Cleaning River Lichen and Leveling Stones in Rochester
Rochester might be the Lilac City, but the stones in the Franklin Street cemetery are mostly green. The Cocheco River keeps the air heavy here. That dampness settles on the granite and doesn't dry out. It feeds thick, crusty lichen that spreads across the face of the monuments and hides the inscriptions.
The other issue here is the ground. In the outer villages like Gonic and East Rochester, the soil is often sandy and soft. It shifts easily. Frost heaves push the upright stones over, and the flat markers sink deep into the ground. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to scrub off that heavy biological growth, lift the sunken markers, and reset the foundations that the winter frost wrecked.
Killing Heavy Lichen Growth
The lichen in Rochester is aggressive. It forms hard, round patches on the stone. It digs into the rough "rock-pitch" edges of the granite. You can't just scrape it off. If you do, you scratch the stone, and the roots stay alive in the pores.
We kill it with a liquid biocide. We soak the stone and let it work. The lichen dies and turns soft. Dead lichen loses its grip on the rock, so we can brush it away. The stone comes clean, and we didn't have to damage the surface to get it that way.
Resetting Tipped Monuments
The frost in Strafford County is strong. It lifts the ground unevenly. We see heavy granite monuments in St. Mary's that are leaning dangerously. If they tip too far, the pins snap, and the top falls off.
We fix the lean by digging out the bad soil. We hoist the stone out of the way. We remove the dirt that holds water and freezes. We replace it with crushed stone. This new base drains water away. The frost can't grab it, so the stone stays level.
Lifting Sunken Flat Markers
The sandy soil in the newer sections settles over time. Flat lawn markers sink. The grass grows over the edges, and soon the marker is gone. We find markers buried three inches deep.
We find the edges and cut the sod back. We pry the stone up. We pack the hole with gravel to give it a solid footing. We reset the marker flush with the turf. It sits on a stable pad, so it won't sink back down.
Cleaning "Sugaring" Marble
The older marble stones in the Franklin Street cemetery are fragile. The acid in the rain eats at the calcium. The surface gets rough and feels like sugar. It attracts dirt and turns black.
We clean these carefully. We use a gentle biological cleaner that lifts the dirt out of the rough surface without dissolving the stone. We don't scrub hard. We let the chemical do the work so we don't lose any more of the carving.
Service Costs in Rochester
We have flat-rate pricing for Rochester, Farmington, and Somersworth. We don't need to visit the cemetery to give you a price. Check our subscription builder to see the exact cost for your plot.
- Lichen Removal: Killing heavy biological growth.
- Leveling: Resetting frost-heaved monuments.
- Marker Lifting: Raising sunken flat stones.
- Marble Cleaning: Gentle cleaning for fragile stone.
