Green-Wood Cemetery – New York, USA

Kärcher cleans monuments at New York's most famous cemetery

Karcher participated in preventing three mausoleums from decay at one of the oldest and most beautiful cemeteries of the United States, the Green-Wood Cemetery in New York. The substance of the marble memorials was mostly affected by strong biological contamination and threatened to be damaged permanently.

"The challenging task was the careful cleaning of those marble surfaces, which were already partially damaged." Neela Wickremesinghe, Manager of Preservation and Restoration at Green-Wood, stated. "Kärcher helps us to prepare some of our most beautiful monuments for restorative measures. The mausoleums of the families Canda, Niblo, and Miller are considered the most significant and popular graves of our cemetery."

Lichens, algae, and mosses were thoroughly and gently removed with the hot water pressure washer HDS 5.0/30. The device was used at the steam setting with a 40° fan jet nozzle, at a boiler temperature of 155° C, and a working pressure of 1 to 1.5 bars. For the paving tiles at the Niblo monument, the Surface Cleaner accessory was used in order to achieve a more even cleaning result. The black crust, which could not be removed with the hot water pressure washer, was dry cleaned by using a particle blaster and aluminum silicate powder with a pressure of 0, 5 to 2 bars. Further, the cleaning of the three mausoleums is supposed to set a standard to the restorative cleaning of the other monuments at the cemetery. Therefore, Kärcher trains the employees of the cemetery in their cleaning technique and what to be aware of concerning the different materials and contaminations. For this purpose Kärcher also donates a high pressure washer to Green-Wood.