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Writer's pictureAndrew Wielawski

What could go wrong?

Our business seeks to stop stone problems from happening. It's a lot less work, and more lucrative, for us to come in as an expert after an accident, but we'd prefer not to see people get hurt. In an ideal world, we'd like to encourage property owners to do a little pre-emptive maintenence.

So why do supposedly indestructible stone constructions fall apart? The Pyramids of Egypt, the Colosseum of Rome, and many other ancient stone constructions are still there, despite wars, cannon fire, hordes of barbarians, earthquakes, and thousands of years of bad weather. Perhaps the answer lies in our need to do things quickly, to make things evocative of a glorious past, without putting in the kind of work the Pharroes and others like them could afford. And we use modern, labor saving products that didn't exist in 'primitive' times, and supposedly eliminate the need for careful assembly.

At our workshop, we have always done work that professionals in our field shook their heads about. When Alabama Power, now the Southern Company, asked us for a marble statue for the lobby of their new corporate headquarters in Birmingham, they had one condition for giving us the job. The statue, standing on tiptoes, could not have any supporting elements around it, like shrubs, animals, tree trunks, or any of the things classical sculptors had always used for bracing. This piece was to be placed on a twelve foot pedestal in a heavily trafficked public area. we solved the problem, and the statue is still standing there, thirty years later. How? That is, and will remain, our secret. But I will say, the solution is mechanical. No glue is going to hold over time, no matter what the manufacturer says. Let's look at an example.




The white product above is Domo, an epoxy made by Tenax. It scrapes loose from the Giallo di Sienna marble easily, and is what many of those granite benches you see are fastened together with. The Tenax company technicians will tell you that the epoxy is sufficient, without pins, to hold one of those benches together for a hundred years.Yet a simple wood chisel will separate it from marble. What's the tan stuff, you might ask?



It's part of a presentation our company made of four different fastening compounds mentioned by counsel for the defense at a deposition. The third one was what was used to fasten their bench together, also a Tenax product, a resin suitable for indoor use, but even then, ARW Studios, our company, recommends pins to avoid risk. Yes, drilling holes in granite for them is expensive. But as their client found out, a settlement of a lawsuit is hundreds of times worse.




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