The outside of the property is going to be sandblasted. The old gritstone has gone very black over the years. We don’t want to make it look new, but we do want to lighten up the colour.
So today we had a go at sandblasting some test panels – two on the back and one on the front (actually, the front of the barn).
We are going to go with a fairly light sandblasting rather than taking the stone right back. The grime that has built up on the masonry over the years actually makes the stone waterproof. The sandblasting removes this waterproof layer, so after the stone has been sandblasted, it will be treated with a waterproof sealant.
The panel underneath the window has been sand-blasted to an almost new finish. The panel to camera-right of the window has been lightly sanded. This is the finish that we have chosen.
The barn will be re-built as part of the phase 2 work, but while we were sand-blasting some test panels, we thought it was worth trying on the stone on the barn. This is lightly sanded and it makes a huge difference.
The two timbers on the left have been bought from a reclamation yard and will be used to replace some of the purlins in the roof.
While we were sandblasting some test panels on the house, we thought we should sandblast some of the timbers. The top timber (the one with the blue writing) has not be sandblasted, the bottom two have. The top two timbers have been bought from a reclamation yard and will be used to replace some of the broken purlins in the roof.