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Chicora Foundation

Grave Stone Conservation

Michael Trinkley, Ph.D., Director, Chicora Foundation, Inc., PO Box 8664, Columbia, SC 29202, 803-787-6910, www.chicora.org

Information & images relating to tombstone/monument repair & maintenance Copyright 2003, Chicora Foundation, Inc.

This page was last updated 06 Jun 2010

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What’s the difference between “restoration” and “preservation”?

You may occasionally find a firm advertising that it will “restore” cemetery markers. What, exactly, does this mean – and what are they likely to do your stone? By definition, “restoration” means making the stone like new.  Such an approach ignores the history and patina of the stone and attempts – using techniques that are often inappropriate and damaging to the long-term preservation of the stone – to make the stone look like it did the day it was placed in the cemetery. Restoration firms will often be happy to take on any project. The only critical consideration in restoration is what can be charged the client.

Preservation, on the other hand, attempts to keep a stone from deteriorating further, stabilizing it, and ensuring that it is there for future generations. No conservator will claim to be able to work on every type of material or every monument. There are also some critical considerations in competent preservation (sometimes called conservation) work:

• Preservation must ensure careful planning

• Expedient or easy solutions often compound the problem

• Actions should be the least intrusive

• Treatments should respect the original fabric

• Actions should be, where possible, reversible

• All work must be carefully documented in case future work becomes necessary

Perhaps the most important distinction between a restoration firm and a conservator is that the conservator will be a member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC, http://aic.stanford.edu) and will subscribe to their code of ethics and standards of practice. The conservator will provide you with a treatment proposal, explaining exactly what will be done and how; afterwards you will get a treatment report that specifies in even greater detail what was done and what materials were used.

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I see all sorts of information on the Web about how I can glue monuments together myself...

What’s wrong with that?

You can probably find information on how to remove your child’s appendix, but are you willing to try and risk their life? It is no different with a 100-year old stone that can’t be replaced. Are you willing to try, only to make maters worse?

Are you prepared to purchase all the tools necessary to do the work (the specialized drills and bits, for example), purchase the specialized materials (the different types of threaded rod, epoxy, infill, and other needs), take the training required to use some products (such as the Jahn mortars that are excellent for infill), and then spend the time to do it right the first time (since there is no second chance)?

When should you use stainless steel threaded rod as opposed to a more flexible nylon rod? And why bother using stainless steel at all? And what sort of epoxy should be used (nearly all say they can be used on stone)?

We live in a “do-it-yourself” world, but we also realize that there are some things we just can’t do ourselves – some things take special training, experience, and skill. These photos provide clear examples of the damage that can be done by “do-it-yourselfers.” Stones that are beautiful and that have lasted decades can be ruined in only minutes by well-meaning, but poorly skilled and ill-prepared “do-it-yourselfers.”

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Does this mean that there is nothing I can do to help preserve my family’s monuments?

NO! The following pages provide information on several things that everyone can do to help ensure cemeteries are preserved and well-cared for. There are specific instructions on how to work in a cemetery, resetting tilted or fallen stones, or cleaning stones. There is a page with a form for recording different types of markers if you are surveying a cemetery. And there are a couple of sites you can visit for more information on cemetery preservation: