Facade restoration

Grillo villa duis­burg

The Villa Grillo, built around 1880, is a typical classical building of that era. It was the construction project of Duisburg-Hamborner zinc smelter, Wilhelm Grillo. The current owner of the villa wanted to restore the facade to its original design, to make it shine once again in its original splendor.

The Challenge

The facade of the building (bricks plastered with cement plaster) needed to be fully restored with expertise. An examination of the color layers showed that the facade has been repainted three times with different materials – from oil paints to synthetic resin emulsion paint. This dense, thermoplastic paint shows cracks in large areas, is damp and flakes off. Not a pretty sight for a mansion.

The Solution

First, the entire facade on sustainability and voids or cracks was dynamically verified by Hetzel + Sponheuer GmbH & Co. KG. Damaged and hollow areas were exposed. The plaster was removed to the weight bearing shell and rebuilt again as a two-layer system with ultra-lightweight plaster. Larger cracks extending into the shell through cracks from the substrate were treated by means of separation material and non-woven special facade mats to decouple from the substrate and then also repaired with two layers of ultra-lightweight plaster. Since the existing multi-layer elastic coating could not be removed from all parts of the facade, an additional base coat with deep-penetrating primer was used after stripping the facade. Due to the large number of cracks in the plaster surfaces, a full-scale reinforcement was needed.

damaged coating

crack repair

precise detail work

stucco rehabilitation

To paint the plaster facade, we decided, together with the owner, for silicate paints. These, such as silicone resin paints, are highly water-vapor permeable and therefore architecturally/physically beneficial. All phases of the facade renovation were designed so that a proud, magnificent, Villa Duisburg will decorate its area for decades to come.

Contact person

Solutions

Services

  • Survey Findings
  • Engineering 
  • Construction supervision 
  • Reinforcements
  • Restoration
  • Plastering system
  • Paintwork

Photos

  • Astrid Theisen