HERITAGE STONE RESTORATION

Stone buildings can be the most beautiful and elegant example of architecture. As they age, they inevitably need a little bit of care and maintenance.

Our unique expertise lies in restoration of natural stone, from heritage listed buildings to Sydney foreshore/seawalls. We are one of Sydney's most respected heritage restoration companies, with superior craftsmanship and guaranteed quality of workmanship.

Our classically trained heritage stonemasons use traditional stonemasonry methods together with more newer techniques like reconstructed stone, widely practiced in the UK but less known in Australia, which offers a much more economical form of sandstone restoration.

Modern techniques

A traditional method of restoring stonework suffering from damage and erosion is to use natural stone replacements and/or indents to replace the original stone. However, replacing the entire stone is expensive and is not necessary in most cases. A modern technique for sandstone restoration is to use reconstructed stone.

This can be applied to cracked masonry which can also be fixed without the need to remove and replace with new stone. Using a procedure called stone stitching (using stainless steel to re-enforce damaged stones) a cracked lintel can be fixed in a fraction of the time and cost than that of replacing it.

At York Stone Restoration, we specialise in heritage stone restoration and can advise on the best options for your project, whether that be using natural stone or more modern techniques.

WINDOW CORNICE

Restoration of sandstone cornice in Sheffield, England, using reconstructed stone. The building was damaged during an earthquake where a large piece of the cornice broke away and fell to the ground. We were able to restore it without replacing the stone, saving the owner quite a bit of money. For more detail on the process, see our blog article.

After cleaning up the exposed stone using a mallet and chisel to chop away any loose stone and wire brushing any remaining dirt and dust, the stone is drilled in several places and brass dowels inserted.

The dowels are then strung together with copper wire, this acts as a rust proof reinforcement. Following this a scratch coat of reconstructed stone is applied using a trowel.

Depending on the depth of the repair, one scratch coat may be sufficient, however on this particular repair several coats were required. Each coat must be applied only once the coat below had dried.

The cornice is built out with each coat, once it is at the surface the reconstructed stone is shaped using a mixture of trowels, floats, straight edges followed by a final rub over with a sponge.

While the stone is still soft, Batton marks may be applied at this time using a teeth tool or markings matching the existing stone can be applied using trowels, or chisels.

Reconstructed stone