Brownstone facade work in the winter?

Hi neighbors,

We are starting the last phase of having the brownstone facade on our house replaced (i.e. the “finish” coat). My contractor has said that they will work if it is 45 degrees or warmer. Absolutely fair, from a safety and health perspective (and perhaps others).

My question is whether a finished coat applied in colder weather will be as good as one applied in warmer/dryer weather? Will it endure or might it have weakened integrity? This is all extremely expensive, so it needs to be done well. Should we consider waiting until the spring? What if we get half way done and the weather becomes impossibly cold – then we will have half done in the autumn and half done in the spring. Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

Thanks for your advice!

citizenjane

in General Discussion 4 years and 9 months ago

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citizenjane | 4 years and 8 months ago

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Thank you all for the insights. I guess we would be best to wrap up the work quickly and then re-open again in the spring. That was not our plan, but there were so many factors that caused delays. Thank you again!

stevecym | 4 years and 8 months ago

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I think anything below a constant 40 for a week is the cutoff. The colder temperatures slow and stop the curing process. I think. Somebody might have said this, but full cure is 28 days. Again, I only think this as I hate masonary and have no first hand. my source was reputable.. Freezing will destroy wet concrete. When I was a teen, I was doing work for an old man who had had a porch put on his house sometime in the 1950s. They were doing the work in october and had poured the concrete foundation, including a slab floor. An unexpected freeze was called for and the contractor ran and got bales of hay and spread it over the concrete. It did not help and the old man told me it failed to properly harden. I remember asking him all sorts questions about what happen and I think he described the resulting mess as something that had splayed and ended up in bits and pieces, possibly from the expansion of freezing water. Had to all be redone.

nathanjoe755 | 4 years and 8 months ago

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I think if it is too cold I think masonry work can fail due to freezing/expansion of water based materials and it probably effects setting time.
I was looking into repointing (thanks to the advice I got on this forum!) but have decided to wait till February to start figuring that out.

greenworks | 4 years and 9 months ago

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Less to do with safety and health than the dictates of the materials used. I’m sure if they could work with the materials below 45 they would find a way to do so.

citizenjane | 4 years and 9 months ago

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Thanks. Glad yours worked out. Perhaps our contractor will put the job on hold until the Spring at some point.

landlord | 4 years and 9 months ago

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My contractor waited till mid March. This was in 2015. Never had any issues with the work they did and it looks great.