Sand Blasting with John Todd

Sandblasting

Reveal The Natural Beauty of the Stone in Your Home

One of the features that most people adore about the property stock of Limousin is the beautiful old stone work. Stone built, is the first choice of most British property hunters when looking for their new Limousin home. Sadly many houses have stonework whose beauty is masked by years of grime, smoke damage from open fires and stoves and general air pollution.

Dry sandblast cleaning is a relatively new method of cleaning newly built masonry, but has been used for many years in masonry restoration work.

Many architect, engineers and restoration specialists prefer sandblast cleaning over conventional acid type cleaning because of the risk of the acid reacting with certain types of brickwork.

Sandblast operators as with all other construction industry trades vary in skill and competence. Some are true artisans and others are less competent. But, in the hands of a qualified and experienced operator, sandblast cleaning is superior in many ways to other methods.

Sandblast cleaning uses the the following; an air compressor, a blasting tank, hose, nozzle, operators' safety clothing and protective hood.
Air pressure is created by a compressor unit usually between 40 lbs. to 100 lbs. /square inch. Abrasive material is then selected appropriate to the job being undertaken. This is then blasted along with the pressurized air into the blasting hose and nozzle.

John Todd worked for over 15 years in the UK restoring the natural beauty of stonework throughout the country on barn conversions and a variety of other restoration projects as well as his own UK property.

His business in the UK was at the very forefront in shot-blasting & bead-blasting technology. Many customers from aristocratic families who required precious items such as bronze and stone sculptures to be cleaned and some of the items were worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. For this type of item, extreme care has to be taken in the selection of the appropriate grade and type of blasting media to be used. John also carried out work for the Ministry of Defence where he had to sign the Official Secrets Act due to the experimental nature of some of the projects.

When John and his family began house hunting in France they soon realised that there would be a huge market for his services and so he carefully packed and brought all of his equipment with him. The first project was his own property which he lovingly restored to its former glory. Since then John has set up his own sand and blast business here in Limousin and has helped hundreds of home owners uncover the natural beauty of their new home.

Creation of a Feature Wall.

Chopping off of old plaster, sandblast and rejointing the wall. Cleaned and sandblasted beams and fireplace.

John is able to offer clients invaluable advice and a complete restoration service including the speedy removal of old cement and plaster, a process that can take weeks and weeks when done by hand with a hammer and chisel.
The walls are then blasted and washed removing the final traces of dust and then ‘voila?lt;/i>, the glory of the stone is finally revealed, showing its warm colours and natural characteristics.

You can see in the photographs of John’s work how the different textures and colours really do show through. John’s preferred method is to then point the brick work, making the jointing as deep as possible to show the natural shape of the stone, unlike the preferred French method of “overfilling?the joints thus losing some of the natural shape and beauty.

John Todd is happy to offer advice and guidance on your potential project so do not hesitate to contact him if you would like to reveal the natural beauty of the stone in your home.

Article Constructed with the kind assistance
of John Todd

FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR
TO ARRANGE A SITE VISIT & QUOTATION
FREE FROM OBLIGATION OR CHARGE

Contact details of satisfied clients available on request

EMAIL john@sand-blast-cleaning.com

TEL +33 581 316 345
OR 0044 12 36 21 17 28

SIRET NUMBER: 479 860 454 00012

www.sand-blast-cleaning.com

Two Projects Recently Undertaken

The walls featured are very different.

A stair case in an attic the space was tight so unable to get big expance of wall in each photo

A complete fire place wall and stair case.