repair to terracotta pot

[terry.shitcrumbs]

I have a pair of terracotta Wellington boot pots that have suffered frost d amage (yes, I should have emptied them or brought indoors over previous win ters). For sentimental reasons, I'd like to repair and keep them.

There are some cracks and chips on the outside that I will deal with using epoxy filler and re-painting. I noticed, though, that the insides of the bo ots have a lot of flaking and crumbly bits of terracotta. The inside is dif ficult to get to by hand, but I wondered whether a slosh around with latex levelling compound might work, to create a decent new surface layer. Perhap s if I cleaned the insides, pre-treat with pva, then use the compound. Any thoughts?

Cheers.

Terry.

[Chris Hogg]

Sounds like very 'soft' low-fired earthenware, easily damaged by frost. It will be very porous and when dry will suck the water from any water-based coating, rather like fresh dry plaster. A good idea to prime the insides with one or two coats of dilute PVA (?1:5) just as you do fresh plaster, before doing anything else.