Cat's Eye Carving

Cleaning a door surround.

25 October, 2024 – 11:15 am

This lovely brick house is finished with stone door and window surrounds, unfortunately pollution has turned some areas black.

My customer asked if I could clean it off and make good the eroded stone.

The weather over the years has attacked the soft bed layers in the stone and left it pitted and worn, the fossils and calcite layers have created natural shelves for me to build my mortar repairs onto. I did have to chop some of the stone away to create seats to build the lime mortar onto.

Cement has been used in the past to try and re-construct the stone, unfortunately cement speeds up the erosion process by trapping the water in the already damaged stone.

The first thing was to do was to clean the stone with water and scrubbing brushes and then I applied a poultice to break the black stain down so that it was easier to wash away.

Once the cleaning was finished, I could get on with preparing the stone for the repairs.

The mortar needs to be built up gradually and kept damp to prevent it from shrinking and failing.

I have done all I can this season. After the last frosts next Spring, I can assess what needs to be done to complete the work. At this stage, I am happy with the repairs but it is important to assess after the Winter to ensure that the repairs have been successful

Lime needs to be worked with above 5 degrees otherwise any frosts will cause it to fail.

I look forward to completing this job next year and sharing the final photos with you.