Tampering with the House of Parliament | More mortar may have to be removed from the joints of the columns of the Parliament building in the spring

Parliament House the cleaning work of the facade has been completed, says the communication of the parliament. In the inspection conducted with the Finnish Museum Agency on Thursday of last week, it was found that the stone surfaces of the facade and columns, as well as the seams of the walls, were cleaned well with several high-pressure steam cleanings.

However, the color absorbed into the seams of the columns could only be partially washed away with detergent. It was not possible to remove all the color from the seams, because even a small amount of the substance used is strongly coloring and the seam retains the color effectively.

Because of this, the joint mortar was removed from several places, so that the color would not transfer with moisture to the already cleaned area. These seams were completely cleaned. Other seams may still show dye as they dry.

According to the communication of the parliament, the seams may have to be opened even more in the spring, when the weather allows them to be re-sealed.

Parliamentary according to the communication, the cleaning work was carried out under the guidance of the Finnish Museum Agency and it used the most environmentally friendly method that causes the least damage to the facade materials, and it achieved the best achievable level of cleaning.

The real estate manager of the Parliament Sari Turunen estimated last week for STT that cleaning the facade would cost around 15,000 euros. However, the estimate did not include the renewal of the seams.

Activists of Elokapinina and the Swedish Återställ Våtmarker messed up the facade of the Parliament building with red paint at the end of September as a protest against the removal of peat. The police have said that they are investigating the case as an aggravated assault.