Repairing crumbling porch mouldings

tizzle6560

We have a sandstone (I think?) porch and marble/granite pillar combo on the front of our Victorian semi.

On closer inspection a lot of the intricate mouldings are crumbling away under the old paint job.

Whats the best way to repair/restore this, taking into consideration some loose chunks are quire large..

Photos to follow this eve.

Thanks

Doozergirl

You can either use a stonemason or a specialist plasterer that can constitute it for you using a mix with cement, which is likely to be cheaper.

The photos would help me know if I'm suggesting the right thing though.

tizzle6560

Doozergirl wrote: »

You can either use a stonemason or a specialist plasterer that can constitute it for you using a mix with cement, which is likely to be cheaper.

The photos would help me know if I'm suggesting the right thing though.

Would it be a difficult job to attempt this myself? If it's more or less a process of getting the mix right and then shaping in the right places, I think I could give that a go.

Doozergirl

I can't see what you have to do!

tizzle6560

Photos, albeit not the best quality but gives you an idea of the work involved hopefully -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsdysaxe7b9nybv/Photo%2013-09-2016%2C%208%2007%2033%20am.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vy1luny1l1cpy5e/Photo%2013-09-2016%2C%208%2007%2035%20am.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajp0t2h27ima2lc/Photo%2013-09-2016%2C%208%2007%2037%20am.jpg?dl=0

Thanks

Doozergirl

It looks like someone's aready taken to that arch. I don't know if that's even the original work flaking off.

I'm not a DIYer, I restore buildings and do what it takes to get things looking beautiful, so I'd be stripping back all that paint to see what we had and repairing it to a standard. It would look beautiful without all those layers of paint blurring the details.

Either someone else advises here or you can take those pics to a nice independent hardware or builder's merchant and see what product they suggest. Not sure I'd be mixing up from bags of sand and cement for that.

ouraggie

We have similar mouldings on our house. I repaired them myself and am just an average DIYer. I used a small wire brush to gently remove any flaking paint, then made up a stiff mixture with good quality exterior powder filler and using an old credit card as a tool I built up the missing bits using next door as a reference as necessary and filled cracks, etc bit by bit. I then sanded the repair and painted it all. Looks fine once painted. It took a while to get the shaping right but the credit card helps you form neat corners or straight edges.
I'd have a go. Yours is nowhere near as bad as mine was!

FreeBear

If the stonework is sandstone, the exterior filler will probably work better than portland cement - Mix some fibres in to help prevent it from cracking and falling out.

Why is portland cement not suitable on sandstone ?
Sandstone will absorb moisture and get trapped behind the cement. Come the winter, it will freeze and because the cement is inflexible, cause the stonework to spall.

This is in part the problem you already have with the thick coating of paint. Water has penetrated surface cracks, and repeated freeze/thaw is causing the stonework to break up.

tizzle6560

TBH I think I will just have to make do with sanding down, filling where possible and repainting - on top of existing paint job if need be.

My flat is a leasehold within this converted Vic property so there is only so much I'm willing to invest.