Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in High Point

Piedmont Red Clay Staining

High Point sits on heavy red clay. Rain splashes this mud onto the granite bases, and the sun bakes it into a hard orange glaze.

This is iron oxide rust. Regular soap is useless against it. Pressure washing is the wrong move because it forces the red pigment deeper into the porous stone. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me often assume the stone is ruined. It isn't. We use a chemical neutralizer that targets the iron. It breaks the bond holding the rust in the rock. We wash the surface, and the orange stain washes away.

Furniture City Soot

For a century, High Point factories burned coal to power the furniture mills. That smoke settled on the historic cemeteries like Oakwood. It formed a hard, black carbon crust on the monuments.

This soot bonds to the rock. It resists standard cleaning. Scrubbing it mechanically ruins the polish. We use a chemical carbon-breaker. It dissolves the hardened soot layer safely. We rinse it away to show the original stone color that has been hidden for fifty years.

Hardwood Tannin Stains

The city is full of massive oaks and maples. They drop heavy layers of leaves on the flat markers. When these leaves rot, they release tannins.

This brown dye soaks deep into the grain of the granite. You can't just wipe this off; it is inside the stone. We use a poultice paste. We apply it over the stain. The paste draws the dye out of the rock as it hardens. When we peel the crust off, the stain lifts right out.

Lichen on Rough Granite

Lichen thrives on the older, rough-cut monuments here. It digs roots into the stone surface and eats the minerals.

Scraping lichen off a dry stone pulls up chips of the rock. We saturate the growth with a surfactant. This forces the lichen to let go. We brush it away gently. The stone gets clean without losing any surface material.

Ice Splitting and Cracks

Winter brings ice storms to the Piedmont. Water seeps into hairline cracks in the monuments. When it freezes, the ice expands and snaps the stone apart.

We see corners popped off bases and tablets split down the middle. We repair this with monument-grade epoxy. We inject the adhesive and clamp the stone tight. It cures to be stronger than the granite. This seals the crack so water can't get back in.

Sinking in Clay Soil

This ground doesn't stay put. Heavy rain turns it to mud, and the summer sun bakes it solid. That movement pushes stones out of level.

Markers lean or sink deep into the turf. We lift the monument out. We dig out the unstable dirt. We install a base of compacted gravel. Gravel doesn't hold water, so it packs tight and keeps the stone straight.

Lawn Mower Damage

In the larger memorial parks, landscaping crews move fast. We often find black rubber tire marks on the corners of flat markers.

The friction burns the rubber onto the stone face. You can't scrub it off with water. We use a solvent to break down the rubber residue chemically. Once the mark is gone, we trim the sod back from the stone edge. This creates a safety buffer for the mower tires, protecting the memorial from future hits.

Service Costs in High Point

We price based on the type of stone and the severity of the weathering:

We visit the grave. We check the condition. Then we give you a price.