Help! I Broke The Head Off A Statue! How To Repair?
Concrete Statue Repair
How To Reattach A Broken Concrete Statue Head
I received an email asking for help:
I accidentely knocked the head off of a statue.
Is there anything I can use to reattach it? It was my late Mother’s and I really need to fix it. Thank you for your answer. Irene
My reply:
Hi Irene:
Thank you for contacting me and I hope I can be of help. But first, you didn’t tell me what material the statue is made from. Because you found my web site and I deal with garden art, I will assume you are referring to a concrete statue.
Yes … you can fix it with an epoxy glue that is meant for concrete. There should be a brand available at (hopefully) Lowe’s or Home Depot, as examples. Go to the paint department area and that’s where all the epoxy glues can be found. (Important for you to know, is that there really is no way to use a concrete mix to stick the head back on. Don’t even try it.)
Epoxy glue comes in 2 tubes that you mix together before you apply it to the concrete. Not a big deal to do, just a bit messy. Just FOLLOW the instructions –read them over first before you even open up one of the tubes. 
Make SURE the concrete statue is bone dry!! Even a little bit of dampness in the concrete will very likely cause failure to your repair attempts.
The epoxy might be slightly visible when dry, but how “invisible” the repair will be is of course also dependent upon how neatly and carefully you can apply the glue.
I wish you the best of luck with this concrete statue repair.
August 8th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I’ve used a cement epoxy glue to try to repair the face of a concrete statue which had been broken off. I cannot get it to stick even having followed the instructions on the packet. Am I doing something wrong? I cleaned both pieces before using the glue and makes the glue on the concrete with my fingers.
I would appreciate your advice
August 25th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Hi Derek:
Unfortunately I’ve no clue what else you can do, if the proper type of epoxy was used with no success. I normally receive emails telling me “thanks for the epoxy repair tip”. It sounds like you did everything right. My only question has to be: are you SURE the epoxy was the correct type; are you SURE there was no moisture left within the concrete before you applied the epoxy; did you mix it correctly; and did you tape or secure the pieces together and let the epoxy harden for the required amount of time?
Wish I could be more help. Perhaps a concrete patch could be used as a “glue” – but I’m not 100% sure if this will work. You’ll have to wet and paint a bonding agent onto both pieces before you apply the concrete “glue”. I’d encourage you to research this further, however I do have some information on bonding agents and such on this webpage on my site: http://www.the-artistic-garden.com/hypertufa-bonding-agents.html Even though this page is about hypertufa, it contains Portland cement, thus the information is basically the same process for a pure concrete recipe.
Good luck and keep me posted.
January 3rd, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Interesting article. Thanks for trying to shed some light on this subject. It’s not uncommon for stuff like this to occur.
May 31st, 2011 at 5:19 pm
I’ve been working on very old concrete statures of THE GREEK GODS and found that Parex 1-2-1 dry base coat, adhesive. Just add water. thick works better to mold with. Hardens hard. Use wet paint brush to smooth to form before leaving it to harden. Try samples first, if creating new details.
August 17th, 2011 at 8:32 am
WE did a statue out concrete and winter stone finish. We were told to use
lenseed oil and wax finish , but the wax turn white in some part . How can i fix this
Sue
August 17th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Hi Sue:
I’ve never applied linseed oil or wax onto concrete, so have no clue as to what you should do. But I don’t think the information given to you was really the best – a couple of coats of good quality clear sealer (Ok for concrete use) would have done the job. Linseed oil on a painted finish?? You’ve got me.
My best suggestion is to thoroughly remove all the wax. This might also remove some of the painted finish – just depends how hard you have to rub or scrub to get off the wax. Then I’d apply a fresh coat of your painted finish, if needed, and then the clear sealer as I mentioned.
But I’m not there looking at exactly what is or isn’t the extent of the problem so please don’t take the above as 100% accurate. Use your best judgement!
Good luck!