HELP PLEASE, WHAT'S THE BEST WALL SCULPTURE MIX?

[TED JACHIM]

HI!

 

THIS IS ALL NEW TO ME AND I LOVE WHAT I SEE!! I WOULD LIKE TO ASK A QUESTION, WHAT IS THE BEST WALL SCULPTURE MIX TO USE WHEN CARVING A SEA SCAPE LIKE A MURAL, BIG IN SIZE ON AN EXTERIOR WALL? SOMETHING EASY TO CARVE IN, SLOW TO DAY AND LIGHT WEIGHT?

 

 THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, TED JACHIM 

[Paul O'Neill]

hi ted. paul o'neill here. i think you will be limited as to how much you can design, cut, texture in a shift. in other words, how much can your carver handle at once. my crew can do about 100 square feet in a shift, and that's a long day. i think what you have to think about is planning your work in sections, and getting the right kind of mixer. the right kind of mix is important too. you may want to add fortifier to prevent shrinkage cracking if you are doing large size stones. did that on my barn wall and it is working well.

[TED JACHIM]

Paul o'neill, thank you. Ted

Paul O'Neill said:

hi ted. paul o'neill here. i think you will be limited as to how much you can design, cut, texture in a shift. in other words, how much can your carver handle at once. my crew can do about 100 square feet in a shift, and that's a long day. i think what you have to think about is planning your work in sections, and getting the right kind of mixer. the right kind of mix is important too. you may want to add fortifier to prevent shrinkage cracking if you are doing large size stones. did that on my barn wall and it is working well.

[Dion Battles]

What kind of fortifier are you talking about? Any brand names or examples of fortifiers you like to use?

Paul O'Neill said:

hi ted. paul o'neill here. i think you will be limited as to how much you can design, cut, texture in a shift. in other words, how much can your carver handle at once. my crew can do about 100 square feet in a shift, and that's a long day. i think what you have to think about is planning your work in sections, and getting the right kind of mixer. the right kind of mix is important too. you may want to add fortifier to prevent shrinkage cracking if you are doing large size stones. did that on my barn wall and it is working well.

[Paul O'Neill]

I use Akkro 7T. There are others that work just as good. Home Depot has one made by Quikrete and one made by Sika which I have used as well. All of them are acrylic fortifiers. I buy in 5 gallon pails because I use a lot of material. I use it to wet down the wall when applying scratch coat, I add it into my scratch coat mix, AND i add it into my carving coat mix. Expensive to add this to the material, but so are failures. Good luck with your large project.

Dion Battles said:

What kind of fortifier are you talking about? Any brand names or examples of fortifiers you like to use?

Paul O'Neill said:

hi ted. paul o'neill here. i think you will be limited as to how much you can design, cut, texture in a shift. in other words, how much can your carver handle at once. my crew can do about 100 square feet in a shift, and that's a long day. i think what you have to think about is planning your work in sections, and getting the right kind of mixer. the right kind of mix is important too. you may want to add fortifier to prevent shrinkage cracking if you are doing large size stones. did that on my barn wall and it is working well.

[TED JACHIM]

HI, QUESTION? I'M GOING TO BE CARVING A WALL SCULPTURE,
WHAT BRAND OF CONCRETE, RIGHT OUT OF THE BAG WORKS BEST?
THANK YOU FOR THE ANSWERS, TED

[Paul O'Neill]

i don't know what you mean by a wall sculpture. i did browse the specco website and saw they had some admix materials for sculptures and castings. i think the carving mix is meant for up to three inches thick. if you can live with that, pretty straight forward. I'm only experienced with Tru-Pac from Walttools.com. Others will probably work as well. If you need thicker, you can always rough-sculpt what you want out of closed cell foam and then secure expanded metal lathe to the spray foam. i believe this has been described as a hollywood technique. might not be as durable as you would like though.

[Tru Pac/Walttools/Don]

Hi Ted. This is Don from Walttools. There are a great many choices out there and a lot of it comes down to personal preference. Our Tru Pac is nice for your situation for a few reasons. First off and most importantly it has the longest working time of the available mixes. This will give you ample time to create, carve, re-create, re-carve, etc. Secondly, it is very cost effective. If you screw up, no big deal, you did not have alot of money invested. Lastly, it is pretty easy to work with. It mostly just does what you tell it to do. Some mixes out there can be very finicky to those not familiar with the specific quirks. Feel free to give us a call and we can go over more specifics with you if you like. Either way, good luck with your project and we all look forward to seeing the progression of your art.
Don

[TED JACHIM]

HI DON, THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE ANSWER FOR THE LARGE MURAL. I'LL BE ORDER IT THIS WEEK. THANK YOU FOR BEING TRUE WITH "TRU PAC".
TED

Don/Walttools said:

Hi Ted. This is Don from Walttools. There are a great many choices out there and a lot of it comes down to personal preference. Our Tru Pac is nice for your situation for a few reasons. First off and most importantly it has the longest working time of the available mixes. This will give you ample time to create, carve, re-create, re-carve, etc. Secondly, it is very cost effective. If you screw up, no big deal, you did not have alot of money invested. Lastly, it is pretty easy to work with. It mostly just does what you tell it to do. Some mixes out there can be very finicky to those not familiar with the specific quirks. Feel free to give us a call and we can go over more specifics with you if you like. Either way, good luck with your project and we all look forward to seeing the progression of your art.
Don