Do No Harm!
Knowing what to do, and more importantly what NOT to do, is critical when it comes to cleaning markers, headstones, and other monuments. Here is a list of a few of the critical items on our dos and do not do list.
Never use shaving cream or other adulterants in an attempt to enhance the inscription on stone. While you may achieve your goal, the stone will be permanently damaged. As you can see in the image to the left the shaving cream used for inscription enhancement has forever altered the face of this Veteran’s marker making it more or less unreadable for future visitors.
Here is a list of products to avoid when dealing with markers.
- Chalk
- Flour
- Cocoa
- Paint
- Corn meal
- Corn starch
- Soap/detergents
- Cleaners
- Bleach
- Shaving cream
- Felt tips markers
- Baby powder
- Baking power/soda
- Powdered sugar (great on donuts, markers – eh not so much 🙂
- Ammonia
- Peroxide
Never use power tools to clean a monument, ONLY soft bristled brushes and approved cleaners should be used for monument restoration and general purpose cleaning.
Power tools = BAD
Elbow grease = GOOD
Cleaning – only use approved cleaning solutions such as D2 Biological Solution and Orvus Paste with lots of rinse water (spring water). Do not use dish soaps, bleach, ammonia, vinegar or any other acid. Never use Pressure Washers.
Only use soft bristle brushes, such as tampico or horse hair brushes. The harder the bristle, the more chance of damage. Do not use scratch pads either.
Mowers – tons of damage is done every month to monuments and headstones by riding mowers either by the deck, the tires or the blades.
One possible solution could be to place padding over the decking of the mower to act as a cushion. Simply drill a few holes and ziptie flat pool noodles into place.
Sprays – many cemeteries opt to spray weed killers onto the stone and around them creating a “circle of death”, killing the grass, weeds and unfortunately the root system holding up the stones allowing and aiding in them sinking into the soil. Weed eating is the preferred method for weed control. The repeated use of herbicides has been shown to cause a salt formation on the stones as well as a color change of the stone and an increased rate of deterioration.
One way to limit damage done by mowers is adding pool noodles as cushions around the mower deck. This is a simple and quick fix that can prevent damage to irreplaceable stones. Keep in mind that a cemetery in Central Illinois can have graves going back a few hundred years. These markers are old and should be preserved and part of that preservation is good grounds keeping habits.
More mower damage. Much of the damage we see in monument and headstone repair is due to poor grounds keeping practices. Here is another example of mower damage. Its a shame this also happens to be a Veterans monument.
In my Blog Section I will talk more in depth about these subjects and more.