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The Preservation Process

Saving Standing Monuments for Future generations

Finding stones that have been lost.

There are a number of ways to find lost stones. Most DON'T work! First off the tried and true method of prodding approximately every 1/3 meter on the square is a good start. However, remember that to be effective, you must prod both straight down and on a 45 degree angle. You will not catch tiny head and foot stones prodding the ground straight down except by sheer luck. Prodding on the angle will catch many of those. But it is harder to keep straight prodding on the angle, so it is best to prod straight down as well. Tile prods are expensive and do not work well for this. For information see our "Tools" area. It is far better to have you own made. It will work better and be less expensive. Note - Avoid hitting a stone too hard with a prod if you can avoid it. You can scratch stones with them.

Using old records you can sometimes find information on location of stones 10 or 50 years ago. But remember, what was visible or standing then may not be such today.

Once you find a stone you can often use a screwdriver or other such tools to find it's edges. You do not need an expensive prod to do that.

Electronic location devices. We have done some work and have some experience with these. So far they have not proven to be reliable to find stones right under the surface. However, they will find stones located further down that you would likely miss otherwise. And do not give up on that idea of using them to find surface stones. You can find graves that are even 150 years old with them. So, for instance if you know stones are missing in a certain area, you can find the graves there, and use that information to try to locate stones at the head of those graves with a prod. A scanner can still be a highly valuable helper if you can get access to one.

Bringing lost stones to the surface.

Here it is simply learn to do by doing. However, some hints.

1. If you find a stone that is in pieces, take out the parts one at a time and put them aside in their proper order and direction as you removed them with the top up. You will find that even simple breaks can be a real jig saw puzzle to put back together when you do not have a "Roadmap" to do it.
2. Be extremely careful lifting the stone out to not break or mark it with a shovel or heavy bar. Some of these can be very heavy. Do not get yourself into dangerous situations. Wait for help!
3. If the stone is in reasonable shape decide before you begin if you are going to stand it up or lay it down. Try to figure which way the printing should go. Figure exactly where the stone should stand. How will you fill in the old hole? Decide these before proceeding.
4. Locate the old base and decide if you are going to bring it to the surface.

Perserving a stone that cannot be raised.

Creating a gravel border and bed.

Lastly always do a VERY thorough job of removing every little bit of gravel and soil on the top of the stone itself. This gravel will really anchor itself there over time and we do not want that. Such causes scratches and stains and all kinds of such things. Also, always be certain to NEVER use gravel with even a tiny bit of soil mixed into it. This simply makes a place for a bit of moisture to stay and a friendly spot for roots to propagate. You want to be very sure to keep all gravel absolutely 100% free of even the tiniest bit of soil and/or sod.

When working with small stones, and the badly broken flat upright stones of marble, sandstone, slate, etc, you will often find that they are just too badly broken to stand them up. Each stone you work with of ANY type should probably be surrounded by stone dust or small gravel. You want to use about the least expensive gravel that you can get as you are going to use a whole lot of it! Having gravel around a stone and renewing this gravel base by working it up every two or three years will keep the lawn mowers away from stones and thus prevent such damage. You will occasionally find stones that are "Full of cracks". If you find one of these it should we think lay flat to try to prevent further damage. Also, if a stone monument has a hollowed out area on it that will catch water, that stone should be placed on a gravel bed at an angle.

We have been gradually developing a new method to deal with these monuments. The method is similar, but instead of doing them as we initially did, we now leave them quite significantly above ground level with a deep bed of gravel underneath them. The problem with the old method was that weeks could come in quickly even in the gravel and the stone was too quickly engulfed by vegetation, and people were walking on them. This new method serves several purposes. It means that the top area of gravel can dry out completely in dry summer months, thus killing grass and weeds before they develop. It tends to prevent people from walking on the monument and scratching them. And it allows you to keep one end high in the case of stones with areas that might have caught water using other methods.

You want to simply remove the stone itself, keeping track of the individual pieces by reassembling all in a spot a few feet away from your work site. Then clean out the area where the stone sat plus removing a bit of vegetation on each side of that, making sure all loose soil is removed totally. NEVER back fill with any sod for any reason under a monument. ALWAYS use gravel! Then, begin to fill with stone dust gravel. Keep putting wheel barrow load after load in to the spot, building it up a bit at a time and packing it. Remember that you need to be 15 cm wider than the stone itself on all sides of it at the top of the stone. You want to make a bed of gravel about 20 cm (8 inches) deep MINIMUM for the stone to sit on. Make sure that the top is absolutely FLAT! Then begin to set the pieces back in order, but leave about 3 cm (1 inch) between the pieces as you place them back in. This will probably mean that some parts are slightly wider but don't worry about that. When all pieces are in place, bring the gravel up even with the top of the stone, and fill all of the spaces between the stone pieces with gravel. Pack all as best you can. Again, if your monument has a place to catch water we recommend you put it on a bit of an angle. Lastly make certain that you have a border of at least 15 cm (or 8 inches) on ALL sides of the stone. We prefer even slightly wider. Please be prepared as this takes a LOT of gravel to do just one stone monument. But we have had MUCH better luck with it than we had with other ways.

'''Note... If you have two stones that are fairly close consider putting solid gravel between them taking out all soil and sod in there. That way a mower does not have to get into that area to cut grass thus avoiding damage to stones and frustration on their part with your work.

Raising Stones. Deciding which stones can stand again.

You can often stand stones up again. Some may be even able to stand in their old bases. Others, maybe even most, will need to stand in the ground on their own. It is extremely important that in all cases that the stone stands on a bed of gravel.

1. Assess the stone. If you can stand it up and keep the important text such as name, birth date, death date, etc., then you should consider standing it up. If you have to cover "Poetry" at the bottom, the consider doing it. The stone will last longer standing. You need to be able to have roughly one quarter to one third of the stone AT LEAST under ground level to allow it to stay standing safely. If you can do that proceed as follows.
2. Check for a base. If one exists we suggest you bring it to the surface. You may want to repair it and use it again later. You may want to just use it to protect the back of the stone, etc. Once on top, level the base with gravel under it, etc. Remember to plan carefully so you can keep the text on the stone showing in the correct direction later.
3. Then, dig a hole down right against it for the stone to sit in. It MUST be deep enough to have about 12 cm of gravel in it for the stone to sit on or it will sink quickly. Make sure you do not have any loose soil in the hole. Place gravel base in hole and level and pack it.
4. When you get the hole dug for the stone to stand it up, try to bring it in, in such a way that you do not get loose soil into the "Pit". You can allow the back of the stone to touch the old base, or fill the area between stone and base with gravel. Back fill totally with gravel packing it well with your feet as you go. NEVER use soil to backfill. You can use soil you dug out to fill the area where the stone once lay, but you must use gravel otherwise.
5. In the case of broken stones you might be able to stand one portion up, and leave the other portion in a bed of gravel in front. We take every chance that we can to stand stones up again! Lessening frost and water damage. etc.

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