Preserving the Limestone Capital
Bloomington is built on the Salem Limestone belt. We quarried the stone for the Empire State Building right here in Monroe County. You see that rock in every local cemetery.
Limestone acts like a sponge. It drinks water. In our woods, that wet stone grows black algae and mildew deep inside. You see it at Rose Hill and the plots near Lake Monroe. The stones turn pitch black. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me often think the stone is ruined. It isn't. We just need to kill the growth inside the rock to bring the white color back.
Cleaning Salem Limestone
The black crust on our local stone is stubborn. It isn't surface dirt; it is mildew living inside the rock.
A pressure washer destroys this stone. It cuts into the soft calcium and blows the lettering away. We don't use high pressure. We soak the stone in a biological cleaner. It kills the mildew inside the pores. We scrub the surface, rinse it down, and the sun bleaches the rest. The black turns back to gray.
The Forest Problem
Bloomington is covered in trees. Cemeteries like Knightridge or Valhalla are deep in the woods. The sun never hits those markers. They stay wet year-round.
That moisture grows heavy moss. Lichen digs roots into the stone face. If you pull it off dry, you rip chunks of stone out with it. We spray the growth to kill it first. It dies, turns brown, and lets go of the rock. Then we wash it away without damaging the monument.
Shifting Soil and Hills
Monroe County is full of hills and ravines. The ground moves. We see monuments sliding downhill or tipping over as the soil creeps.
Propping them up with a rock is a waste of time. For lasting tombstone repair and restoration, we fix the foundation. We dig out the unstable dirt and replace it with a pad of crushed angular gravel. This locks the base in place and drains the water. The stone stops moving.
Red Clay Stains
The dirt here is red clay. Heavy rain splashes that mud onto the bases of the headstones.
Limestone absorbs that red stain immediately. Soap is useless against iron stains. We plaster the stain with a chemical paste. It sucks the iron out of the rock. It takes patience, but we can pull that red discoloration out and clean up the base.
Repairing Broken Tablets
The pioneer cemeteries are full of thin "tablet" stones. They snap easily. Falling branches or shifting ground break them in half.
We fix these with structural epoxy and pins. We drill into the broken edges and insert rods. Then we use a color-matched mortar to fill the crack. When we are done, the stone stands up on its own, and the break is hard to see.
Restoring Bronze Markers
At the memorial parks, bronze markers turn green. Humidity and fertilizer eat the metal finish.
We restore the metal by hand. We strip the old clear coat and the green corrosion. We polish the raised lettering until the gold shine returns. Then we spray on a new sealant. This protects the bronze from the rain and sun.
Service Costs in Bloomington
The cost varies. Cleaning a small granite marker is quick. Repairing a broken limestone tablet or leveling a large monument on a hill takes more labor. We inspect the site to give you a fair price.
- Biological Cleaning: Killing mildew inside porous limestone.
- Leveling: Stabilizing monuments on hillsides.
- Stone Repair: Pinning and bonding broken tablets.
- Stain Removal: Drawing out red clay and organic stains.
