Sandstone and (Marble or Limestone statue) headaches at the Cemetery

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Well, I assumed they are marble… they are very porous whatever they are and the SH immediately took off the biological growth. I believe that the stains on the tops of the statues are from tree sap. The manager was overly happy with the results.

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Marble is more dense, ie reason you see it polished usually. If it’s a rougher texture pretty good chance it’s not. Lot of people call statues marble but it doesn’t weather well at all and the acid rain can wreck havoc on it. @CaCO3Girl is right, acids definitely don’t help it. It’s a highly pressurized version of limestone basically. It’s formed from limestone (CACO3).

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Racer beat me to it, limestone and marble are basically the same thing, just different crystalline structured.

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I appreciate you trying to share knowledge but don’t believe everything you read especially if you don’t have any experience. Rinsing thoroughly after using SH on just about any surface is key besides most roofs and post treating concrete. Using a pressure washer doesn’t mean you’ll be blasting away at 3500psi on all surfaces. Moral of this story is please refrain from spreading information just because you read it elsewhere especially if you have absolutely no experience.

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All literature on marble monuments and headstones explicitly state to not use bleach/salt based cleaners. A cleaner called D/2 is popular for national cemeteries. https://www.ncptt.nps.gov/blog/comparative-study-of-commercially-available-cleaners-for-use-on-federally-issued-headstones-3/

I’m not sure about other stones, but bleach is definitely a no-no when it comes to marble.

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Thanks for replying. You are right, I have no experience in cleaning headstones, that is why I am researching it. I have a few I want to clean, but I don’t want to damage them. The ones I want to clean up are very old, and fragile. I found a link on Arlington National Cemetery site. They say the same thing. Bleach will cause harm. Just FYI, I am posting that link.

http://ncptt.nps.gov/wp-content/uploads/Best-Practices-Final.pdf

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You should find some properties to clean instead, people’s headstones/monuments aren’t really a “give it a crack” type of job. I’m not saying this to discourage you but you have to know what your doing.

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I totally agree. I want to learn the correct way so I don’t ruin them. Thanks

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Some good info, thanks

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Thanks for sharing

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