New Bathstone Balustrade

Private Residence, Guildford - Specialist Subcontractor for AF Jones

At a private residence in Guilford, Surrey we were brought in to construct the new stone balustrading around the estate. The balustrade was a French limestone and was extremely fragile on its delicate arris’. The utmost care was taken during the installation of these stone sections; any damage would have been very costly.

 The raked balustrade sections pictured above was a particular challenge, 2mm joints were specified on all new stone construction, so our setting out over the landing and two flights had to be millimetre perfect.

Above is a straight section of balustrade, all masonry units were joined to each other using stainless steel dowels set in anchor resin. We always place our stonework on full mortar beds to provide strength and rigidity but also to ensure there are no air gaps, which could lead to damage of delicate masonry through freeze/thaw cycles. As the joint were so tight, a premixed putty mortar was used for bedding and pointing of the stonework. This mortar had a very fine silica aggregate and stone dust added for its workability and colour toning properties.