Crowley's Ridge Dust
Jonesboro sits on the Ridge. The dirt here is weird. It is called loess, and it feels like flour. It gets into everything.
When this dust hits a headstone, it packs tight into the engraved letters. Rain turns it into a hard paste. It sets like cement. You can't just brush it out. Families looking for headstone cleaning services near me try to scrape it, but that scratches the stone. We use low-pressure water to soften that packed dust. We flush it out gently so the inscription becomes readable again.
Rice Field Humidity
We are surrounded by the Delta. They flood the rice fields every summer. The air gets thick and heavy.
That damp air makes algae grow fast. Stones turn green and slimy in just a few days. Scrubbing it is a waste of your afternoon. You might clean the surface, but the roots are deep in the granite pores. If you don't kill those roots, the green comes right back. We use a cleaner that soaks in and kills the growth completely.
Mud Dauber Stains
Wasps love the overhangs on monuments. Mud daubers build their hard nests right on the stone faces and under the edges.
They make these nests out of red clay. When the nest falls off or gets wet, that red clay stains the granite. It leaves a rusty splotch. Scrubbing just spreads the red color. We remove the nest carefully. Then we use a poultice for cleaning stone gravestones to suck the red clay stain out of the stone.
Field Ash and Soot
After harvest, the farmers burn the fields. The wind carries black ash right into town.
It lands on flat markers. It mixes with dew and makes a greasy black ink. Water just beads up on it. We use an industrial degreaser for grave site cleaning services. We strip that oily soot layer off. Once the grease is gone, the stone looks clear and polished again.
Washouts on the Slopes
The soil on the Ridge is basically powder. It washes away fast. A heavy rain cuts channels right through the cemetery slopes.
We find stones tipping over because the dirt under them just vanished. Adding more loose dirt doesn't work; it washes out too. During cemetery plot maintenance, we dig down to solid ground. We pack the hole with crushed stone. That rock drains the water and keeps the monument standing.
Bird Droppings
Jonesboro has a lot of trees and birds. We see purple stains from berries and white acidic droppings everywhere.
Bird droppings burn the polish on marble. It leaves a dull, rough spot. We clean these off immediately. We use a neutralizer to stop the acid from eating the stone. We can't fix the rough spot without re-polishing, but we stop the damage from getting deeper.
Tree Sap Glaze
The pines and oaks on the Ridge drop a lot of sap. In the summer heat, it bakes onto the granite.
Dust sticks to the sap and makes a black crust. It is hard as rock. You can't chip it off without hurting the stone. We use organic solvents. We melt the sap chemically. We wipe away the sticky mess, and the stone looks bright again.