Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Bozeman

Cleaning Hard Water Scale and Lichen in the Gallatin Valley

Bozeman is high and dry. To keep the grass green at places like Sunset Hills, the cemeteries have to run the sprinklers constantly. That water is the biggest enemy of the headstones here. It leaves a white mineral haze that gets thicker every summer. Eventually, the black granite disappears under the calcium, and the memorial just looks like a dull grey rock.

The old trees in Lindley Park cause other problems. They drop sap, and they shade the stones. That shade lets lichen and moss grow thick on the older markers. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to strip that white sprinkler haze off the family memorial or to safely remove the lichen that is eating into the stone.

Hard Water Mineral Scale

This valley has hard water. In August, the sprinklers spray hot stones. The water flashes off, but the lime sticks. It builds up a hard white layer that hides the polish and fills in the lettering.

Soap and water won't move this. We use a specific cleaner to dissolve the minerals. We brush it on and watch it work. As soon as the white scale loosens up, we rinse it off. Speed matters. Acid cleaners will burn the polish if you leave them. We rinse the stone the second the scale dissolves.

Lichen on Historic Stones

Lichen grows well here. On the older sandstone and granite markers, you see it in yellow and orange patches. It looks like it is just sitting on the surface, but it digs deep. It holds water against the rock. When winter hits, that wet spot freezes and pops the face off the stone.

We never scrape lichen. If you scrape it, you pull pieces of the stone off with it. We kill it with a biological spray. The plant dies and releases its grip on the rock. Then we brush the dead material away with a soft brush.

Frost Heave in Valley Soil

Winter freezes the ground deep in Gallatin County. The soil swells up and lifts the markers. When spring comes, the ground settles, but the stone usually stays crooked. We see flat markers tipped sideways and uprights leaning over.

We fix this by fixing the foundation. We dig the stone out and remove the dirt that holds the water. We fill the hole with crushed gravel. Gravel doesn't shift when it freezes. It keeps the stone level year-round.

Bird Droppings and Tree Sap

The big trees in the older cemeteries bring birds and sap. Magpies and crows leave messes that are highly acidic. If bird droppings sit on a stone, they can etch the polish. The tree sap drips down and turns into hard black spots.

We clean this by hand. We soften the sap and the droppings with a gentle solvent so we can wipe them away. We don't scrub hard because that grinds the dirt into the polish. We float the dirt off to keep the stone shiny.

Service Costs in Bozeman

Removing heavy mineral scale takes expensive materials and time. Resetting a heavy monument in frozen or rocky ground is hard labor. We don't guess at the price. We have an online tool that gives you the exact numbers. You select the cemetery, choose the service, and you get the cost right there.