Back to perfection

One of my favorite things to illustrate for clients is just how easy it is to repair their stone.

It’s rare but possible that something heavy falls or is dropped on our product and it may need to be filled in. In the winter of 2021, there was a beastly storm that shredded through the Okanagan and a client’s barbeque fell over on their deck, causing a 3-inch-long gouge in their Sierra Stone. They expected to have a mismatched spot or mystery hole on their deck forever after. As soon as the spring temperatures permitted us to come out and work our magic, our clients were pleasantly surprised to find… nothing. We taped around the spot to prevent any little feet trekking across the fresh epoxy while it cured. They wouldn’t be able to find the spot again if they tried.  

Of course, it’s not always an accidental occurrence that needs filing. We have filled in holes around pool safety cover anchors, electrical and plumbing box upgrades, even once when a client changed their pool skimmer and had to dig a larger hole for the replacement.

While our epoxy goes through cycles over time and needs re-applying every few years, the stone never changes. I keep an extensive stock of previous and currently available stone colours so that I always have what’s needed in case of repair. We’ve been able to blend stone to match 15+ year old stone!

I’ve seen many examples of folks trying to patch and repair concrete. The reason I’ve seen the attempts is because you will forever see repairs like that. The concrete will never sit flush again, no colour will match perfectly and the conditions for a matching texture are near impossible.

Never having to think about how repairs will look makes our job easy.

These photos show a repair on one of our sample boards. I always try to take a picture after the repair and there is nothing to show! In this case, I had dropped the sample board face-down on the street and it landed on rock. Perfect conditions for a small chip. Our sample board backing is a bit flexible as we try to make them as light as possible so the boards will never be as strong as the Sierra Stone that is applied directly to a substrate -Fixing holes is all the same however!