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Building Pathology

Testimonials

"There is no-one I have worked with in Cornwall who knows so much about the use of lime, sands, and other traditional materials for use in repair and conservation of old buildings"A.P. English Heritage

"Stephen takes a very methodical approach to conservation repair and deals with each challenge in a careful sequence of stages"

"Stephen is now probably the top expert in Cornwall on the analysis of damp problems in historic buildings" E.B. Conservation Officer

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Palace Building

Stone repairs & Consolidation

palace-building

Due to the use of hard and impervious cement pointing and relatively soft meta-sedimentary sandstone, there was significant decay to the stone façade.

There were large areas of failure to the pointing and face of the stone work
 
 
The remedial works involved removing the cement pointing which revealed the original bedding mortar, although very soft and friable, was filling many of the joints. Consolidation of the original lime joints and surface of the stones was undertaken with minimal patch repairs and repointing.
 

The gables were in very poor condition and a reinforced plaster system applied
 

Due to the soft nature of the stones the repointing was undertaken in a putty lime with pozzolan added to give a feebly hydraulic set designed to closely match the original mortar.