A section of ornate laurel wreath casting was badly damaged from an external problematic leak. The leak was caused by a damaged downpipe which was quickly attended to. Due to the age and bespoke design of the decoration detail, it was decided we would endeavor to repair the laurel insitu using best endeavours.
We carefully cut back loose and flaking material to expose the solid sections that were fortunately still intact. Once all loose material had been removed, we then carefully marked out an area around the undamaged sections of the laurel. The wall had also been paper lined. Slowly we cut back this area and carefully removed the section.
Our intention was to apply a new backing piece onto the isolated area, this would consolidate the small section and provide some rigidity – thus enabling us to reinstate the area back as originally located.
While the new backing piece was drying we then proceeded to continue with the wall repairs around the removed section of wreath. All the damaged lining paper was carefully removed using a mild detergent and carefully scraped back to infected wallpaper. The wall substrate was a lime-based plaster which meant that we had to use a less invasive method for removal of the paper rather than the modern equivalents such as steam strippers.
Once all the paper had been removed from the alcove, we then proceeded to make good the actual wall itself. This meant using a fine abrasive sandpaper to remove any loose sections of plasterwork and remove any imperfections. There were a few noticeable cracks in the plasterwork which were filled and then carefully sanded back to a flat finish once cured.
The next stage was to reline the alcove using a thin grade of lining paper. We measured out the alcove dimensions and then cut and applied a new section of paper to the alcove wall. This had to be left overnight to fully dry and allow any further work to continue.
We then marked out the central section of the wall on both the horizontal and vertical axis, this would enable us to fix the new repaired section centrally to the wall as it was previously prior to fixing into position. The room was then redecorated to the Clients requirements including the bay window timberwork.
