Stone Care on the Rainiest Coast
Mobile is the wettest city in the country. The rain and the salt air from the Gulf constantly attack the stone. In cemeteries like Magnolia and the Catholic Cemetery, monuments degrade fast.
We deal with granite pitted by salt crystals and white marble stained brown by wet oak leaves. The ground is soft and swampy, so heavy markers sink. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to desalinate these stones, lift them out of the mud, and kill the green algae that covers everything.
Salt Air Corrosion
The wind from Mobile Bay carries salt. Salt settles on the stone and gets inside the pores. When it dries, it expands.
This internal pressure pops small chips off the granite face—we call it spalling. On bronze, the salt eats right through the metal. We use a desalination poultice to pull the salt out. This stops the stone from disintegrating.
Live Oak Tannin Stains
Live Oak trees drop wet leaves and Spanish moss on the markers. The debris sits there and rots.
The dark brown liquid from the leaves soaks into the stone. It turns white marble the color of coffee. You can't scrub it off because the stain is deep inside the rock. We apply a chemical poultice. It sucks the brown stain out of the pores and restores the white color.
The "Green Tombstone" (Algae & Moss)
The stones here never stay dry. Moisture feeds thick green moss and black algae.
We see markers completely wrapped in green slime. Pressure washing forces water deeper into the stone, causing rot. We use a biocide. We soak the stone, and the chemical kills the spores. The green turns brown and washes off, leaving the stone sterile.
Sinking in Marshy Soil
The water table in Mobile is high. The ground is sandy and soft. Heavy monuments sink straight down.
We find flat markers buried under inches of mud. Upright stones tip as the ground shifts. We lift the stone. We dig out the wet muck and install a deep pad of crushed limestone. This spreads the weight and keeps the marker floating above the mud.
Bronze Rot (Oxidation)
Salt air eats the protective clear coat on bronze plaques. Once the coating fails, the metal corrodes immediately.
The bronze turns a chalky, sick green. We strip the old lacquer. We blast the corrosion off with glass beads to get down to clean metal. Then we apply a thick industrial clear coat to seal the bronze against the salt air.
Sugaring Marble
Humidity and salt attack the binder in historic marble. The surface becomes loose and powdery.
If you rub it, white dust comes off. That dust is the monument falling apart. We apply a stone consolidant. This fluid soaks into the rotting stone and hardens it. It locks the grains back together so the inscription doesn't fade away.
Hurricane Debris Damage
After tropical storms, we find stones battered by flying debris or covered in flood mud.
Flood mud packs into the carving and dries like cement. We carefully dig out the impacted mud using wooden picks and soft brushes. We check for cracks caused by falling branches and seal them to keep water out.
Service Costs in Mobile
Fighting salt corrosion and heavy biological growth takes strong chemicals and time. Lifting stones in marshy ground is heavy labor. We inspect the condition of the stone and the soil stability before giving a quote.
- Salt Removal: Desalination of granite and marble.
- Biocide Wash: Killing heavy algae and moss.
- Bronze Restoration: Stripping and resealing corroded metal.
- Leveling: Raising stones in soft, wet ground.