Consolidation of globigerina limestone (Malta) by means of inorganic treatments: preliminary results

Soft limestones used as building materials in marine environmental undergo fast and peculiar deterioration processes that seriously damage the historical and architectural Cultural Heritage of Mediterranean cities. One of the fundamental aims for the conservator scientist is to find out suitable and compatible methodologies to slow down the natural phenomena of degradation that put in risk the maintenance of material memory of the past ages. With this purpose, efficacity of inorganic treatments was investigated in order to understand mechanisms and effects of consolidation and to assess the suitability of these classes of substances for the conservation of porous materials in aggressive environmental conditions.