Flint Hills Limestone Erosion
Native limestone is everywhere in Kansas cemeteries. It looks good when new, but it is soft. Acidic rain dissolves the binder holding the stone together.
The surface turns sandy. If you brush it with your hand, grains of stone fall off. We call this "sugaring." Pressure washing is destructive here; it blasts the lettering right off the face. We treat this carefully. We use a stone consolidant for tombstone repair and restoration. We soak the marker in a hardener that locks the grains back together. It stops the disintegration and saves the inscription.
Wheat Harvest Grime
Harvest season is messy. Combines kick up massive clouds of chaff and dust. It coats the cemeteries.
This dust mixes with plant sap. Morning dew turns it into a sticky paste on the headstones. Then the sun bakes it hard. It fills the letters with a concrete-like gray sludge. Rain does not wash it off. We use specific agricultural surfactants for grave site cleaning services. We dissolve the sap binder chemically. The grime rinses away without heavy scrubbing.
Wind Sandblasting
The wind out here carries grit constantly. It works exactly like a sandblaster. It hits the stone from the same direction year after year.
We see the polish stripped off on the windward side. The names become faint and fuzzy. You cannot re-polish a monument in the field. But we can stop the wear. During cleaning stone gravestones, we apply a breathable barrier. It takes the abuse from the wind so the stone doesn't have to. It keeps the lettering sharp.
Freeze-Thaw Spalling
Kansas winters break stone. We get wet snow that melts and then freezes hard at night. Water sits in hairline cracks in the base.
Ice pushes the stone apart from the inside. It pops the face of the granite off in chunks. We call this spalling. You cannot fix spalling; you can only stop it from starting. Once the face falls off, the stone is ruined. We inspect for cracks at every visit. We seal them tight to keep the water out.
Black Algae Slime
In Eastern Kansas, humidity is high enough to feed black algae. It thrives on porous limestone and sandstone.
It forms a slick, black layer over the marker. It looks like soot, but it is alive. It makes the stone slippery and hides the dates. Bleach damages the stone surface. We use biological cleaners for professional headstone cleaning services. We kill the organism down to the root. It loses its grip on the stone and falls off naturally.
Clay Ground Movement
The ground here heaves in winter and cracks wide open in summer. This movement destroys concrete foundations.
It snaps the base or causes the monument to lean severely. We often see headstones sinking into the mud. Adding topsoil is useless; the ground just eats it up. We excavate the bad soil. We install a pad of angular gravel that locks together. This stabilizes the monument against the ground movement.
Hard Lichen Growth
Out west, the air is dry and clean. Hard lichen grows on the rocks. It looks like colorful paint splatters.
These organisms dig roots into the mineral grain. If you scrape them off dry, you pull up divots of stone. It leaves the surface pitted. We use a soaking agent during cemetery plot maintenance. It kills the lichen so it releases safely. We rinse it away without damaging the polish.