Don’t Trash It, Fix It
Making new is fun, but repairing something you had for a long time is also a good thing.
No matter how well you or someone else has made something there comes a time when it crumbles apart, a tree branch falls or a maintenance person mis-steps and a cherished container, stake or stone is broken. When something breaks, it is not always the end. Here’s a good rule of green thumb: if it break into two or three pieces, it may be repairable, if there are more pieces than that, it is good policy to just let it go.
One reason hypertufa and cement are desirable is that they can be added to and repaired at any time versus something like terra cotta or higher-fired ceramics.. Once ceramic breaks, it can be glued together but will also show a visible sign of breaking. With hypertufa, you can disguise and heal a break and many times the repair is unnoticeable.
Here’s what to do if you have a broken hypertufa or cement that is in good enough shape to repair.
Stiff plastic brush
Soap and water
Urethane glue (Goop or E6000)
Sticky masking tape
1” and 2” flat paint brushes
Sanded grout or sand mix cement
White glue (Elmer’s)
Trowel and brick
What You Do
1. Remove all loose dirt and rubble with the stiff brush.
2. Wash all pieces in a warm bath of soap and water. Allow to dry thoroughly in the sun.
3. Assemble the broken pieces together to see how they fit. If the repair will need propping or weighting to hold in place, get your weighted pieces and /or tape ready ahead of time.
4. Glue the pieces together using the urethane glue. Watch for oozing or dribbles and wipe clean. Prop and tape to hold together. Allow to dry overnight.
5. If there are larger pieces missing, you will need to mix a small amount of hypertufa to fill in the gaps. The grout or cement will be heavier and harder to fill a larger gap.
6. Mix no more than ½ cup of the sanded grout/cement mix with water and 1 teaspoon of white glue to make a runny paste. Brush the repaired area with water to moisten the surface and then apply the mix to heal the broken area.
7. Allow the grout to stiffen and then use a clean, dry brush to shape and feather the grout disguising the repaired area. Allow to dry overnight.
8. Burnish the repaired area with a trowel or brick to blend it with the exiting finish of the container and your piece is ready to back into the garden.
Here is an example of broken and repaired garden art:
