ABSTRACT
Graffitis’ removal is a current challenge for buildings conservation. The aim is to restore the affected area as close as possible to its initial state and to avoid any kind of additional degradation. Yet, the use of chemical products or sandblasting can alter the stone surface. This study focuses in the cleaning of painted surfaces by laser using two different power intensities. Eighteen sandstone and marble slabs have been sprayed using oil based and acrylic paint products or markers employed nowadays for street-art. A preliminary analysis using LIBS and IRTF-ATR has been performed to find mineral and organic pigments or bindings in the paints. Then, the cleaning has been carried out. For each sample, a no-cleaned surface and two surfaces cleaned at 50W and 75W were analyzed. A DRIFT acquisition has been performed to realize a quantitative cleaning evaluation.
