Route 40 Road Film
Bear is cut in half by Pulaski Highway. The traffic is constant. Big diesel trucks pump exhaust into the air right next to the graveyards.
That smoke settles on the stone. It forms a sticky, black film. Dirt sticks to it and builds up a heavy crust. Rain is useless against it because the oil repels water. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me often think the granite is losing its color. It isn't. It is just buried under a layer of traffic grease. We use industrial degreasers. We dissolve that oily film. The granite sparkles again once we strip the soot away.
Swampy Humidity and Algae
We are close to Lums Pond and Red Lion Creek. The ground is low. The air is always wet.
This is perfect for green algae. It grows thick here. It fills the engraved letters on the markers. If you try to scrub it, you just smear the spores around. It grows back in a week. We use a biological soft-wash. We kill the organism completely. It dries up and falls off. We stop the cycle of growth so the stone stays clean.
Sinking in Old Farm Soil
Most of Bear used to be cornfields. The soil is loose loam. It moves a lot, especially when it gets wet.
Heavy granite monuments sink into this soft ground. We see markers where the bottom half is buried. Adding dirt on top is useless; the stone just pushes it down. During cemetery plot maintenance, we lift the monument. We dig out the soft dirt and pack in a base of crushed angular gravel. The gravel locks together. It holds the weight and keeps the marker level.
Lawn Chemical Stains
Landscaping crews use a lot of weed killers and fertilizers around here. They spray right up to the stone.
These chemicals can burn the stone surface. They leave white, hazy spots or yellow streaks on the base. Water won't remove a chemical burn. We use neutralizing agents for cleaning stone gravestones. We draw the chemicals out of the pores. We restore the natural color of the granite.
String Trimmer Damage
The crews move fast. They hit the stones with string trimmers (weed eaters). It happens constantly.
The line whips wet grass against the stone. It drives chlorophyll deep into the pores, leaving a bright green stain. Sometimes, the plastic line melts onto the rock, leaving a black mark. We use organic stain removers. We lift the green pigment out. We clean off the melted plastic so the edges look sharp again.
Lichen on Rough Granite
On older markers, especially those with rough-cut edges, lichen digs in. It looks like gray or green scabs.
It eats the minerals in the rock. If you pull it off dry, you rip out tiny pieces of stone. It leaves pits. We soak it first. We make the lichen let go. Then we brush it off gently. This prevents the stone from looking pitted and damaged.
Winter Salt Spray
In winter, Route 40 is heavily salted. That salt spray drifts onto the roadside plots.
Salt soaks into the stone and crystallizes. It breaks the stone from the inside. We call it spalling. We use a drawing poultice for grave site cleaning services. We suck the salt out of the masonry. We flush it clean to stop the stone from crumbling.