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How to maintain a funerary monument ?
What maintenance obligation ?
Maintaining a funeral monument is an obligation, not only moral but also legal.
Who takes on this responsibility? The dealer(s) (or rights holders). The aim is to keep the monument in good condition ; this does not mean that you will receive a call from the town hall if there are mosses on the monument.
It is rather a question of ensuring that the monument does not collapse, that the stele (headstone) for example is well fixed…. Otherwise, the town hall may consider that it is an act of abandonment. After a strict process governed by the state (and at least 10 years after the last burial), the town hall can take over the concession and make it available again.
How to maintain a natural stone monument ?
Whether for a natural stone or granite monument, it is often recommended to clean the monument with soapy water once a year. The objective is to prevent moss and lichens from clinging and also to remove the pollution that will have settled. Do the same with the engraved plates and then remove the herbs that grow near the monument.
Check the condition of the sealant joints and the engravings at this occasion. Re-champissage is a process of cleaning the letters with white spirit to completely remove the color, then repainting them (or reapplying gold leaf). This operation is rather done every 10 to 15 years and even less in the case of V-engravings.
The specificities of cleaning a monument made of natural stone and in particular Burgundy limestone are as follows : it is limestone so no cleaning with acidic products such as white vinegar or petrochemical products, prefer products with neutral pH or black soap. Use a soft brush. The Comblanchien stone, harder, requires less maintenance than the limestones of Golden Yellow Lanvignes or Blended Semond.
All our funerary monuments are water-repellent to protect the stone ; it is a treatment that you can re-apply after cleaning the tombstone : a one-liter bottle will allow you to saturate the monument (recommended product : Imperpierre)
With the distance of families, monument maintenance services are developing more and more. This ranges from the flowering of the tomb on an ad hoc basis to an annual maintenance contract with specific additional costs for marble work (if it is necessary to renovate the seals for example or fix the headstone).
More substantial cleanings (if the monument is completely full of lichens or mosses following a lack of maintenance for several years) can also be delegated to these same companies.
We offer you a cemetery maintenance kit consisting of Determousse fungicide and Imperpierre water repellent.
