Route 13 Diesel Film
Smyrna sits right on Route 13. The traffic never stops. The exhaust from cars and heavy trucks settles on the cemeteries next to the highway.
It creates a greasy, black layer on the headstones. This isn't just dust. It is sticky road soot. Rain won't clean it; the water just runs over the grease. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me often think the stone is fading. It isn't. It is covered in traffic grime. We use industrial degreasers. We strip that oily film off. The granite shines again once the soot is gone.
Lake Como Humidity and Moss
We are surrounded by water here—Lake Como and Duck Creek. The fog hangs low in the morning. The stones stay wet for hours.
This dampness breeds thick green moss. It grows in the lettering and on the tops of the markers. It holds water against the stone, which freezes and cracks the granite in winter. We don't scrape it dry. That scratches the stone. We use a biological cleaner. We kill the moss roots. It dries up and falls off, leaving the stone clean and safe.
Fertilizer Dust and Algae
Smyrna is still farm country. When the fields are plowed, dust full of fertilizer blows into town. It lands on the damp headstones.
That fertilizer feeds the algae. We see green slime growing here faster than anywhere else. It covers the names completely. If you just scrub it, you are wasting your time. It grows back in a week. We use a biocide that kills the algae completely. We stop the food source so the growth stays away longer.
Bird Droppings and Acid Etch
We are right next to the wildlife refuge. The birds are a constant problem. Their droppings are highly acidic.
If a dropping sits on a marble marker, it burns the polish. It leaves a rough, dull spot. We clean these immediately. We neutralize the acid. We can't fix deep etching without re-polishing, but we stop the damage from getting deeper.
Sinking in River Soil
Near Duck Creek, the ground is soft and sandy. It shifts when the water table rises. Heavy monuments don't stay level.
We see stones tipping sideways or sinking straight down. Adding dirt on top is a waste of time. During cemetery plot maintenance, we lift the monument. We dig out the soft sand and install a base of angular gravel. The gravel locks together. It supports the weight even when the ground is wet.
Historic Stone Fragility
In older spots like St. Peter's, we have markers from the 1800s. The stone is old and brittle.
Pressure washing these is dangerous. It can blow the face right off the stone. We clean them by hand. We use soft brushes and gentle surfactants. We remove the grime carefully. We make the inscription readable again without destroying the history.
Winter Salt Spray
Route 13 gets salted heavily in winter. The spray drifts onto the roadside graves.
Salt soaks into the stone and crystallizes inside. It pushes the stone apart. We call this spalling. You see the surface flaking off. We use a drawing poultice for grave site cleaning services. We suck the salt out of the pores. We flush the stone to stop the chemical rot.
Lichen on Rough Granite
On the rough edges of modern stones, 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 with specialized tools for cleaning stone gravestones. This prevents the stone from looking pitted.
