Headstone Cleaning Services & Grave Care in Ann Arbor, MI

Maintenance in "Tree Town"

Ann Arbor is heavily wooded. Big trees create massive shade canopies. That shade destroys headstones. Cemeteries like Forest Hill also feature steep hills. Families looking for headstone cleaning services near medeal with sliding bases, thick moss, and sticky sap. We fix the physical hillside foundations first. Then we strip the organic damage off the stone.

Hillside Erosion and Sliding Monuments

Gravity pulls everything downhill. Heavy rain washes the dirt out from under the front of the monuments. You see 500-pound granite bases tipping forward or sliding down the slope.

Shoving loose dirt under a leaning stone fails. For proper leaning headstone repair, we dig a flat shelf directly into the hillside. We pack a deep pad of crushed angular gravel. The gravel locks together and drains the water. The stone sits level and stops sliding.

Tree Sap and Leaf Tannins

The massive oaks and maples drop debris all year. Sticky sap lands on porous limestone. Dirt sticks to it, turning into hard black tar spots. Wet leaves rot on the base and bleed brown tannins deep into the rock.

Soap does not remove tannins. We mix a specialized chemical poultice paste. We trowel it over the stains. The paste pulls the sticky sap and the brown pigment straight out of the rock pores. We wash the dry paste off, exposing the clean stone.

Moss and Heavy Shade

The tree canopy blocks the sun. The stones never dry out. Moss takes over the damp granite. Moss holds water against the rock all year long.

When winter hits, that trapped water freezes and splits the stone. We spray a commercial root killer. The chemicals destroy the moss. The plant dies, dries out, and washes away in the rain.

Acidic Bird Droppings

Big trees hold birds. Bird droppings are highly acidic. When they sit on polished granite, the acid etches the factory finish.

"Customer service is top notch and the finished work product is excellent. My grandparents headstone is looking like new. Definitely recommend their service"

— Joyce, Tending Client

You get dull, burned spots on the shiny stone. We apply chemical neutralizers. This stops the acid from eating deeper into the rock. We wash the residue away to protect the remaining polish.

Sugaring Pioneer Limestone

The older sections use soft limestone markers. Acid rain eats the natural binder inside the rock. The face turns into loose sand. We call this sugaring.

If you scrub sugaring limestone, the carved name wipes right off. We treat these stones carefully. We brush a liquid consolidant into the rock. It soaks deep and hardens the loose sand. It locks the inscription in place so it survives the winter.

Huron River Humidity

The river keeps the air damp on the north side of town. The high humidity feeds black mildew on the older marble statues and markers.

We refuse to use wire brushes. Wire bristles destroy old marble. We soak the stone with a biocide. The chemicals kill the mildew spores. We rinse the dead gray sludge away with low pressure.

Restoring Bronze Plaques

The humidity and tree debris ruin flat bronze markers. The protective clear coat fails. The copper alloy turns into a chalky green crust.

We do full bronze marker restoration right at the cemetery. We strip the dead lacquer. We scrub the green corrosion down to bare metal. We spray a dark background, sand the letters bright, and spray a heavy UV clear coat.

Service Logistics and Pricing

We do not do on-site estimates. We operate a flat-rate subscription model. The price is strictly based on the size and type of the marker. You check your exact cost instantly on our online configurator at pay.tending.app. You book the work, and we head to the cemetery.