theres something about mary

[RobertM]

kev good JOB and thread!

GOOD advice especially this bit:

to get the stains out.

thankfully i did a bit of research/half an hour on google told me what i needed to do-its that simple really.

moral of the story-if there is one,don't listen to forum members,do a bit of research for yourself,learn the material you are working with and what is best to use and all will be good

 

[tench0771]

nice job m8 i may have to try blackwash on my next job  :1f44d:

 

[windowsurfer]

Nice job

 

[Scots lad]

I dont softwash anything but thats impressive


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[Pjj]

Looking good nice job , but as I said in the first place you did end up using bleach , the mixture does need to be weaker/stronger depending on the substrate 

 

[RWCleaning]

well,i had a morning with mary today,its not often you get the chance nowadays to get soaped up with a virgin-and a famous one at that,no i'm not talking about cliff richard

as you'll have read or seen the photos from start to finish of this job i initially started off by saying theres more to just going for hypo first.

i applied ddac or benz biocide as its known first,this was to see what lies underneath the surface-the alghi burst its cell walls and all sort of crud came out,to be fair she was not looking that good but hey no damage was caused to the materials and that was the whole point of the job.

mary is made from calcite,a material like marble but a lot softer,its very easy to work with as in shaping folds etc and masons often stained the material black in places to suggest shadows etc as you'll see in the finished photos.

the ddac once it had done its job left a clean slate and all that was left was dead lichen,this was softened by the ddac and so was quite easy but time consuming to brush off with a nylon brush and a mixture of warm water and sodium laureth ether sulphate (27% technichal grade solution)the stone plinth had a wire brush treatment to remove the lichen and a warm water mix as above to clean as much dirt as possible.

now its not often i get paid to be up close and personal soaping up a virgin-well never really but we can live in hope,mary's feet were well filthy and needed a brass bristled brush to clean the toes same with jesus.

ok so after all the initial pre cleaning was done,mary was treated with sodium percarbonate,a gentle bleach,mixed with warm water and a surfactant to suit,this was done/applied at five minite intervals and rinsed inbetween to check the cleaning process,once the deeper stains oxidised and she was coming cleaner then i applied blackwash to the plinth,once done and rinsed another coat was applied,at the same time a very very weak coat of the remaining blackwash was applied to mary just to even out the remaining stains and to give an even colour.

if i had took the advice of previous comments that were to just bleach her-and bleach her again until she came clean her material would not have stood up to this infact the stains would have been drawn further into the calcite causing untold damage-and an insurance claim i guess in the region of 30k? to get the stains out.

thankfully i did a bit of research/half an hour on google told me what i needed to do-its that simple really.

moral of the story-if there is one,don't listen to forum members,do a bit of research for yourself,learn the material you are working with and what is best to use and all will be good

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I know it’s an old thread, but wow ?

 

[tench0771]

Was a job well done that ive never used blackwash but i may give it a go