Patched brownstone
Last year I had the exterior of my brownstone repaired. What they did was only repair and brownstone the damaged areas. They didn’t do a good job in matching the color to the existing brownstone and its very noticeable. My neighbor had his repaired but covered his entire brownstone in something called thermasil(not sure of…
Last year I had the exterior of my brownstone repaired. What they did was only repair and brownstone the damaged areas. They didn’t do a good job in matching the color to the existing brownstone and its very noticeable. My neighbor had his repaired but covered his entire brownstone in something called thermasil(not sure of the spelling) It looks beautiful. Has anyone heard of this and if so is it okay to use on brownstones. I know its said that brownstones have to be allowed to breath.
I think Thoroseal is fine as a cheap way to protect Brownstone.
What’s wrong with Thoroseal? It’s an incredible product since it withstands water and moisture so well.
There has been much discussion on this site about brownstone facade work and the evils of thoroseal. We had the brick rear wall of our house repointed and most of the old cement render and thoroseal removed and we’re very happy with the result. But we just can’t afford the $35-50k cost of redoing our front facade. Also I just don’t believe that these facade jobs are truly necessary. They take 4-5 months, cost a fortune but only seem to last about 10-15 years. In the UK and Europe, where stucco-fronted houses are very common, I’ve never seen this work done. They must be using a different technique. Some people have referenced a European product called silin, made or sold by Cathedral Stone. I gather this is a new generation of thoroseal but with far superior qualities including long-life and allowing stone or cement facades to breath. It’s just that no-one on this site seems to have had first hand experience with it. If you know more about it — please respond! Bear in mind that very, very few brownstones are covered in “real” brownstone these days. Most have been replaced with cement over years of repairs. In Prospect Heights, I know of only one “true” brownstone facade — a beautiful house on Prospect Pl btw Carlton and Vanderbilt, where the owner spent over $100k to repair his facade with real quarried stone.
Thanks everyone
It is very hard to match the color of brownstone because the original stone has a lot of variation in it and the cement used to fix it is generally uniform in color. The best way to try to make patches fit in is to have someone perform some artistry to create some striations in the cement.
Whether to patch or go the full monty is a question of taste. Some like to preserve as much of the original as they can, even if it means that the patches are noticeable.
Thuroseal is evil. We have it on our building and the cost to remove it is 2nd mortgage worthy. When you eventually need to remove it to repoint the building it takes a layer of brick with it.
This is when it is applied to the brick. I have no idea what damage it does to brownstone. My guess is that it takes chunks of it with it, but as a whole it probably extends the life of the facade since brownstone is so fragile to begin with, and repointing isn’t as big an issue. (Replacing the brownstone is of course 2nd mortage worthy as well.)
I’ve used thorocoat over cement, and repaired brownstone with success. I was under the belief that it allowed the stone beneath to breathe, you should research this online or speak with a retailer for specifics.
Its thoroseal. The same company makes other formulas called Thorocoat and Thorolastic. No, it does’nt breathe and will most likely chip and peel in few short years.