Sheffield Indexers

Welcome to our forum ~ please post your questions below.

Sheffield Indexers
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Gravestone cleaning

Good evening everyone !

Hope this message is permissable !

I intend at sometime to hopefully have cleaned a family gravestone.
Anyone cleaned a stone themselves or had someone to clean a stone for them.
What did you use to clean a stone ?
Who did you employ in Sheffield ?

I am undertaking a project to present to my lads.
That is photos of all family gravestones with explanations of who is who and where the stones are situated.

The other week I along with my wife uncovered 2 family stones that hadn't seen the light of day for many years

Look forward to your replies

Roger

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Looks like plain water and a soft brush is the best way of starting the process.

Don’t:

Do not use household bleach, vinegar, household detergents.
Do not scrub with steel wool or a wire brush.
Do not use commercial herbicides around stones. Virtually all of them contain salts or acid that are damaging to most stones.
Do not seal or coat the stone. It can’t breathe and will decompose faster.

Just a few suggestions....

Elaine in Ottawa.

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Hi Elaine and many thanks

Sad isn't it that we bury our loved ones and then after many years their resting place is forgotten

Roger

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Hi Roger,
To add to Elaine's comments.
The gravestones I clean are granite but the general advice I was given by the cemetery staff was not to use the water at the cemetery which is OK for watering flowers but to take some from home (municipal water) and add a small drop of gentle dish washing liquid to a bucket of water and scrub with a brush, then rinse off.

The above may not be an option if you do not have a car.
HAPPY HUNTING:sleuth_or_spy:

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Hi Roger/Wendy,

I can see dish liquid and water if the stone is granite but so many in Sheffield
are some sort of stone or is it concrete????

What really bugs me is the fact that stones were destroyed. What it financially cost to have the stones there in the first place is heart breaking for the families.


Elaine in Ottawa.

Re: Gravestone cleaning

I went armed with a spray bottle filled with soft Sheffield water to dislodge ground-in/weathered dirt and/or bird muck on my relatives' gravestones, which were both the stone type and granite ones. Worked a treat. Some patches needed softening with a first saturation squirt, then a wait, then a second few pointed squirts to loosen. If I could have got a power source for my Karcher I would have taken that too lol. Alas just elbow grease available. Older stone is the worst with moss/green staining under trees etc etc. I used a medium brush on those after softening. Granite was a breeze. Just wipe off after spraying. However I noticed the gold painted indented lettering had fallen out with age and weathering, so there is a lesson there. Don't pay to have gold lined indented lettering as it is a waste of money if it falls out after a year or two.


Ann

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Somewhere I have a booklet regarding cleaning but can't remember where I purchased it from as it was many moons ago.

One of my bug bears though is that when Sheffield Council did the safety test on them they laid them flat if unstable.....name side down though so even though there are some of my family graves that have stones, unable to read the inscription.

Regarding spraying though would using one of those garden sprayers be ok to use?

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Hi John,

I believe that Booklet was sold by S&DFHS.

One has to be very careful with any stone. I believe the booklet said water and a soft scrubbing brush only.

I am sure others will have used other things including dish liquid which is a no no.

Elaine in Ottawa.

Re: Gravestone cleaning

I shall see if I can find it.

Re: Gravestone cleaning

Hi

Re laying down unsafe gravestones face-down, the cemetery workers responsible are probably DNA matched to the supermarket workers who put massive yellow reduced stickers over important cooking instructions!! The ones you can't peel off easily.