Harte Stone & Brick restores stone and brick facades across the capital: heritage and conservation projects, period homes and commercial premises.
Every restoration starts with the building's original fabric, matching materials to how it was originally built rather than to whatever is easiest to source.
Thirty years of work with contractors, surveyors and building owners across London, from single stone repairs on a terraced house to full elevations on listed buildings and mansion blocks.
Three things decide how a facade is treated: what the fabric is, what mortar belongs in it, and how little force is needed to clean it.
We survey the fabric before we specify anything. Mortar samples, brick type, stone bed and the condition behind the face all set the approach. A method that suits a Portland stone frontage will destroy a soft London stock, so nothing is applied by default.
Facade restorationA great deal of London masonry was repointed in hard cement between the sixties and the nineties. It traps moisture, forces it out through the brick face and shears the arrises off. We rake it out by hand and replace it in a lime mortar matched to the original mix and joint profile.
RepointingTORIK and DOFF conservation systems, specified to the substrate and tested on a trial patch first. Superheated low-pressure steam lifts carbon, paint and organic growth without opening the surface of the stone or scouring the mortar out of the joints.
Stone & brick cleaningRecent projects include stone cleaning and repairs at Royal Gate Apartments in Victoria Park, stone and moulding repairs at Lancaster Gate, and facade restoration at Queen Anne's Gate in Westminster. See the project archive.
A few photographs of the facade are usually enough for us to understand the scope.
