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After 50 years of exposure to the elements, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum on New York City’s 5th Avenue needed help.

The art museum’s exterior concrete rotunda wall, which corkscrews outward as the building gets taller, was beset by hundreds of cracks ranging from hairlines to those that exposed steel reinforcement bars buried in 5-inch-thick (12.7 cm) concrete. And that’s just what Guggenheim’s team of architects, engineers, and restoration experts could see! Who knew what else lie beneath 12 layers of coatings applied over the decades?

Marble Restoration is a task frequently faced by masonry and historic restoration contractors. Marble has been used in buildings and structures for millennia dating as far back as the ancient Greeks in the 7th century BCE. Marble mining remains a global industry with quarries spanning across six continents. As marble has been used for centuries as a building material, many buildings and structures around the world contain marble that is showing its age with discoloration and staining.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, fire fighters responded to 1.35 Million fires in the United States last year. The cause of these fires vary from grease fires while cooking to electrical overload on dated wiring. Industrial and Commercial property owners lose billions of dollars every year due to fire damage, but the majority of properties that get damaged are not a total loss. Most surfaces that suffer fire and smoke damage including brick, stone, and wood can be cleaned using Sponge Media™.

Brick has been used for the construction of homes and buildings since ancient times. The first known brick was discovered on an archeology site in the Middle East, dating its use back to 7500BC. This discovery means humans started using brick 3,000 years before the invention of the wheel! Similar to the wheel, the materials used to make brick has evolved.

Conservators frequently turn to Sponge-Jet for help on historic restoration projects when there is a need to control dust, clean masonry substrates, or remove hazardous lead paint from steel and masonry. Some restoration projects include all of these challenges. Contractor R.J. Forbes faced this kind of multifaceted restoration project at the Breakers Mansion basement, tunnel, and boiler room in Newport, Rhode Island (USA). The project had several phases, including cleaning whitewashed brick and removing lead paint from steel beams all while visitors toured the property above the restoration site.

The work contractors and facility owners do using Sponge-Jet is often rewarding. Being a part of so many different applications and industries, from the building of battleships to returning fine art back into its gilded glory, our work is often hard to top. Perhaps this has been achieved on a project as important as the restoration of the U.S. Capitol.

From Duluth, Minnesota to Washington DC through Europe and South-East Asia, Sponge-Jet has seen a large number of cities and states use micro-abrasion technology to preserve and restore historic buildings and structures.

Contractors charged with restoring large buildings often have the time consuming task of repairing and/or repainting window frames and casings. Windows in these buildings can be very heavy and fragile, with glass components highly susceptible to chipping or fracturing. Window damage is avoided at all costs, as the glass is very costly to replace and reinstall.

Time is of the essence for any public bridge project. Missing deadlines can be costly to bridge owners, operators and contractors, and ultimately to those who rely on them for daily transportation. For example, 118,600 cars and mass-transit passengers rely on timely passage from Cambridge to Boston, MA (USA) each week over the historic Longfellow Bridge. In the summer of 2013, the clock started on a $255 million project to replace structural elements and restore the bridge’s historical character.

Sponge-Jet is pleased to have been used as the method of choice for the restoration of the 1906 Baldwin Locomotive Works’ Steam Engine 19. Engine 19 has a notable history including being the only engine manned by an all African-American crew in the Carolinas. Through much of its service life, Engine 19 would transport blue granite and crushed stone throughout the region. The steam engine was first acquired by The Railroad Historical Center, located in Greenwood, SC, in 1970. With recent funding support, its preservation became a priority to the museum.