Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sandstone
Risks and
Consequences
This INFORM is intended to History
appraise building owners of It is unclear precisely when the late 20th
century enthusiasm for cleaning stone buildings
the issues surrounding cleaning started to gain ground. It has been suggested
that it can be traced to France in 1959, when a
sandstone buildings. century-old law requiring homeowners in Paris
to perform regular cleaning of their building
Specifically, it addresses: facades was revived. By the early 1960s, the
• the history of stonecleaning from the apparent benefits of cleaned buildings had
caught on in London, where the effect of jet-
1960s
black Portland limestone emerging sparkling
• benefits and risks of stonecleaning white from under layers of grime was even
more sensational.
• types of surface discolouration found
The desire to clean then seems to have spread
on sandstone buildings
rapidly throughout the country with the
• past cleaning methods and their nation’s most prestigious public buildings
being used to set the trend and illustrate what
consequences
could be achieved. Unfortunately, the earliest
• the need for testing techniques that were employed have now also
been proven to be the most damaging for the
• new developments and technologies stone and many of the subsequent processes
Image: © I Maxwell
Surface discolouration • Staining – caused by dark coloured minerals
The health and wellbeing of a building is not such as iron or manganese that naturally
simply determined by how clean or dirty it is occurs in sandstones. These gradually leach
but rather by what is happening on the actual out over many years. This is a natural process
surface of the materials used in its construction. which can be accelerated dramatically by
Discolouration can result from three main types cleaning. The result is unnaturally ‘bleached’
of building soiling although, in reality, all three or “tinted” stone surfaces.
are liable to be found in combination:
• Biological soiling – algae, fungi, lichens
• Particle soiling – caused by the airborne and bacteria each seek out ideal conditions
deposition of vehicle exhaust fumes, sea salts to colonise the stone. Influencing factors
and other contaminants. These are present encouraging their growth include exposure,
in the dry atmosphere and in rainwater. orientation, and the functions and positions
This process can lead to the formation of of stones. By making the surface rougher, or
hard black crusts building up on some stone by chemically altering the natural minerals,
surfaces (although this is more likely to occur cleaning can promote biological growth by
on limestone buildings). encouraging rainwater to penetrate into the
stone.
surface
be used to remove some organic growth
• disfigured architectural detail and loosely bound surface dirt but it is only
• erosion of sharp edges and loss of effective on buildings with relatively minor
definition surface soiling.
• the complete loss of the mason’s original Chemical methods involve applying a
surface tooling
substance which reacts with the stone and
• an unsatisfactory exposed rough surface any discolouration that exists on the surface.
that encourages surface growths to appear It is then removed, along with the soiling.
and develop Both alkaline and acid chemicals can be
Cleaning with various hard metal brushes, applied as liquids, gels or pastes (poultices)
rotating discs and other grinding devices depending upon the system that is used. Less
attached to power tools has been responsible physically damaging than the cruder forms
for the severe disfigurement of many of of mechanical cleaning, chemical techniques
Scotland’s traditional stone buildings. have often left a permanent legacy on the
Fortunately, whilst the use of such damaging affected building by changing its colour, or by
abrasive techniques has almost disappeared, leaving residues in the stone. This is partly due
they are still inappropriately used by to the porous nature of sandstone. No matter
unscrupulous contractors on occasions. how good the attempts are to “rinse off” the
chemicals some residue will always be left
The only relatively “safe” manual cleaning behind as it is “rinsed into” the open structure
technique which might be employed involves of the stone. Due to the effects of gravity,
dry brushing with a stiff natural bristle brush rinsed-off chemicals are also likely to
(not a wire brush) and clean water. It can
Image: © I Maxwell Image: © I Maxwell
remain in higher concentrations on the lower The application of thin coloured coats of
parts of the treated wall, and in projecting cement based repairs to damaged stonework
architectural details. was also used as part of the original approach
in cleaning projects. Whilst this technique
The long-term effects of chemical cleaning can
seemed to give some short term benefits, in
include:
the medium term it has added to current
• irreversible bleaching or staining leading to
difficulties and the cost of remedial masonry
changes in the building’s appearance and
repair works through encouraging the decay
stone’s colour
processes. Over-painting, and patch repairing
• unsightly white deposits (efflorescence) with cement renders, should be therefore be
resulting from residual deposits (salts) avoided.
being drawn out of the sandstone to
crystallize on the surface Recent research has identified numerous
• erosion of certain natural minerals leading cleaned buildings where the rate of decay is
to ‘pitting’, and changes to the surface six to ten times faster than adjacent buildings
texture with loss of detail that were not cleaned. The findings also
suggest that, in the worst cases, 25 - 50% of
• accelerated “greening” of the surface due to all the stone in the cleaned walls may now
the encouraged growth of algae
require replacement. With the considerable
Most of these changes are not just unsightly: number of buildings that have been previously
they can also accelerate stone decay. In the cleaned, projecting these findings into the
worst cases this can be significant. Many future suggests that major masonry repair
cleaned sandstone buildings that were left in projects will continue to emerge for some
a sound and stable condition some 25–30 time. In consequence, anyone considering
years ago are now emerging as requiring major embarking on a programme to clean a
masonry repairs. In addition, an increasing sandstone building needs to consider the
number of previously cleaned buildings issues involved very carefully indeed.
are being partially or completely painted
over to try to disguise the emerging visual
consequences.
The need for testing
Owners, particularly those in terraces, crescents
and squares, need to take into account the effect
of cleaning not only on their own building
but also on the rest of the street. In the past,
piecemeal cleaning, where individual buildings
or elevations were cleaned at different times
using different methods, has been responsible for
creating some of the worst visual effects.
A thorough testing programme is a vital part Image: © I Maxwell
of any anticipated cleaning project and will
be necessary in advance of writing a relevant
specification for contractors. If it is to be carried
out properly, testing requires specialist expertise
and equipment. Most testing involves three basic
stages: