We are doing a historic repointing job in Readfield, at St Andrews Church. This is a relatively new addition that appears to have been acid washed incorrectly. We low pressure washed the bricks to wash all the loose sand and dirt. Then we neutralized the imbedded acid with a amonia solution. This revealed a deep joint which does [...]
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Outdoor kitchen
We are building a woodfired brick and stone bake oven, with granite countertops and a connecting grill. We build a block base on a concrete footing, that we pour on styrofoam. We pour an insulating light weight slab to mount our refractory tiles. We’ll install a damper and then smoke shelf and chimney. We have [...]
Emily’s patio
We built this patio for Emily and Tom in Wayne with maine fieldstone that we cut and fit. We dug out the topsoil and replaced it with crushed rock, landscape fabric, stone dust. We compacted this and carefully graded it to drain away from the house. We get some interesting patterns by making tight [...]
Pocasset Shores
We built stairs and retaining wall down to a new entry to this house in Wayne. First we move the rough boulder retaining wall down 3 feet to get out of the drive way line. Then we unloaded the rough steps and set them in a crushed rock base. These are rustic steps that we [...]
Stone Repoint
We are doing a historic renovation at 95 Main St,;Orono for Rick Pare. We met with Dan Johnson from Maine Historic Preservation to detirmine the right mix to match up to. It had three different mortars from multiple repoints. We took the oldest mortar.This is truely a rubble stone mix between cast quoins. Unfortunately Ruble [...]
Stonework Patio
We built a new patio for Emily with tightly fit stone, trying to match the old. The old has a patina of moss between the rocks that takes years to grow. We use a mash of moss, manure tea, buttermilk and coffee grounds to give it a head start.
SPRING JOBS
We rebuilt this stonewall for Lee Anne Baggott of the easy breathing clinic, just before the bridge going east in Augusta. We start by digging out the wall about 2 feet deep, puting 8″ of crushed rock under the wall and then landscape fabric behind it. We pour concrete behind the stone, pull the forms [...]
Staying alivel.
We sold our previous well cover sculpture, so we made another one. Richard drilled the stone, squared it up, and then mounted a nodel A wheel in it. It is a great piece but alsmost hidden in our yard.
Whats new
We find great pieces of granite in our travels, like this 8′ x 9′ triangle. this was in the basement of a house that burned in Hallowell. It is flat and true, with great straight lines.We flared these steps, from 5′ to 4′.We completed this 7 circuit cretean labyrinth at the Forgotten stoneworks.We built steps [...]
Labyrinth in another
We completed Barbara Moss labyrinth and liked building it so much that we build our own. We used the same format, finding the center, layout a grid with landscape nails, stiff hoses and digging rough trenches. We prepare a base of compacted sand for a mix of left over pavers, which blended well together. The [...]