Abstract
Graffiti are increasingly observed on urban and peri-urban buildings and their removal requires a huge financial outlay by local governments and agencies. Graffiti are not usually removed immediately, but rather over the passage of time, viz. months or even years. In this study, which forms part of a wider research project on graffiti removal, different methods (gravimetric analysis, examination of digital images, colour and infrared measurements) were used to evaluate the performance of accelerated ageing tests (involving exposure to humidity, freeze-thawing cycles and NaCl and Na2SO4 salts) for graffiti painted on stone. Silver (metallic) and black (non-metallic) graffiti spray paints were applied to two types of igneous rock (granite and rhyolitic ignimbrite) and one sedimentary rock (fossiliferous limestone, i.e., biocalcarenite). The metallic and non-metallic graffiti spray paints acted differently on the stone surfaces, both chemically and physically. Older graffiti were found to be more vulnerable to weathering agents. The ageing test with NaCl and particularly Na2SO4, both applied to granite, proved the most severe on the paints, yielding more detrimental and faster artificial ageing of the type of material under study.
Highlights
Graffiti first emerged in New York in the late 1960s, peaking in the 1970s and becoming popular in Europe in the 1990s
1).cases, In both cases, be the duechemical to the chemical composition by the digital images. In both this maythis be may due to composition of the of the paints, which was characterized by infrared spectroscopy
Characterization of graffiti spray paints revealed that non-metallic paint is very different from metallic paint
Summary
Graffiti first emerged in New York in the late 1960s, peaking in the 1970s and becoming popular in Europe in the 1990s. Anti-graffiti campaigns began in the 1980s with new legislation and restrictions. Graffiti vandalism is currently a widespread and costly problem. Removal of graffiti requires a major financial outlay by municipalities and other responsible institutions. The city of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, NW Spain) spends more money on cleaning graffiti than any of the other cities in this autonomous region; e.g., in 2008, more than 150,000 euros were spent on removing graffiti from the city’s buildings [1]. Due to the substantial financial outlay required, removal of graffiti usually does not take place immediately, but over months or even years
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