Traffic Grime at the Crossroads
Glasgow sits right where Route 40 crosses Route 896. It is a choke point. Trucks idle at the lights and blow diesel smoke right onto the roadside graves.
That exhaust coats the headstones in a greasy layer. This isn't normal dust. It is sticky diesel soot. Rain won't touch it. It just runs right over the oil, leaving the black grime behind. Families looking for headstone cleaning services near me see that dark stain and think the stone is ruined. It isn't. It is just suffocating under road grime. We use industrial degreasers. We cut through that oily layer. We strip the soot so the natural color of the stone comes back.
Sinking in Heavy Clay
The ground here is tough. It isn't sandy like the beach. It is heavy, sticky clay. It traps water. After a storm, the ground turns into soup.
Heavy monuments sink fast in this muck. We see headstones leaning or sinking until the inscription is buried. Adding topsoil is a mistake; the stone just pushes it out of the way. During cemetery plot maintenance, we hoist the stone out. We shovel out the wet clay and fill the hole with crushed rock. That rock packs down hard. It drains the water so the monument sits on a solid pad, not on mud.
Fertilizer and Green Algae
We still have active farmland right next to the highways. The wind carries dust mixed with fertilizer. It lands on the damp stones.
That dust feeds green algae and black mold. It grows thick and fast here. It eats into the pores of the stone. Scrubbing it with a brush just spreads the spores around. We use a biological cleaner. We kill the growth down to the root. We remove the food source so the stone stays clean longer.
Mower and Trimmer Damage
Landscaping crews move fast near the highways. We see a lot of "mower rash" on the base of monuments.
This happens when the mower deck hits the granite. It chips the stone or leaves a smear of metal and paint. String trimmers whip grass into the pores, leaving green stains. We fix this. We clean the green stains with organic solvents. We can't grow the stone back, but we can smooth out the rough chips to stop water from getting in.
Winter Salt Damage
Routes 40 and 896 are heavily salted in winter. The spray drifts onto the cemeteries near the road.
Salt soaks into the stone and dries. As it crystallizes, it expands. It pops the face of the stone off. We call this spalling. It looks like the stone is peeling. We use a drawing poultice for grave site cleaning services. We suck the salt out of the masonry pores. We flush it clean to stop the chemical rot.
Tree Sap and Pollen
In the older sections of Pencader Cemetery, big trees drop sap and pollen. The sap hardens on the stone like glue.
Dirt sticks to the sap, creating black spots. Water won't touch it. We use heavy-duty solvents for cleaning stone gravestones. We melt the resin chemically. The sticky mess wipes away, and the lettering becomes clear again.
Lichen on Rough Edges
On older markers with rough-cut sides (rock pitch), lichen digs in deep. 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.