Sydney sandstone

Sydney sandstone

Sandstone for building blocks

Published in P.J.N. Pells, Engineering Geology of the Sydney Region, 2018

Since the early days of the first settlement in Australia, the sandstones of the Sydney area have provided a valuable source of building material. In Sydney, sandstone is the most widely used dimension stone in both historic and modern buildings. The present demand is for high quality sandstone to be used in restoration of historic buildings and as cladding on modern buildings, as well as for lesser quality sandstone to be employed in decorative applications.

Characterisation of the tensile performance of bonding agents for the restoration of heritage dimension stone from southeast Australia

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Journal Information

Published in Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2023

B. Jones, B. Sainsbury

For each of the heritage stones considered herein, average stone property characteristics are available. In some cases, minimum performance criteria are established for use in heritage construction/rehabilitation (e.g. Franklin et al., 2014; Mann & Milevski, 2016). However, the properties are primarily related to the use of these stones as pavers or, for Sydney Sandstone, in large excavations for underground space (Keneti et al., 2021). Limited published data exist regarding the tensile strength of dimension stone that is useful to masons for heritage restoration purposes. To date, there are no published direct tension results for the Sydney Sandstone, Victorian Bluestone or the South Australian Black Granite. Results from indirect tension tests are listed in Table 1. Note that the results from the flexural tests apply only to dry samples.

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Sandstone for building blocks

Characterisation of the tensile performance of bonding agents for the restoration of heritage dimension stone from southeast Australia