Site conservation techniques: floors

Overview

Giorgio Buccellati – July 2011

A chapter of the digital monograph: Site conservation

NOTE: on this topic, cf. also the dedicated topical book on “CONSERVATION”.

General problems

Horizontal surfaces (floors, pavements, staircases) present a special problem, for various reasons, attributable to rain water and snow, and to vegetation growth.

The force of the rain, as it hits at a perpendicular angle the horizontal surface, can cause more damage than on walls, where it tends to drip down along the face.
The rain can easily form water puddles that remain in place until the water evaporates. This is of course true of the snow as well.
With staircases, the problem outlined in point 2 is compounded by the cascade effect created by the steps, which results in something close to a waterfall rushing down from the top.
Vegetation growth is quite invasive. It is in the form of thorn bushes, that grow quite tall (between half and one meter).

Solutions adopted

The basic solution I have adopted has been to backfill the horizontal surfaces.

For mud floors, the backfill is total, meaning that it covers the entire floor.

It is different with pavements. While at first we backfilled the whole pavement, to protect the exposed stones, we then decided that potential weathering damage to the stones themselves was negligible, and that we could leave them exposed. The major damage would come to the mud joints, and as a consequence to the stones that could be dislodged if the mud of the joints was removed. Hence, I have reverted to a solution where I leave the stones exposed and only protect the joints.

Against the unwanted vegetation, I have, so far, avoided using herbicides, and have relied instead on pavers and on periodic cleaning. But I will in the near future experiment with chemicals as well.