Stone maintenance and repairRelatives or descendants of interred persons are responsible for the condition of their headstones, fencing, curbs and landscaping within their individual or family plots. Most maintenance is easy, but larger jobs may have to be contracted out to professionals, such as monument companies. Please exercise caution around leaning or broken headstones.
There is a lot of BAD information on the internet regarding the maintenance and repair of headstones, even from so-called experts. As a result, well-meaning repairs to some of our headstones have resulted in unsightly patches that are likely to fail. Even cleaning with the wrong soaps and tools can cause irreparable harm. The best information seems to be presented by the Cemetery Conservators for United Standards. Their website is at https://cemeteryconservatorsunitedstandards.org/; hover over Basic Standards and select from there (e.g. Cleaning Basics, or Repair Basics, etc). There is good information throughout this website. Another good source is the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, part of the US National Parks Service. They have several useful videos on headstone maintenance and repair. Here are a few: Resetting toppled headstones: https://www.ncptt.nps.gov/blog/resetting-a-stone-grave-marker-2007-02/ Lifting and straightening large headstones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK3DMn_Z-pY Toppled headstones can also be temporarily managed by laying them flat and face-up on the grave, upon a thin bed of gravel (to keep the back dry) and at a slight slope so that water drains off the face. This arrangement could be permanent for stones which are at risk of re-toppling, either due to a narrow base on unstable ground or from repeat vandalism. |
The headstones and markers within our cemeteries are personal commemorations, but are also important historical artifacts and should be treated as such. Emphasis should be on preservation rather than change - retaining the monument's original position, shape and color whenever possible. When a monument is replaced, the original marker should be retained and displayed alongside the new one. Although leveling sunken graves is an important aesthetic and safety consideration, care must be taken not to remove the only evidence of grave sites which have no headstone or other marker.
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