What’s the difference between “restoration” and “preservation”?

You may occasionally find a firm advertising that it will "restore" cemetery markers. What, exactly, does this mean -- and what are they likely to do to your stone?

By definition, "restoration" means making the stone like new. Such an approach ignores the history and patina of the stone and attempts -- using techniques that are often inappropriate and damaging to the long-term preservation of the monument -- to make it look like it did the day it was placed in the cemetery. Restoration firms will often be happy to take on any project. The only critical consideration in restoration is what can be charged the client.

Preservation (or conservation), on the other hand, attempts to keep a stone from deteriorating further, stabilizing it, and ensuring that it is there for future generations. No conservator will claim to be able to work on every type of material or every monument. There are also some critical considerations in competent preservation or conservation work:

• Preservation must ensure careful planning
• Expedient or easy solutions often compound the problem
• Actions should be the least intrusive
• Treatments should respect the original fabric
• Actions should be, where possible, reversible
• All work must be carefully documented in case future work becomes necessary

Perhaps the most important distinction between a restoration firm and a conservator is that the conservator will be a member of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and will subscribe to their code of ethics and standards of practice. The conservator will provide you with a treatment proposal, explaining exactly what will be done and how; afterwards you will get a treatment report that specifies in even greater detail what was done and what materials were used.

You can probably find information on how to remove your child's appendix, but are you willing to try and risk their life? It is no different with a 100-year old stone that can't be replaced. Are you willing to try, only to make matters worse? Here are some photographs of failed attempts to save a few dollars.


This is a shameful way to treat a monument. Inappropriate adhesives have been used without taking care to either achieve a good, tight alignment of the stone fragments or clean up the excess material. In addition, the continuous joints will create new failure lines.

This stone could have been easily repaired by a conservator, but a "do-it-yourselfer" smeared a thick epoxy paste all over the stone in an effort to "glue" it together. The effort has disfigured the stone and has created a repair that, when it fails, will cause even more harm to the stone than the original break.

An effort was made to repair this stone using a liquid epoxy which has run down over the stone and yellowed with exposure to ultraviolet light. Like the example above, this stone will soon fail, causing additional damage.

We live in a "do-it-yourself" world, but we must also realize that there are some things we just can't do ourselves -- some things take special training, experience, skills, tools, and materials. These photos provide clear examples of the damage that can be done by "do-it-yourselfers." Stones that are beautiful and that have lasted decades can be ruined in only minutes by well-meaning, but poorly skilled and ill-prepared "do-it-yourselfers."

Does this mean that there is nothing I can do to help preserve my family’s monuments?

Simple Tips

Conservation   |   Working in Cemeteries   |   Conservation Ethics   |   Cemetery Forms   |   Lawn Maintenance   |   Cleaning

Resetting   |   Cemetery Ironwork   |   Stucco and Whitewash   |   Disaster Planning   |   Mortar and Brick