Rebirth of a brownstone
Unfortunately we couldn't dig up a before picture, but this corner unit at South Portland and Lafayette has been under renovation, at least the exterior, for sometime now and we just noticed this morning that things look, well, in great order.A few weeks ago, the brownstone looked rough and unfinished. This morning, it looks like they magically put on some brown liquid that hardened into smooth brownstone. Pardon our ignorance, we don't know how these things work. Can anyone enlighten us?
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Stucco, or to be more precise, a portland-cement & lime-based composite repair (similar in composition to pointing mortar, but slightly different proportions). Basically, they chip all of the old and failing brownstone off to get down to sound stone. Then they build up the repairs in layers, starting with an unpigmented (gray portland) base coat, and finishing with the "magic liquid" you mention - the latter being pigmented with crushed brownstone and masonry pigments.
Often, the gray base coat will remain in place for a couple months or a whole season, to cure it before the finish coat is applied.
You can see this in action all over the neighborhood. I noticed two stoops in process on Cumberland between Lafayette & Greene this week.
thanks for dropping science. i knew someone would come through.
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