Cleaning up 101 - Cleaning up the mud.

[graveleye]

I am looking to see what some of your differing techniques are for cleaning mud off of formations, particularly draperies. In the situation I am referring to, there are draperies on each side of a short hallway that are covered with the mud from muddy hands of the people passing through. I intend to clean this up and if it works, I'll proceed onto some other areas too.
Obviously there isn't a single cure-all as every cave and every formation is different. I'm just curious to know what has worked for you, in your situation. I'm talking only about mud in this instance. Maybe in the future we'll move on to other topics like spray-paint and other cleanup issues.

Here is where I am aiming to start my clean-up. I encourage you to post your own pictures as well.

[wendy]

Make sure you take before and after photos of the areas that you are cleaning, they are handy to have later on.

We use untreated well water, as it is the closest to the water naturally found in the cave. We use those deck pump sprayers like at Lowe's, and maybe a soft bristled brush.

That should help out with the mud.

[Dane]

That cave looks vaguely familiar, Graveleye!!!
Yelll at me if you need help - if there is any way I can fit it into my schedule, I will be there!

I find the concept interesting.
In cleaning grafitti off of walls, you generally end up with a great big clean spot that is almost as garish and out of place as the spray paint just removed, so techniques have been developed to "apply" mud in a way that better matches the surrounding patina!
Granted, I'm talking walls vs. formations, but still interesting.

[graveleye]

Thanks Wendy!
I'm looking for a local source of water and there really isnt one within a mile or so, and it's likely to be less clean than what is dripping in the cave. There are no streams in the cave, and beneath every dripping stal in the cave is a nice spatter "egg" or snotwad as Shannon refers to them - so the cave itself is not a very good option for water. I'll probably have to get well water from my dads place which is nearby and in the same karst geology.

Yup, Dane you should be familiar with that!! Those are your dang muddy handprints on the wall. Just kidding!
This is in a slippery place and a narrow corridor, so naturally people have put their dirty hands on the wall to keep their balance.
Careful brother Dane, cuz you know I will take you up on it and put your butt to work!!!

This part of the cave really doesn't have much graffiti in it thankfully, but there are other places where there are some real eyesores. I'll tackle them at a later time, and case by case. Unfortunately some of the nasty stuff is over some historical signatures, so it might just have to stay.

[wendy]

You may want to get soemone that can tell ya what is historical and what's not. I know when we did the cave clean up during the 2005 convention in Huntsville they had had someone come in and they marked the floor with flagging tape where historical graffitti was located on the walls so we would not clean those areas.

[Dane]

You don't really expect people to believe that I have ever lost my balance, do you?????

Of course, my expertise is splattering mud, not unsplattering it, but I'm a quick study!

I told you buddy - if I have gas in the car and no other commitments, I'm there! :driving:

[Teresa]

How wet is the cave?
Will the stal recover if scraped?
Has the mud been calcited over?

If it is a wet cave, the stal drip, or sheet water occasionally, and the mud is recent, water and nylon bristled kitchen/ automotive fingernail brushes will do.
Try kitchen nylon scrubbies (NO SOAP!) as well. You might want a few metal dental picks to clean out the mud in the crevices. I usually take one or two toothbrushes, and tooth brush sized brass or metal rust removal brushes. The latter are used very sparingly, if at all, but they can be useful and don't weigh much.

If it is a dry cave, the stal are dry, or the mud has been calcited over, you need to be more careful, as the surface will not naturally heal over time, and they will be more fragile to work on. In this case, take some wipe down rags, too. Backpack sprayers, and hand plant misters are useful.

[Dane]

Hmm.....Graveleye!!!
I'm thinking your best bet is to take some "Teresa"!!!!
I believe she would work better than "scrubbing bubbles"!!!!

[gillip]

I agree with the previous posts that water and a nylon brush is the best way to remove mud. If you are still pondering the water source, you could try to capture condensation from the cave. I was working on a cave recently that was experienceing severe (apparently chemical) erosion on the speleothems, so in an attempt to identify the cause I collected condensation using sheet of plastic, suspended with a wieght in the middle and a collection vessel beneath. I found that the water collects on both sides of the plastic, so put a hole in sheet under the weight. I routinely collected arround 0.5 L in a week using a 1m square plastic sheet. Unfortunately, the condensation was slightly acidic with a pH of arround 6.5, possibly because of the CO2 enrichment in the cave setting. I don't think that brief exposure (cleaning) with this water would damage the speleothems too bad.

[Teresa]

We've never done any tests on relative efficacy, but I've been on cleanups where sugar-free seltzer water, and dry-ice enhanced water were used on particularly bad areas, as a compromise between plain water and some nasty chemical.

Hey, if Coke can be used to clean battery terminals, temp exposure to high CO2 is not likely a big problem, and it beats other acids as far as the cave life goes.

I don't know that this is necessary if you are dealing with plain mud, though.