Tag: hydraulic lime mortar

  • Various Highland castle roof work

    Various Highland castle roof work

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    There was a small sandstone turret to be raked out and pointed with hydraulic lime mortar. The picture below shows it fully raked out.


    This one shows it fully pointed.


    Pointing was also needed to the adjacent small set of crow steps and the mortar skew between them and the turret.


    A view up from the base of the turret.


    Looking down on the turret, crow steps, and skew.


    All of the new lime work was wrapped in hessian sheeting to protect it from the weather, and slow down the initial curing phase.


    A much larger set of crow steps that was also raked out and lime pointed. The following two pictures were taken after pointing had been completed.


    New lime protected by heavy hessian sheeting.


    In one corner of the roof a long term leak had completely rotted the sarking boards and the joist below them. These obviously had to be replaced.


    This was taken after all rotten timbers had been removed and a replacement joist had been spliced in.


    Getting the sarking boards on.


    Breathable membrane fitted.


    Slating up now.


    Corner fully repaired.


    There were a lot of large hoppers on the castle and they tended to get blocked. One was a particular problem as birds kept building a nest in it. All of the hoppers were capped with stainless steel 1 inch x 1 inch mesh to prevent these problems.


  • Spire general maintenance: pointing, timber louvre painting, weathervane painting. lightning conductor repairs

    Spire general maintenance: pointing, timber louvre painting, weathervane painting. lightning conductor repairs


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    This work was carried out in 2018 and involved lots of general maintenance work.

    The first task was to do quite a lot of raking out, followed by hydraulic lime pointing. This was unusually difficult and time consuming due to the concave flutings that run all the way down the spire.


    All of the timber louvre windows were prepared and painted.


    The weathervane (finial) was prepared and painted with a high quality metallic based exterior paint (£70 per 1 litre at time of purchase).


    The lightning conductor had been vandalised. The local idiots had tried, and failed, to tear it off the wall to sell it for scrap. We removed the damaged section and replaced it with 25mm x 3mm copper to match the existing (over time the new copper tape will oxidize and become green like the existing tape).

    This is the damaged section. If you zoom the picture up by clicking on it, you’ll see how twisted the tape is.

    The same area once repairs had been completed.


  • Hydraulic lime mortar pointing

    Hydraulic lime mortar pointing


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    Brand new hydraulic lime pointing. The spire was raked out before we pointed it (the existing cement mortar was removed).


    We also pointed the inside of the spire, as it was extremely open. The wind and rain were blowing straight through the wide open joints on the west facing elevation.

    Click on the picture to make it bigger, then count about 2 to 3 rungs up from the base of the ladder, and in that approximate area, behind the ladder, you’ll see sunlight coming through the wall at two different places. It was like this all over the place but the angle of this picture does not show all the gaps.


    This picture was taken high up inside. As you can see the daylight is shining through this open joint.


    These pictures show how it looked once it had been pointed.


  • Spire stabilisation and lime pointing

    Spire stabilisation and lime pointing


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    This 2015 job involved stabilisation of the head of the spire followed by full rake out and repointing.

    We also carried out more minor tasks like painting the finial and fitting mesh to louvre windows to prevent birds getting in and making a mess of the inside.


    We fitted four large and strong copper cramps to stabilise the head of the spire. This was the clients favoured approach as the Church could not afford a full rebuild. This repair will keep the spire stable for a great many years to come (it will see all of us out).


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Contact Details

BCM Steeplejacks Ltd
21 St. Dunstans Park
Melrose
Roxburghshire
TD6 9LF

01896 820 404
07779 947 918

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