The multiple degrading actions on natural surfaces, caused by chemical or physical alterations or by microorganisms, can cause on the material itself a loss of binder, such as to make the surface weak, crumbling and in-compact, with increased porosity and losses of material.
The stone materials are also rigid and fragile, so they are sensitive to outdoor and indoor mechanical stresses (loads, vibrations, frost, crystallization of the salts, thermal expansion).
The consolidation of porous materials is intended to interrupt the progress of degradation, returning the lost compactness to the stone or to the artifact. The products used for consolidating treatment can recreate the continuity between the deteriorated layers and the healthy core of the material, improving resistance to mechanical efforts applied both outside and within the capillary network and ensuring the re-absorption of tensional efforts caused by thermal cycles.
Avoid using unsuitable consolidating products, which fail to penetrate and act on the crumbly layer of the stone, but which on the contrary form a hard surface layer, which in a short time will detach.
