Category: sand blasting (Page 1 of 2)

Sandblasting the new extension

December 14, 2013 / stephen

Now the scaffolding has been removed, we can sandblast the stonework on the new extension. We tend to do the sandblasting at the weekend because it is so noisy and messy. It just makes it to difficult to work on the site while the sandblasting is going on.

The next stage will be to point the stonework. We will be using the same lime and Nosterfield River sand mortar that we used on the original part of the property.

All of this stone has been brought in from offsite and is the closest match the we could find. The one exception are the quoins (the large corner stones) on the porch. These originally form part of the barn that was where the kitchen is now.

This is the back of the porch. The small window is for the downstairs cloakroom.

Although the roof is still to go on, serious progress has been made on the porch this week. The canopy is built using oak similar to the internal roof trusses.

The stonework on the new extension and porch were sandblasted today. This effectively removes a loose dirt or paint from the surface of the stone. By the time that it is pointed, it will be close match to the existing cottages. The roof of the porch and kitchen will be finished off next week.

The rear of the extension has also been sandblasted. Even the small gable end in the kitchen has been cleaned. The white box next to the utility window houses the new (three phase) electricity meter. I do wish they came in colours other than white!

Yup. This is the compressor that is used to clean the stone. It is a pretty noisy and sandy business. Definitely not for the faint hearted!

All of the exterior stonework on the extension has been sandblasted so that it matches the existing cottages. There is a lot of stonework here, but it is easily cleaned in a day. The hessian cloth on the ridge of the roof is to prevent the mortar being washed away on the new ridge tiles.

There isn’t much stonework on this elevation, however, the small areas that are here have been sandblasted so that it matches the rest of the property. Unfortunately, we are going to have to wait until the new year for the bi-folding doors to be fitted in the master bedroom. You can see the strip of hessian placed on the ridge tiles to protect the mortar from the wet weather.

Waxing the old oak timbers

September 29, 2013 / stephen

With the plasterers due to start on Wednesday this week, I am trying to get a protective coat of liquid wax onto the old oak beams. This means that if anything gets spilt on them, then it should simply wipe off. We sand blasted this oak beams when we cleaned the outside stone, so the timber is very absorbent and anything that gets spilt on them will be soaked up straight away.

I really wanted to keep the light colour of the sand blasted oak, but unfortunately everything that I looked at caused the oak to darken. In the end, I have opted to use Osomo PolyX. This seems to get some great reviews and will hopefully protect the timber. It is expensive though and painting all of the timber is time consuming. It looks as if the next two days are going to be spent painting!

This product seems to get rave reviews for protecting wood. Unfortunately, in our case, it does darken the wood down considerably. However, having tried a couple of alternative products, I think that whateve product we used would have darkened the wood. This isn’t cheap (around £60 for a 2.5L tin), but it does go a long way.

Progress on the rear of the property

August 4, 2013 / stephen

With the windows all installed, our attentions have moved to getting the openings sorted out for two pairs of large doors at the rear of the house. I always knew that there were big (particularly after having seen the quote for supplying them!), but I hadn’t realised quite how big until I saw the openings – each door is over a metre wide.

The ashlar surrounds for the window at the rear and the two openings for the doors was around £3,000 (just for the materials).

Where openings have been walled up, there are now some stones that need to be sandblasted. It just mean getting the sandblaster out again, but he is relatively local and doesn’t seem to mind. It shouldn’t take long to sort out these odd patches.

The gas board have also disconnected the gas supply so that we can move the pipework at the front of the house. This leaves black marks on the stonework where the sandblaster could get to the stonework as the pipes were in the way. This can all get picked up when he comes back.

The windows are all in and they are covered on the inside with some lightweight plastic to protect them while the inside of the property is being plastered.

The last of the wagons collected the waste spoil in Friday and the site is starting to look altogether more tidy.

We have now replaced the ashlar above the window to the left. The window head is now the same thickness as the other windows, but the stones that have been used to wall it up need to be sandblasted. There are two pairs of doors at the rear and the stone surround for the first of them has gone in.

The newly rebuilt extension is looking really great. Still a bit of tidying up to do and some pointing, but we are definitely getting there.

Now all of the windows are in, we have covered the insides with a lightweight plastic to protect them while the inside is being plastered. The windows were installed with the final coat of paint already on.

Outbuildings – sandblasted

July 29, 2013 / stephen

With the sandblaster back on site at the weekend to clean the newly rebuilt extension, we have taken the opportunity to get the outbuildings (aka shed) sandblasted too. This will help it fit in with the main house. The photos below show the before and after pictures.

The outbuildings before being sandblasted. I have had to remove the small wall here to make sure that we can get to all of the side wall.

The outbuildings after they had been sandblasted. They now need to be pointed to make them fit in with the rest of the buildings.

More sandblasting….

July 28, 2013 / stephen

Now the stonework on newly rebuilt extension is complete, we need to get it sandblasted. This needs to be done before the new windows are installed on Monday – as part of the sandblasting process we are cleaning the stone window frames removing any signs of the previous windows.

As well as sandblasting the new extension, we have also taken the opportunity to remove any marks where the scaffolding had been. Due to the scaffolding poles being so close to the building, there were patches where we couldn’t clean the building until the scaffolding had been removed. We also sandblasted the old outbuilding. This had some of the darkest stone on site and no longer looked as if it were part of the same set of buildings anymore.

This was a long day – from lunchtime through to 8:30pm. I was glad when it was all over. But the end result looks great.

You can see the stonework on the newly rebuilt extension that has been cleaned. We are now giving the outbuildings a clean so that they fit it with the rest of the property.

This is a noisy and messy job. Hence doing it on a Saturday afternoon while none of the builders are on site.

This ashlar window surround was originally upstairs in the front of the building and we have “repurposed” it for a set of windows in the rebuilt extension. The stone work has already been cleaned, but we are now taking off the remanants of the sealant used for the original windows.

The newly rebuilt extension and the outbuildings have been sandblasted to get them to “fit together”.

The first door in the outbuilding (the one that is higher than the rest) is the original toilet for the property. This dates back to around the 1700’s. The large green plastic toilet dates back to 2012. By the way, it is purely coincendental that the green toilet doors – old and new – are the same colour.

The scaffolding is gone

July 26, 2013 / stephen

And the house looks very different. The rebuilt extension is going to be sandblasted tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. We are doing the sandblasting at the weekend since it isn’t really possible for anyone to work on site while the sandblaster is working.

The new windows are being installed on Monday, so there is quite a bit of work to be done this weekend in preparation.

The scaffolding was removed today to reveal the front of the property. There will be a new porch built to the left, hence, this part of the building has not been sandblasted.

With the scaffolding gone, you can see the rear of the property. The large set of 4 windows on the ground floor are going to be replaced as the new ashlar has a fault in it. Ho hum.

The work on the roof of the rebuilt extension has ground to a halt as the wrong Velux windows were dispatched. The correct ones should be with us on Monday when the roofing work can recommence.

New roof on the rebuilt extension

July 24, 2013 / stephen

The roofing felt and lathes are now in place on the rebuilt extension. Tomorrow the stone slates will be replaced and with any luck the roof will have been completed by the end of this week. It will make a big difference.

The sandblasting of the extension is planned for the weekend so that we can get on with the pointing of the extension next week.

Felted and battened and ready for the stone slates to go back on tomorrow. This should be done by the end of the week.

Inside everything has a greenish hue due to the felt on the roof.

Looking out of the window in the rebuilt extension. It feels a bit like camping!

Sandblasting – Day 2

June 24, 2013 / stephen

Well, 7:30pm on Sunday evening and it is all done. Front, back, chimneys, timbers, and 3 fireplaces. It took around 45 bags of sand (each 25kgs) to complete the work. That’s a lot of sand, but I will leave you to do the maths!

It now looks superb, but it isn’t something that I would want to do every weekend!

All the window reveals were cleaned of as much mastic as possible and then cleaned so that the windows can be installed. The old windows were not set equally – some were further out than others – we will fix this issue when fitting the new ones. This is why all the window reveals needed to be cleaned.

The newly rebuilt chimneys were also sandblasted. Dragging all the tubes around isn’t easy work, but it only took 30-40 minutes to sandblast the chimneys. They do look superb.

I will post pictures of sandblasted timber and fireplaces later.

Working left to right, the front of the property is sandblasted.

The stone surround on the doorway to number 8 was painted. This doesn’t last long when sandblasted.

Sandblasting the second chimney was a little easier as the scaffolding was still in place around it.

Two sidese of the new chimeny have been sandblasted. The stone was salvaged from the old porch.

Two sides of the new chimney have been sandblasted. The stone was salvaged from the old porch.

Sandblasting – Day 1

June 23, 2013 / stephen

It is going to take a couple of days to sandblast the outside of the property, the fireplaces (x3) and the oak trusses and purlins in the roof. This work is being done at the weekend, so that it doesn’t interrupt any of the building work – no one can really work on site while the sandblasting is going on due to the noise and dust.

Proceedings didn’t start until just after lunch, but by 4:30pm the rear and one side of the property had been cleaned including one of the fireplaces. The idea is to gently lighten the stone and remove some of the black grime and soot that has built up over the last couple of hundred years. This dark outer layer keeps moisture out, so once the stone has been cleaned, it will need to be treated with a sealant.

The stonework to the right has been lightly sandblasted to take some of the black soot and grime off the old stonework. Ironically, it is the grime that makes the stone waterproof, so once it has been sandblasted the stone will be treated with a sealant.

This is not a job for the faint hearted

Yup, he is still there under that plume of sand. It took about 30 – 40 minutes to sandblast the rear of the property once all of the kit was set up.

The rear of the property has been completely sandblasted. Tomorrow, it will be the chimneys, the front, the fireplaces and the oak roof trusses.

Getting ready for the sand blasters

June 17, 2013 / stephen

The outside of the house, the oak roof trusses and the fireplaces are due to be sandblasted this weekend. This also includes the new rebuilt chimneys. There is a lot to get read in the next four days:

All the oak trusses and purlins need to be re-installed. To be able to do this, the internal wall that holds up the purlins needs to be rebuilt;
All the windows (upstairs and downstairs) need to be removed as the stone reveals need to be sandblasted before the new windows can be installed;
The new ashlar stone surrounds for the windows and doors need to be installed. Some of the existing stone surrounds are modern concrete (called “ArtStone”) replacements. These are being removed and replaced with the real thing;
Two new chimneys need to be rebuilt. One will be using the existing stone, the other will use the stone from the old porch.

The stone for the chimenys is stacked on pallets ready to be rebuilt. Zep is in the background looking for any leftover coleslaw! Blame the builders!