The concrete balusters adorning the front of our house are self-destructing. We are wondering why because those balusters were just 5 years old when we bought this house. And there were cracks already at that time. Now the cracks are already crevices so a replacement is in order. However, we cannot find such concrete balusters anymore. Old timers here say that there were so many garden supplies store that sell those kind so maybe it is now obsolete. And being obsolete is also the opinion of some owners of garden supplies stores. In the pic is the removal of the concrete balusters dividing the garden and the driveway. But the balusters on the right shall be replaced... when we are able to find a replacement.
Corie do you mean pre cast concrete Balustrades like these?... We have Ballustrades surrounding our Terrace in our home in Southern Spain, they are now 25 years old, and apart from a few tiny cracks, they are still in perfect condition, and easy to buy replacements in any building supplies stores.. I'll see if I can find a picture of ours...
Yes, @Holly Saunders, ballustrades it is if that is how you call them. Oh, I seem to have forgotten to upload the pic of our ballustrade, sorry about that. Anyway, here it is... If you will look intently on the ballustrades on the right, big cracks are visible and they really need to be replaced. But we are going to replace only 10 pieces of the ballustrades that are situated outside the gate of our terrace. The rest of them will stay because the iron grill will be affected and it will entail a big expense.
Corie, as you say they do look in very poor condition for just 5 years old, that's far too short a time for them to be crumbling like that ....these are ours, we paint them every 3 years using plastized matt paint which protects them from the sun... Yours look as though they've been moulded around the reinforcing rods and any rain seeping in will have rusted the rods causing the crumbling of the concrete.. These are ours...on our rear terrace...