Gulf Salt & Sticky Mold
Largo sits in the salt zone. Gulf breezes carry chlorides. Salt sticks to granite. It pulls moisture from the air. The stone stays damp internally. This feeds Gloeocapsa magma (black algae).
You see a tar-like skin. It ruins the polish. It eats into the stone surface.
Searching for headstone cleaning services near me usually points to pressure washing. That is a mistake. Pressure drives salt deeper. It cracks the stone. We use industrial grave site cleaning services. We use a desalination poultice. It draws salt out. It kills mold roots chemically. The stone dries out. It stays clean.
Sugar Sand Washout
Pinellas County soil is fine "sugar sand." It flows like liquid when wet. Tropical storms dump inches of rain fast. Water rushes under the monument base. It scours the sand away.
The foundation floats on nothing. The monument tilts or sinks. Adding topsoil is a waste; it washes away in the next storm. For lasting tombstone repair and restoration, we stabilize the sub-base. We excavate the loose sand. We install angular gravel. The rocks lock together. They create a friction pile. This supports the weight, even in liquid mud.
Bronze Disease (Green Corrosion)
Salt air destroys bronze markers. The wind blasts the factory clear coat with sand. The seal fails. Salt attacks the raw copper. You get green, chalky rot. This is "Bronze Disease."
It pits the metal lettering. We use strict cleaning bronze cemetery markers protocols. We strip the dead coating. We neutralize the corrosion. We heat the metal and reseal it with heavy marine lacquer. This blocks the salt.
Internal Salt Spalling
Salt water soaks into stone pores. The sun dries it. The water leaves. The salt stays. It forms crystals inside the granite.
These crystals grow. They push against the rock from the inside. The face of the stone pops off. We call this spalling. We use professional cleaning stone gravestones chemistry to stop this. We apply a solution to dissolve internal salts. We flush them out before they shatter the face.
