Subject: Technical Question (CPES In Stone)
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 1998

Would you recommend the use of your CPES resin as a penetrating sealer for a carved sandstone fountain?

Tom F.

Tom,

Kind of a hard question to answer. The basic ingredient in CPES is, of course, a premimum epoxy, and epoxies are commonly used in concrete restoration. The CPES would certainly penetrate into the matrix of the sandstone, and to that extent stabilize it. Two coats would stabilize it even more. So in this respect, I'd say yes, CPES would be useful in stabilizing sandstone.

The only real caveat I can offer is the suseptability of all epoxies to UV light degradation. CPES is less susceptable than a standard resin, because so much in inside the wood or stone and therefore not subject to the UV rays. If you were to use 2 coats, then of course there would be more epoxy on the surface and a greater chance that the UV light would eventually turn it "milky" in color. Indoors the UV-degradation problem is not acute, unless the object is exposed to sunlight. Outdoors I'd be careful. For wood, we always recommend that the CPES-impregnated wood be covered with a urethane or varnish that has UV blockers.

Doc