Neither Adam nor Brett had worked on a project like our Madonna, so after initially going over her, they started their work.
Adam began by cleaning the cement base, then the entire statue while Tom and Brett went to the local True Value for additional supplies. They assured me they would have preferred an Ace Hardware (especially since my family owns an Ace Hardware). But I love to support locally owned businesses wherever we go.
Adam began the tedious task of filling the hairline cracks in the base of the Madonna. He uses an epoxy, the coats the epoxy with a granite dust. The granite dust is mixed to match the color of the Madonna.
The Madonna is a cast product of Missouri Pink granite, iron ore and mortar, so she is somewhat pitted with because of the 85 years of exposure to the eleme to. I am certain she was more pinkish than she is now, but over the years the blowing winds with sand and dirt have caused some of the pitting.
Brett's job was to remove old, cracked and loosened grout that was troweled in the seams of the statue. At one point he had mentioned that someone doing repairs to the mortar did not clean out the old, cracked grout and just covered over these cracks. It's best to remove all loose and broken grout before regrouting.
I played runner today, I ran for ice tea, I ran for Dr. Pepper (Adam is a Pepper, Brad's the ice tea man).
It's was alot of fun,and I could hang around, take pics and videos and think I was being useful.
Adam will repair the chunk of agregate base by his right elbow.
Brett is removing the old, cracked mortar
that Adam is pointing to the rattlesnake on the statue.
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