Case study · Restoration

Paint Removal & Lime Repointing

We steam-stripped failing layers of paint from a sandstone house, then repointed the bare stonework in NHL 3.5 natural hydraulic lime.

Stone

Sandstone, tooled blocks and rubble

Mortar

NHL 3.5 natural hydraulic lime

Techniques

Steam paint removal, lime repointing

This stone house had been painted more than once. White paint sat over older red and pink coats, with the window margins picked out in green. The paint was flaking and lifting off the stone.

We stripped it back to the sandstone with steam, working from tower scaffolds, then repointed the stonework in natural hydraulic lime.

The photos run from part-stripped paint beside the green door to the cleaned and repointed walls.

Failing paint

The walls carried white paint over older red and pink coats, with green paint on the stone window margins. It was flaking and lifting off the face of the stone.

Both photos were taken beside the green door with the stripping under way. Below the sill the tooled sandstone is showing. Above it the paint is still on.

Double window with green-painted margins beside a green door. White paint flakes above; below the sill the wall is stripped to sandstone. — Part-way through. The hose is out and the lower wall is back to stone.

Close view of white paint peeling off tooled sandstone blocks, with red and pink coats beneath and a green-painted window margin. — White over red and pink, lifting off the tooled stone.

Steam stripping

We took the paint off with steam through a lance. Here the lance and hoses are lying below a double window, with flakes of paint on the grass. The stone to the left is stripped. The green margins and the white base are still to do.

Higher up we worked from a tower scaffold. The window openings are boarded over while the steam is on the wall, and whoever is on the lance wears a visor, hood, gloves and hi-vis.

Lance and hoses on the grass below a double window with green-painted margins. Stone to the left is stripped; the base is still white. — The lance, the hoses and what came off the wall.

Operative in visor, hood and orange hi-vis on a tower scaffold, stripping white paint with a steam lance. MD Brickwork van roof in front. — Steam drifting across the slates as the paint comes off the upper storey.

Back to the stone

With the paint off, this elevation is back to sandstone rubble, with dressed margins round the windows.

The boards are still over the windows and the doorway is sheeted. Pointing comes next.

Two-storey sandstone rubble wall stripped of paint, windows boarded and doorway sheeted in blue tarpaulin. — Stripped and waiting for pointing. Openings still covered.

Lime repointing

We repointed the stonework in natural hydraulic lime. On the gable we worked off a tube scaffold, one of us to each lift, with tubs sent up on a rope.

The bag lying in the skip reads Otterbein Calcidur, natural hydraulic lime NHL 3.5. Behind it is the same elevation shown stripped above, now pointed, with the boards off the windows.

Up close the new mortar is buff in colour. The joints are filled full and finished close to the face of the stone.

Three workers seen from behind on a three-lift tube scaffold against a sandstone gable, one hauling a tub on a rope. Ladder to the left. — One of us to each lift on the gable.

Two-storey rubble wall repointed in buff mortar, windows uncovered, doorway sheeted. An Otterbein Calcidur NHL 3.5 lime bag lies in a skip. — Same wall, repointed. The lime bag in the skip reads NHL 3.5.

Looking along the repointed rubble wall. Buff lime mortar fills the joints close to the stone faces around a window with dressed margins. — New lime mortar, finished close to the face of the stone.

Finished stonework

The wall beside the porch, cleaned and repointed. Squared sandstone with tooled faces, dressed margins round the windows and dressed quoins at the corner.

The wing with the dormer came up the same way.

Looking up at the cleaned and repointed wall beside a buff brick porch: squared tooled sandstone, dressed window margins and quoins. — Tooled faces and dressed margins that had been under paint.

Wing with a white dormer in a slate roof, its sandstone cleaned and repointed. — The wing, cleaned and repointed.

The result

Before & after

Two-storey elevation: stripped, then repointed

Window by the green door: paint coming off, then finished

Paint failing on your stonework? Ask us about stripping and lime repointing.

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