Railroad Brake Dust
North Little Rock is a train town. The big Union Pacific yard is right here. Every time those trains brake, they grind metal off the wheels. That metal dust floats over the city.
It lands on the white marble headstones and rusts. It looks like the stone has broken out in orange measles. You can't scrub it off because the rust is burned right into the surface. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me try bleach, but that just seals the rust in. We use a specialized chemical that melts those tiny iron specks. We have to dissolve the metal to get the white color back.
Sinking in Soft Silt
We are right on the Arkansas River. The ground is soft, sandy silt. Heavy stones don't stand a chance here.
They don't just tilt; they sink straight down. We see markers where the dates are buried underground. Adding dirt on top is useless; the stone just pushes it down. During cemetery plot maintenance, we have to hoist the monument out. We dig out the soft silt and build a pad of compacted gravel. The gravel spreads the weight so the stone floats on top of the soft soil.
Pecan Husk Grease
Edgewood and other older cemeteries are full of Pecan trees. They make a mess. The husks are packed with grease.
If a husk rots on a headstone, it leaves a dark, oily blotch. It looks like a thumbprint. Rain just runs right off it. The stone drinks that oil up. We use a poultice specifically made for oil extraction. We have to draw that grease out of the stone slowly. It takes time, but we can usually get the shadow out.
River Bottom Slime
Because we are in the river bottoms, the air stays wet. The stones never really dry out.
This breeds a thick, black mildew. It isn't green moss; it is a black slime that coats the whole marker. It makes the stone look wet even when it's dry. Scrubbing just pushes it around. We use a biocide that soaks into the granite. It kills the mildew where it lives, deep in the rock, so the stone brightens up.
Flood Mud Lines
Drainage is bad in the flat parts of town. After a storm, the water has nowhere to go. It pools around the bottom of the markers.
When it finally dries up, it leaves a dirty brown line. It looks like a high-water mark. It stains the limestone dark brown. We use a specialized wash for grave site cleaning services to lift that stain. We scrub the line away so the base matches the rest of the monument again.
Cypress Knees
In the lower, wetter sections, we have Cypress trees. Their roots, called "knees," pop up through the grass.
These knobby roots grow right under the headstones. They push the markers up and tip them over. You can't cut the roots or you kill the tree. We have to carefully move the stone or build up the foundation around the roots to make the marker level again without hurting the tree.
Lawn Mower Scuffs
The grass grows thick in this river soil. The mowing crews run big machines to keep up. They bump the stones constantly.
We find black tire marks and green chlorophyll stains on the corners of the stones. We use solvents for cleaning stone gravestones to wipe these marks off. We can't fix the chips in the rock, but we can remove the ugly rubber streaks.