Sandstone Restoration, Repair and Maintenance

Finding A Qualified Sandstone Restorer

It is an impossible task. Sandstone is a strange mineral and very tough to deal with. It is usually profiled or riven and if the restorer tries to use diamond abrasive tooling to grind and hone he will go through more diamonds than Elizabeth Taylor. It requires the right tooling. We re trying to train more individuals in this excellent technique but it takes time.

You really need to discuss the restoration proposition in detail. Ask questions about previous Sandstone restoration jobs. We currenetly undertake over 200,000 m2 of Sandstone maintenance and repairs.

A Little About British Old Red Sandstone

Found in Wales and Scotland, in England where it borders those two, and in the area around Omagh, Northern Ireland, the Old Red Sandstone is a huge set of sedimentary rocks (primarily brown and red, giving it its name) dating to the Devonian. It is a marine formation, having been laid down from 408 to 370 million years ago as earlier Silurian rocks uplifted by the formation of Pangaea eroded and slid into a body of fresh water (probably a series of large river deltas). The formation is extremely thick, up to 11,000 meters in places, and can be subdivided into three categories "Lower", "Middle", and "Upper" from oldest to youngest.

As a result, the Old Red Sandstone is a rich source of marine fossils. Agnathan fishes, all extinct in the present day except for hagfishes and lampreys are very common, as are ostracoderms and plants. In the early 1800s, the paleotology of the formation was studied intensively by Hugh Miller, Henry Thomas De la Beche, Roderick Murchison, and Adam Sedgwick -- Sedgwick's interpretation was the one that placed it in the Devonian, and in fact it was he that coined that word. Many of the science of stratigraphy's early debates were about the Old Red Sandstone. Old Red Sandstone can occur in conjunction with conglomerate formations, a noteworthy such cliffside exposure being the Fowlsheugh Nature Reserve, Aberdeenshire.

In regions where the formation is near the surface, many stone houses are built of the rocks mined from the formation. Notable examples can be found in the area surrounding Stirling, Stonehaven, Perth, and Tayside. The inhabitants of Caithness at the north-eastern tip of Scotland also used the stone to a considerable extent.

Of course, we deal with Sandstone from anywhere in the world. As you are aware Sandstone can be purchased from China and India fairly cheaply but be aware that some of the stone can be next to useless. You need to be careful when choosing the correct stone but we can advise on that if you need us to. The correct Sealant is paramount in a Sandstone purchasing desicion, again, call us for information on 020 8807 8889. 

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