Fireplace, Uni. of Birmingham

During a refurbishment work at the University of Birmingham, a fireplace was uncovered when old plaster board walls were removed. The fireplace contained disfiguring marks caused by an adhesive that was used to fix the plaster board to the fireplace. The main objective of the conservation treatment was to remove the disfiguring residues of an old adhesive paste which penetrated the stone substrate. Conservation tests revealed that the paste was partially soluable in hydrocarbon solvents. The treatment was undertaken in stages using a different type of wet cleaning methods and each stage had to be repeated several times. The conservation team achieved to remove most of the soaked in adhesive from the pores of the stone surface and to clean the whole fireplace.