Maria Mitchell Library
This is the famous Maria Mitchell Science Library. She was the first known women astronomer in the 1800’s to see a Comet.
One of her telescopes she used. Now, onto what we did to the asbestos roofing.
This was a school house and a library they joined together in the 1800’s and installed a very good asbestos slate tile roof. We were there for the restoration of the roof. Our first step was to drive to Mass. and from there, board a ferry to the Island of Nantucket so that we could determine if we could save the asbestos roof. This entire building was steel and cement, with some cedar shingles on the front for decoration. The roof is almost two hundred years old and because there wasn’t any wood used at all, the asbestos slate stayed perfect.
We did find 34 asbestos slate that needed attention. Previous people thought they could just stick the pieces that were broke back together with tar and and caulk, there were also two tiles missing from the roof.
Some were also just boken. This roof almost got the best of us. We couldn’t find any asbestos slates to do the repairs. After searching the world (and I mean the entire world), we ended up hand making some new new ones.
It was time to start. We bagged the perimeter and got the steam cleaning started.
Just look at the transition from before and after, not to mention all that sludge in the middle. In the end, we took over five hundred pounds of filth off.
It had to be as white as it could be. It needed to look like cement after cleaning. All of the ridges were copper. The copper would release copper sulphate, and that is why the original paint color stayed at the top edge, being held there by the copper sulphate.
This roof is now colored and restored. It really turned out perfect and as beautiful as it was when it was installed almost two hundred years ago.
After we secured the roof and made the asbestos slate roof water tight, other companies came in for their part of the restoration and here it is completely restored. The reason we showed step by step, is to give a representation to everyone about our process. The products we use for color restoration is not paint. First, we pressure wash with water at or above steam. We then do all repairs and then apply a bonding agent (Asbesto-Bond-1000) to seal all asbestos slates and then apply (Asbesto-Color) which softens the (Asbesto-Bond-1000) and become part of the color coating.
I hope everyone enjoys this and if you have any questions or would like to get your own asbestos roof restored, please feel free to contact us. I wish you a nice day and look forward to working with you on your asbestos slate roof. 😁