How to Repair Cemetery Monuments
- 1). Collect broken parts of the monument. Match the pieces to chipped or cracked parts of the monument so you know where each chip belongs.
- 2). Scrub the monument and broken pieces with a soft-bristled brush to loosen debris. Never use a metal scrubber or stiff brush because they will scuff the stone. Rinse the stone with warm water.
- 3). Spray the monument and broken pieces with an alkaline cleaner. Scrub the face of the rock with a soft brush to remove any wax. Do not scrub any section of the monument that is painted unless you want to remove the paint.
- 4). Rinse off the cleaner using warm water. Dry the monument with a towel.
- 5). Fill a bucket with epoxy cleaner to fill in cracks or scratches. Add pigment powder to color the epoxy (choose a color that matches the stone). Lightly brush the epoxy onto an inconspicuous section of the monument to test whether or not the color matches. Add more epoxy to lighten the color; more powder to darken it.
- 6). Coat the broken stone chips with the epoxy. Fit the chips into the monument where they belong. Hold the stone in place until the epoxy dries.
- 7). Scoop epoxy out of the bucket with a craft knife. Spread it over the scratched or chipped sections of the monument. Fill in the holes and smooth the surface with the craft knife. Let the epoxy dry.
- 8). Sand the sections of the monument that you filled with epoxy. Use rough, 60-grit sandpaper. Sand again with 120-grit sandpaper to achieve a smooth surface.
- 9). Pat the stone and epoxy with tack cloth to remove sanding dust. Tack cloth has a sticky surface that makes it effective for cleaning dust without leaving a sticky residue.
- 10
Spray clear-coat epoxy onto the monument. This shields the stone from water and makes the monument easier to clean.