Cultural Heritage objects are in many cases invaluable and irrecoverable, therefore their protection is a prior goal. One threat arises by intentionally defacing such objects with graffiti. One possibility to face the imminent threat is the application of a surface protection in form of anti-graffiti systems (AGS). However, the knowledge about the performance and durability of AGS on substrates used for historical buildings is still fragmented. The goal of the presented study was to investigate the performance of a newly developed agent in comparison to a selection of commercial anti-graffiti agents on different substrates, which were used for historical buildings. Four commercial anti-graffiti agents with different chemical formulations were selected and tested with the new agent on different stone and brick substrates. The results showed clearly that AGS based on dense, water vapour impermeable coatings are not suitable to porous substrates such as sandstone, brick or porous limestone due to their impair of the hygric properties and the visual appearance of a substrate. The new agent could not completely reach the cleaning efficacy of the dense coatings but exhibited a much lower impact on the properties of the substrate and was therefore better compatible to historical surfaces.
In this article a comparative study of the behaviour of
different commercial anti-graffiti on natural stone and
brick is presented. 8 different European substrates were
selected and 4 commercial anti-graffiti of different
chemical nature were applied on these substrates. The
variations of their hydric properties and aspect (colour
and gloss) with regard to the untreated substrates were
later studied in the laboratory.
The results obtained permitted to assess the suitability of
4 of the main types of chemical formulations employed
to be used as anti-graffiti. This study concludes that the
sacrificial anti-graffiti with polymeric paraffins in its
composition presents the lowest reductions of the hydric
properties of the studied substrates, being also the
variations in colour the least perceptible.