Soda Blasting Iraivan Temple

Recently, Sadhaka Dayanatha has been working to clean parts of Iraivan Temple. Before the temple's roof was fully sealed, water caused calcite to drip from the granite, hardening itself upon certain areas. This soda blasting is an attempt to remove the calcite without damaging the carved stone. It is a process by which sodium bicarbonate is applied against the surface using compressed air. This attempt was fairly successful, but more experimentation needs to be done to find the best particle grit for the job.

Dayanatha soda blasts a small area as a test

We have a high quality machine for the job

It creates quite a large cloud

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