgian villas initially appeared to be in a fair condition, with the expectation of only a few mortar repairs and some repointing; but upon closer investigation we discovered a much larger scope of repair work and disciplines required The parapet section was completely void of lime mortar; vegetation and soils had become established at the wall head allowing copious amounts of moisture to penetrate at height, promoting saturation of underlying masonry and loss of architectural detailing to the masonry. In addition, stress had caused several dressed cills, rybats and lintols to crack. When we investigated the ashlar masonry we found there was a unique decay mechanism occurring - impurities were being deposited at the depletion layer, close to the surface causing the faces to completely separate from the background.
LIMERICH'S SOLUTION
The cost for undertaking stone replacement on this scale and to all these elements would have been considerable. So, our repair strategy was developed along with the client as follows,
complete removal of all cement
complete washing out of all soils from parapet
deep void grouting of all joints found void of bedding mortars
replacement stone only where structurally necessary (cills, lintols, rybats and balustrades)
re-facing of all masonry architectural details and ashlar walling in part section/indent where the masonry surface decoration has been lost but the stone remained structurally sound. All part repairs received a pigmented lime wash application to keep the appearance of a whole stone
re-facing of all masonry ashlar walling in whole section where the complete surface decoration has been lost but the stone was structurally sound. Areas where a complete repair of a whole stone were undertaken were colour matched with the original new stone colour
the cornice suffered terribly from the salt and moisture attack from parapet so we installed a running ‘horse’ and produced a reverse template (as like internal cornice running method). We ran a technical repair mortar over the surface to reproduce the sharp appearance of the original cornice; and we used anchors at points and cut imitation joints at the original locations to ensure our repairs cope technically with their location
complete re-point in lime mortar
burnt sand mastic to windows
THE OUTCOME
All work carried out to the highest standard
Ongoing client communications to keep them informed and offer cost effective solutions
Aesthetically appealing facades that remain true to the original architect’s designs and their history easily interpreted