[SteveTruman]

After spending all day yesterday cleaning sandstone window sills by rubbing with another piece of sandstone to remove cement marks and snots of concrete off them my hands are wrecking. There must be an easier way , cant use brick acid as it makes the stone unstable as it is not proper sandstone ( they are conglomorate ). They came up fine with the use of another stone but any ideas for the future would be appreciated.... The sills are on newly built house with less than careful brickies...

Cheers

Steve

[martin19842]

what about pressure washing them?

regards

martin

[SteveTruman]

Cheers Martin but they are that soft it would damage them.

[woodman]

If you can find one to hire and you have the amount of work to warrant it then you should look at soda blasting.

It will not damage the stone and is very safe to use.

[SteveTruman]

cheers Woodman i have had a quick search on google and it looks impressive but cant find a supplier any ideas..

Cheers

Steve

[Jake]

Steve

Are you using the sand stone piece to remove marks and snots?

[SteveTruman]

Yes Jake but bloody hard work

[Jake]

Steve

I've cleaned similar cills and lintols, (a few years ago!) and I used a putty knife or similar to remove snots. Always keeping the cills very wet from the start! For stains, I sometimes used a carborundom(?) stone, and/or diluted brick acid, if you keep the cill wet and wash off the diluted acid as you go you should be okay. I also used a small wire brush(carefully) such as those used for suede shoes, hope this is of some help.

[woodman]

Steve

Try this    www.branova.com    

[offclean]

Steve, My best bit of advice to save your hands is to get an Eastern European to do it for you!

[amberville]

i have this system, we Cover South Coast ,regretfully you are to far away. Alternative is soda medium for small jobs in a Machine Mart Sandblaster kit with pick up hose for around £15 at low presure small portable compressor works fine also great for graffiti removal.

[lifeofgrime]

You could try grit blasting them with extra fine olivine git  - I know sandstone is particularly soft, but with the finer types of grit and a professional behind the wand, you can clean almost anything off the surface without damaging the substrate.

regarding soda blasting - I've found it to be a bit crap.. for starters, it leaves a white residue (having shoved the salt right into the brickwork). Its also a bit too soft and particularly bad if its wet.

It seemed a bit 'Mickey Mouse' after using grit for so long..