Red Clay Iron Staining
Tallahassee soil is heavy red clay. It is full of iron oxide. Rain splashes this red mud onto the base of the monument.
Granite and marble are porous. They absorb this muddy water. The iron dries inside the stone pores. It bonds with the rock. It creates a deep orange stain that looks like rust. If you use a pressure washer, you drive the clay deeper. It becomes permanent.
If you are looking for headstone cleaning services near me because the marker base is orange, this is iron absorption. Standard soap fails here. We use specific cleaning stone gravestones chemistry. We apply a chelating paste. This chemical acts like a magnet for iron. It pulls the rust particles out of the stone pores and into the paste. We rinse it away to reveal the clean natural stone.
Canopy Shade and Lichen
Huge Live Oak trees shade Tallahassee cemeteries. The sun rarely hits the markers directly. The stone stays cool and damp. This is the perfect environment for lichen.
Lichen is a fungus that digs into the rock. It grows in crusty, green patches. It eats the surface of the stone. If you scrape it off, you damage the finish. We use industrial grave site cleaning services. We apply a biological inhibitor. It soaks into the lichen crust. It kills the organism at the root level. The crust turns to dust and washes off in the rain. The stone stays clean because the roots are dead.
Hillside Soil Slide
Tallahassee terrain is hilly. Many cemeteries sit on slopes. The soil moves downhill slowly. We call this "creep."
The moving dirt pushes the monument. The foundation tilts downhill. The marker leans and eventually falls over. Adding dirt to the high side is useless. If you need tombstone repair and restoration, we excavate the base. We install a deep pad of angular gravel. We lock it into the hillside. This creates a friction pile that resists the slide. It keeps the monument level even as the topsoil moves. Our cemetery plot maintenance teams check the level of these markers every year.
Bronze Shade Corrosion
Tree canopies trap humidity near the ground. Moisture settles on bronze plaques and stays there all day. It never dries out completely.
This standing water eats the protective coating on the metal. The bronze oxidizes. It turns green and chalky. This corrosion fills the lettering and makes it unreadable. We use specific cleaning bronze cemetery markers techniques. We strip the green oxidation chemically. We apply a clear lacquer sealant. This creates a waterproof shield. It keeps the moisture off the metal and stops the rot.