Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Butte

Cleaning Smelter Soot and Stabilizing Slopes in Butte

Butte is hard on stone. The old smelters put smoke in the air for years, and that smoke was full of acid. It ruined the old marble at St. Patrick’s and Mount Moriah. Those markers aren't white now. They are grey and covered in a hard black scab that water won't touch.

The other problem is the hill itself. Butte cemeteries are steep. They are built on terraces held up by old retaining walls. When the walls get weak, the ground moves. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to strip that mining grime off the family stone or to reset a marker that is sliding down the slope.

The "Smoke" and Sulfur Damage

The old timers talk about the smoke blocking out the sun. That smoke turned polished marble into something that feels like sandpaper. It also left a heavy black stain on the granite and limestone.

You can't just pressure wash this history off. The stone underneath is soft and damaged ("sugaring"). We use a specialized paste. We cover the black stain and let the paste do the work. It pulls the grime out of the pores. We rinse it gently. We can't fix the pitting caused by the acid, but we can get the stone clean again.

Sliding on Steep Slopes

Gravity pulls everything down eventually. The dirt on these hills moves slow, but it moves. It drags the stones with it. We find big granite markers that have tipped over or slid huge distances from where they started.

Fixing this is hard work. We have to dig out the foundation and build a level shelf. We use crushed rock to lock the base in place so it stops moving. On the really steep sections, we sometimes have to reinforce the ground around it to keep the hill from sliding further.

Hard Rock Lichen

Butte is known for its granite. The local grey granite is hard, but it’s rough. Lichen loves that rough surface. We see bright orange and yellow growth covering the names on the older monuments.

If you scrape that lichen, you’ll scratch the stone. We spray it with a biocide to kill it. It turns into dry dust. Then we use a stiff brush to clean it out of the lettering. It clears up the inscription so you can read the Irish names again.

Mining Dust and Grit

The wind blows a lot of grit around the hill. It packs into the engravings. On a flat marker, this dirt turns into a hard plug that fills the letters flush to the surface.

We pick this out by hand. We use wooden picks to dig the mud out of the dates and names. It’s the only way to get the contrast back without chipping the edges of the letters.

Service Costs in Butte

Working in Butte is harder than working on a flat lawn. We are often fighting gravity and rocky ground. Cleaning century-old smelter stains takes expensive materials. I can't guess the price over the phone. Use our online tool. Pick the cemetery, tell us what needs doing, and you'll get the number.