At the peace pagoda - Does anyone recognise this block?

[Exsparky]

Hello folks.

I wanted to show you some photos to aid you in answering my question, but this Forum doesn't seem to like pictures from Flickr. I'll ask my question anyway.

I'm one of the volunteers at the Peace Pagoda and Buddhist temple here in Milton Keynes. The Peace Pagoda is about 33 years old and the paving blocks are suffering from the frost. They are a pale yellow colour. One of the other volunteers went round all the places he could find locally to get some of these blocks, but nobody recognised them. Each block is 212mm X 101mm X 51mm.

We need to replace more than 60 blocks. Does anyone know what they are? Could it be a Japanese block, since the pagoda belongs to a Japanese order?

Thanks folks.

[seanandruby]

photo please.

[lutonlagerlout]

unlikely to be Japanese

I will PM you my email address send them to me and i will put them up
LLL

[lutonlagerlout]

pics as sent




I am a bit baffled as they look like soft clays?
sorry a bust from here

LLL

[henpecked]

Looks like clays, the frost has popped the face off.What's the back like, can you turn them over? You could use some from a less prominent area and turn over the popped ones and put them out of sight?
Might be worth asking Roger from R+A pressure washing of a seal would help in future?

[cookiewales]

they look like 50mm fire back brick to me

[RAPressureWashing]

Re the sealing the surface needs to be sound before you go this route, Getting them clean is going to improve the appearance but you won't want to use masses of pressure if they are starting to loose their face's due to frost damage and in the wrong hands pressure washing could make things worse. We now have a machine that we clean these with the minimum pressure you could think of and no risk of any further damage.
If I can help you out let me know.
I'd get them clean first then look at the sealing options.

[Exsparky]

Thanks, folks, for your answers, first to lutonlagerlout who posted my photos.

henpecked, there are no less prominent areas. This is a raised area in the shape of a doughnut which people walk around, so there are no corners. I don't think that they can be turned over anyway. If I remember right, they've become stained by the sand underneath.

R&A Pressure Washing, They have been pressure washed in the past, but not by experts and most likely at full welly. Most likely by the wrong hands you are talking about, as the temple has it's own pressure washer. I will advise them that a much lower pressure wash will reduce further damage, then get them thinking about sealing. Thanks for your offer of help.

[Exsparky]

A little more infomation for you; some of the blocks have a capital letter W stamped into them, about 18-20mm high. Ring any bells?