Two rope access technicians on a listed sandstone facade in Scotland

Projects from Scotland

Listed facades in Edinburgh and Glasgow, by rope access.

Listed hotel, Edinburgh

Category A listed building (Scotland’s highest listing grade)

The situation

130 historic sash windows repaired by rope access at a listed hotel in Edinburgh.

Material & technique

Sand mastic for the window joints and exterior paint, selected to meet the conservation requirements.

How it was done

Each window was inspected and prepared individually. The main task was sealing the joints with sand mastic suited to the original fabric. Damaged areas repaired, old coatings removed and paint applied by hand. All by rope access.

Result

130 windows repaired, retaining their original character. The hotel remained in operation throughout the work.

Rope access technician on rope doing facade work on a listed building in Edinburgh
Repairing a historic sash window on a hotel facade in Edinburgh
Sand mastic being worked by hand into the joints of a historic sash window
Restored sash windows on the listed facade in Edinburgh

Historic sandstone facade, Glasgow

Steam cleaning a historic sandstone facade

The situation

Soot, algae and traffic pollution had darkened the historic sandstone facade. It needed cleaning without damaging the stone.

Material & technique

DOFF steam system: high temperature at low pressure, the standard method for historic masonry. It lifts soiling and algae without taking off the stone surface, no sandblasting, no chemicals.

How it was done

After a full inspection the surfaces were cleaned section by section. Particular care went to the cornices and the carved stone detail.

Result

The facade is clean and the carved stone profiles are visible again.

Cleaned sandstone facade in Glasgow with its stone profiles visible again
Sandstone facade in Glasgow darkened by soot and algae before cleaning
BEFORE AFTER
Rope-access cleaning of a historic sandstone facade in Glasgow
DOFF steam cleaning of historic masonry in Glasgow
Cleaned natural stone detail with a mason-cut moulding
Cleaned natural stone facade after gentle steam cleaning

What came with us to Berlin

Listed buildings forgive no shortcut, and a rope forgives no sloppiness. The two together are a good school. In Berlin that means: check the substrate first, then choose the fixing. Sandstone, brick and concrete behave differently, and what holds on one building pulls out of the next. That is why a job starts with a site visit and not with a price.

What we do on Berlin facades today is under facade work; rope access is carried out by our rope access technicians in Berlin, on the rope, from an aerial platform or from scaffolding, depending on the building. How the stonemason became a climber, including the stonework in Portugal, is told by Stanley McKay.

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Describe your project. After an initial assessment and a site visit, you receive a fixed-price quote with a clear schedule of works.

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