When I wrote about my first experience with Endurance Gravestone Monument Cleaner, I promised I'd come back with an update and some photos “soon.”

Well... it turns out “soon” got away from me. It was a busy season, and I completely forgot about that promise until recently. But I haven't forgotten what happened with that first test.

If you haven't read the original post, Will Endurance Stand The Test of Time? tells the story of my first experience with Endurance, when I tested it on the monument to 11 Civil War soldiers at Blossom Hill Cemetery in Concord. The monument had significant staining and biological growth, and I was impressed with the results after the first treatment.

So, how did it hold up?

A Look Back

I stopped to look at that Civil War monument this spring, and I was very happy with what I saw. The staining that remained after the initial cleaning had continued to fade, just as I had expected it would.

I wish I had remembered my promise to take a new photo while I was there! Unfortunately, I didn't — but seeing the monument in person was reassuring. The results I saw during that first test weren't a temporary improvement. The stone continued to look better with time.

A Second Look

I also had another opportunity this season to see a stone I'd cleaned with Endurance last year. The daughter of the couple whose stone I had cared for the previous year reached out to schedule a follow-up, giving me the chance to see how it had held up after a year.

To my eye, it looked every bit as good as it did when I first cleaned it.

That's especially useful to me because I'm not interested in choosing a cleaning product based solely on how impressive a stone looks immediately after the work is finished. I want to know what happens afterward.

And I've now had another full season of using Endurance on a variety of stones. My experience has continued to reinforce that first impression I had when I tried it on the Civil War monument.

So... Did It Stand the Test of Time?

Based on what I've seen so far, I'm happy to say that my first impression has held up.

I've continued using Endurance throughout this season, and it has earned a permanent place in my cleaning kit.

Will I continue to learn more about how it performs over time? Absolutely. That's part of what makes this work so interesting to me. Gravestones have been standing outdoors for decades — sometimes centuries — and the products and methods we use to care for them deserve that same kind of long-term consideration.

At Sacred Stones, I'm not just interested in how a stone looks today. I want the care I give it to help it endure for generations to come.