CENOTAPH CLEANED IN KINGSTOWN ON ST. VINCENT
In October the monument to the memory of the 65 inhabitants of St. Vincent who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars received a free cleaning from Kärcher as part of the cultural sponsorship. It was the first cleaning project in the Caribbean.
Cleaning the monument in two steps
In the first step, the Kärcher expert Nick Heyden removed biological growth and loose deposits on the statue, the base and the ground area around the monument. To do this, he used a hot water high-pressure cleaner in the gentle steam mode at 95 °C and a reduced pressure of just 0.5 - 1 bar. Hot steam cleaning is one of the most effective and at the same time most gentle cleaning techniques and must not be confused with pure high pressure.
In the second step, Nick Heyden used the so-called low-pressure microparticle blasting process to remove emission deposits from the base of the monument and to remove lime efflorescence and paint residues from the floor slabs surrounding the monument. In principle, the process works in a similar way to sandblasting, except that the procedure is much more sensitive. With only 1 - 2 bar and the fine aluminum silicate with a grain size of 40-80 micrometers as the blasting medium, it is possible to work precisely so that only the dirt is removed and the original substance remains undamaged.
All facts at a glance
Country: St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Place: Kingstown
Kind of dirt: Biological fouling, loose deposits and plaster crusts
Cleaning method: Steam stage of the hot water high pressure cleaner, low pressure particle blasting.
Execution: October 2022
