Sandblasting internal stone walls
Discussion
As part of a project we've decided to leave some of the internal stone walls exposed. They're in fairly good condition but really need cleaned up.
Will the small sand blasting kits from the likes of toolstation be up to the job or am I better hiring more serious kit?
Probably about 20 sq m of stonework to clean up in total. All seriously hard granite so no danger of damage.
Will the small sand blasting kits from the likes of toolstation be up to the job or am I better hiring more serious kit?
Probably about 20 sq m of stonework to clean up in total. All seriously hard granite so no danger of damage.
Wow that looks like deja vu for me!
We had a very similar situation a year or so ago. We had a very dirty fireplace so I decided to sandblast the fireplace. I'll post a few pics. I bought something like this from amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SwitZer-Sandblaster-Equip...
The biggest issue I had was air consumption, I was running 2 compressors in tandem and still not getting much running time - granted they weren't that big! I would tend to rent a big compressor and buy something like the above.
I used a blast media called Garnet after some research. It is quite brutal, I was quite surprised how much material it removed - I was happy with this but maybe not ideal if you are doing anything national heritage preservation wise!!. It also rattles through tips on the gun of the compressor so make sure you have plenty spare - I used about 3 tips for 2x2m. I inquired with a few companies and none seemed very good at doing non-commercial jobs but it would be much easier to get a company in for your size of area. You'll probably know this but make sure you use lime based mortar not cement for repointing - we got a lot of ours dyed so it didn't scream out as much - it is quite bright white when fresh.
In the end, although the exposed stone looks great we decided to keep the fire exposed and frame the other walls and insulate with 50mm kingspan. The heat gain from doing this and insulating the floor was brilliant.
We had a very similar situation a year or so ago. We had a very dirty fireplace so I decided to sandblast the fireplace. I'll post a few pics. I bought something like this from amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SwitZer-Sandblaster-Equip...
The biggest issue I had was air consumption, I was running 2 compressors in tandem and still not getting much running time - granted they weren't that big! I would tend to rent a big compressor and buy something like the above.
I used a blast media called Garnet after some research. It is quite brutal, I was quite surprised how much material it removed - I was happy with this but maybe not ideal if you are doing anything national heritage preservation wise!!. It also rattles through tips on the gun of the compressor so make sure you have plenty spare - I used about 3 tips for 2x2m. I inquired with a few companies and none seemed very good at doing non-commercial jobs but it would be much easier to get a company in for your size of area. You'll probably know this but make sure you use lime based mortar not cement for repointing - we got a lot of ours dyed so it didn't scream out as much - it is quite bright white when fresh.
In the end, although the exposed stone looks great we decided to keep the fire exposed and frame the other walls and insulate with 50mm kingspan. The heat gain from doing this and insulating the floor was brilliant.
Edited by strath44 on Monday 26th February 16:46
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