Lithomex – McGowan Masonry

New stone mullioned windows and repaired arch two years on

The windows below are shown in an earlier post two years ago while being made. Here it is again slightly weathered. This job involved shaping existing walls into window jambs, making cills and inserting a lintol. This was conversion of a stable block to accommodation in a historic castle.

The arched doorway was repaired with new sections and Lithomex stone reconstitution in areas – the whole wall had collapsed and the remains of the arch pieces had to be carefully recovered. The wall above/behind the arch was not rebuilt by myself.

Victorian school windows

Cleaned, repaired, pointed, shelter coated these windows on a listed Victorian school house South Wales. On the left the lime-stone finish is almost dry, but the bottom half of the right hand window is still wet and I had no time to wait around for the perfect photo.

Repairing Victorian stone windows

Making indent repairs to a stone window. The first picture shows the new pieces oversize pinned and resin-fixed into place, and the third one has been shaped.

The four cutout sections had been made when a greenhouse was fixed into it many years ago.

The second picture below shows the near completed work with all indents cut to finished face. The repair includes the left-hand transom — the horizontal bar — that I put a stainless steel bar along to repair a complete crack at each of its ends. Where the second mullion meets the transom (in the top photo before it was filled) you can just see the black hole where the hole for the bar was drilled leftwards. This double cracked transom was loose but not removable so it was just pinned through lengthways and resin fixed and then used Lithomex to repair surface damages.

In a few years the repairs will be difficult to distinguish

New Light Through New Windows

New stone mullion windows in conversion of stables to flats at an 1870’s stately home near Hay-on-Wye. The work required a careful adjustment within stone courses which form the outer jambs, and to be cut around steel supports behind the lintol profile, in order to provide appropriate elevation and sufficient height of casements for good views of the Black Mountains.

A repair was also carried out at the same location on a collapsed and broken Roman arch. Voussiors of the arch were pinned with stainless steel and repaired using Lithomex, three new sections were made and the arch was then rebuilt on site.

The Stonemason. Dust protection is essential due to the 95% silica content of the stone.

Cistercian abbey

Continuing work at Dore Abbey the 1147 monastery in South Herefordshire. Last year we engineered the righting of a precipitously leaning section of historically significant wall, repaired leaking stone roof areas, provided general maintenance, and did structural alterations for the new bell support frame to be fitted in the tower when the bells are returned this year. So good to be involved in the preservation of a building which is now coming back to life after the risk of being lost in previous decades. The Friends of Dore Abbey are doing wonderful work.

Scottish baronial splendour

Looking forward to starting work on this Scottish baronial house in Fife, bonny bonny Scotland. Restoring aspects of the building to their full glory.

Abergavenny Town Hall

I carried out various stone replacement and repair here. This photo shows some repair work to the upper windows from a cherry picker, where loose stone was near to falling. The dark colour is the wet stone-lime repair which lightens and blends in when dry.

There is also a vertical crack in the window head lintol which we reinforced with pins and repointed.

Victorian Mansion: Clock and tower restoration

This clock tower had an eroded Bath stone clock dial. Rolls Royce engineers repaired and remade parts of the derelict clock mechanisms, took the bells away and retuned them, and placed a new bell frame on the tower (the mansion was built by Charles Rolls family). While they were working on the mechanism I repaired the dial and other components, putting new eyes in the ends of the cross, putting reinforcing in to hold the clock face and frame, and cleaned all the stone on the tower including the vinework which was particularly coated in lichen. Needless to say they supplied me with the highest grade stainless steel for all my fixings.

Osbaston Chapel

This project in Monmouth, one of several restoration projects in the town, involved the replacement of a significant amount of Bath stonework around the quoins, plinth courses, gable copings, and finial crosses. We also cleaned and restored the internal faces of the Bath stone windows which had been coated in many layers of blue paint. Bare stone was a definite improvement. Most challenging was the project running through the winter of 2009-10, the freezing temperatures affecting lime and stone repair but with the Spring it all came together.

Osbaston Cross2