PLASTIC MASONRY
By Rex Ploederer
This idea comes to us compliments of
Gary Lee of Corbet, OR a member of the Rose City Garden
Railroad Society of Portland, OR. He uses composite decking material (the
most common name is Trex but many companies now make
it like LP and Georgia Pacific). This
stuff is mostly plastic; virtually bullet proof to the
weather; easy to work with; comes in many sizes, colors,
and patterns; and is found at nearly all home improvement
stores, hardware stores, and lumber yards.
The first step is to get the size needed
for your model. Composite
decking is easy to cut using almost any power saw. It
sands well too. One
of the most effective ways to bond pieces together is
using Gorilla Glue. Plane or sand both sides to get them even. Be sure to wet one of the sides and apply
a thin layer of glue to the other side. Clamp it and
give it a couple of hours to set up. Too
much glue will foam out the seam but can be easily removed
by sanding or scraping.
The next step is to scribe your masonry
pattern onto the surface (See
Figure 1). A
pencil works very well for this task. Here
Gary has chosen larger, very uniform blocks for his pattern.
Then using a common box cutter, the
mortar lines are cut out. Straight
lines are cut first (See
Figure 2)
with the offset block lines cut last. Three
cuts are required to make each mortar joint. The
first is straight along the pencil line to the desired
depth of the mortar joint. The next two are angled to remove the
material on either side of the first cut (See
Figure 3). The
angle, depth, and pattern are all dependent upon the
look you are trying to achieve.
The results are very impressive (See
Figure 4) as can be
seen on the foundation of Gary’s mill. He used the gray colored composite decking
which appears very realistic in its natural form. The material takes acrylic paint well, so weathering the blocks
and setting off the mortar joints with a slightly different
color can be easily done. Gary’s
idea provides an alternative to actual cement blocks
like Jigstones.
