Construction Dust and Clay Crust
Middletown is booming. There is construction everywhere. The heavy equipment kicks up tons of red dust. That dust settles on the cemeteries every day.
When the morning dew hits that dust, it turns into a hard clay paste. It dries onto the granite like cement. You can't just hose it off. It sticks to the polish. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me think the stone is stained forever. It's just caked-on construction grime. We use safe surfactants to soften that clay crust. We lift it off without scratching the mirror finish of the stone.
Fertilizer-Fed Algae
We are still surrounded by corn and soy fields. When farmers spray, the wind carries fertilizer dust right into town. It lands on the damp headstones.
That fertilizer feeds the algae. We see green growth here that is thicker and tougher than anywhere else. It covers the names completely. Scrubbing it is a waste of time; the roots are fed by the nitrates. We use a biological cleaner that kills the algae and neutralizes the food source. We stop the growth from coming back so fast.
Deep Shade at Old St. Anne's
Old St. Anne's is full of massive oak trees. They create a total canopy. The sun never hits the ground. The stones stay wet and dark.
This creates a mess of moss and lichen. They form thick mats on the historic markers. The roots dig into the old stone. We clean these with extreme caution. No pressure washers. We use soft bristles. We kill the growth chemically so it falls off. We don't scrub hard enough to damage the 300-year-old surface.
Sinking in Loose Soil
This land was farmland for a long time. The soil is soft and loose. Heavy monuments don't stand a chance. They sink right into the ground.
We see headstones tipping over or sinking straight down until the dates are buried. Adding dirt on top doesn't work; the stone just pushes it away. During cemetery plot maintenance, we lift the monument. We dig out the soft topsoil and pack in a heavy gravel foundation. The gravel locks together. It keeps the monument level, even in soft ground.
Irrigation Hard Water Spots
In the newer memorial parks, they water the grass constantly. That water hits the stones.
When it dries in the summer sun, it leaves hard white spots. That is calcium from the water. It bonds to the stone surface. A regular brush won't touch it. We use mineral solvents for cleaning stone gravestones. We dissolve the calcium scale chemically. The haze disappears, and the inscription becomes sharp again.
Bird Droppings and Acid
The big trees and open fields mean lots of birds. Bird droppings are highly acidic.
If a dropping sits on a marble marker for a week, it burns a rough spot into the polish. We see these etched spots all the time. We clean the droppings immediately. We can't fix deep etching, but we clean the area to stop the acid from eating deeper into the stone.
Lichen on Rough Stone
On the rough-cut sides of granite markers, 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. 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.