castirongater

Hi - I have couple of questions I wanted to ask to make sure my reinstated cast iron railings & gate have the best chance at long-term survival... 1. My gate currently swings open and bashes my (weak sandstone, relatively small) side wall, causing the side spindles to shake on impact. I'm sure I shouldn't leave it like this. Which of these options is best (if either)? a) install rubber buffers (pix attached) on the sandstone side wall to dampen the impact , using a threaded bar held in with epoxy putty (I don't think anchor bolts are a good idea for sandstone?) b) ask my blacksmith to weld metal squares onto the hinges of the gate, thereby restricting its opening swing to exactly 90 degrees. I'm thinking the latter makes more sense as I'd rather the impact of any slamming (by posties etc) is absorbed by the original Victorian post than directly by the weak sandstone. But I'm unsure if the hinges could then become weakened. It's quite a heavy gate so the impact of slamming is significant. 2. On my longer front wall, the railings are still moving a bit when pulled (see attached video). My blacksmith used lead but he was more generous in some holes than others, and he did say I'll need to fill the holes with render. (The original Victorian spindles had been fully cut out - no stumps at all - leaving some pretty large holes). Should I: a) insist he fills all holes with lead nearly up to the top, then overlay with Conserv sandstone restoration mortar b) pack some JB Weld epoxy putty in the less filled holes, then overlay with Conserv. c) pack some portland cement in the holes (sacrilege for sandstone!), then overlay with Conserv. d) simply fill all holes with Conserv. My concern here is primarily about the sandstone. Conserv has a much, much lower compressive strength than cement, sandstone and even Lithomex (a different restoriation mortar that includes a % of cement, but I think is only supplied to trade). See this analysis https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2050-7445-2-1/tables/2 So I'm worried about the potential for crumbling mortar / weakened spindle fixings after years of gate slamming. Appreciate that 2 is more of a stone question, but I figured some of you might have an idea about best practice if you were finishing a similar job? Thanks spindle shake.mp4