Restoring Stone in the Capital City
Lansing is built where the Grand River meets the Red Cedar. It is a wet town with a heavy industrial past. That combination destroys masonry.
Walk through Mt. Hope or Evergreen. You see limestone blackened by factory smoke and granite turned green by river algae. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me often think the damage is permanent. It usually isn't. It is just dirty. We strip off the layers of carbon and biological growth to get back to the original stone.
Industrial Carbon Buildup
Lansing is a car town. For decades, the assembly plants pumped smoke into the air. That carbon settled on the cemeteries.
It forms a hard black crust on the limestone. Rain runs right over it. You can't scrub it off; it is part of the surface now. We use a chemical poultice. It is a paste that sits on the stone and dissolves the carbon binder. We rinse it away, and the stone turns from black back to white.
River Valley Humidity
The Grand and Red Cedar rivers trap moisture here. The cemeteries stay damp long after sunrise.
That constant dampness breeds moss on the north sides of monuments. It holds water against the stone. In January, that water freezes and splits the rock. We don't scrape the moss. We kill it with a biocide. The plant dies and falls off, leaving the stone clean and safe from freeze damage.
Erosion on the Hills
Mt. Hope Cemetery is famous for its rolling terrain. It looks good, but gravity works against the monuments.
Rain washes the soil out from under the bases. We see heavy stones tipping downhill or sliding off their foundations. Propping them up is a waste of time. To fix it, we dig a level shelf into the hillside. We install a deep pad of angular gravel that locks in place. This gives the monument a flat, draining base that won't slide.
Road Salt Damage
Lansing uses a lot of salt in the winter. For cemeteries near busy roads like Cedar Street, that salt spray hits the stones.
Salt eats concrete and limestone. It causes the surface to flake off (spalling). We wash the salt out of the stone pores. If the damage is deep, we use a patching mortar to seal the voids.
Tree Sap and Bird Droppings
The old sections have huge trees. That means sap and bird droppings cover the stones.
Bird droppings are acidic. If they sit on polished granite, they burn the finish. You get dull, etched spots. We clean these off to stop the acid. If the burn is deep, the shine is dead, but we can stop the corrosion. Sap turns into black tar spots that attract dirt. We use a solvent to lift the sap out of the pores.
Sugaring Limestone
The pioneer markers here are made of soft limestone. Acid rain breaks down the binder. The stone turns to sand.
If you rub the surface, it crumbles. We treat these gently. We use a consolidant. It soaks deep into the porous rock and locks everything in place. It stops the dusting and keeps the name from washing away.
Bronze Oxidation
Humidity attacks the bronze markers in the memorial parks. They turn chalky green.
The factory coating fails. We strip it off. We clean the bronze down to the bare metal and remove the green corrosion. Then we apply a new clear coat. It seals the metal and brings back the dark gold color.
Service Costs in Lansing
Pricing depends on the job. Stabilizing a sliding monument on a hill costs more than washing a flat marker. We inspect the site to give you a solid quote.
- Carbon Removal: Stripping industrial soot from historic stones.
- Leveling: Fixing sliding stones on hillsides.
- Biological Cleaning: Killing moss and algae near the rivers.
- Salt Removal: Washing road salt out of roadside markers.
