The Deep Freeze
The frost line in North Dakota is no joke. In some winters, the ground freezes six feet down. That puts incredible pressure on anything buried in the soil. Concrete foundations snap like chalk.
We see huge monuments lifted five inches out of the ground or tilted sideways. You can't just push them back down. For tombstone repair and restoration, we have to excavate. We rip out the broken concrete and install a deep, gravel-packed footer. We have to get below that frost line. We give the water a way to drain so the ice can't grab the stone and heave it up next winter.
Red River "Gumbo" Clay
In the east, we deal with the Red River Valley soil. It’s heavy, black gumbo clay. Wet gumbo is slick like grease and heavy as lead. But when the summer heat hits, that clay dries out hard and cracks open.
It pulls right away from the foundation, leaving a gap. This destabilizes headstones. We often find them sinking unevenly. To fix it, we replace that unstable clay around the base with crushed rock. We build a solid pad that doesn't shift every time it rains, keeping the monument level.
Bakken Oil Field Grime
Out west in the Bakken, the air is different. There is a lot of dust from the trucks and soot from the flares. That industrial grime settles on the cemeteries.
This isn't normal dirt. It is greasy. You can't just wipe it off; that just spreads the black film around. It bakes onto the polish and kills the shine completely. We use a heavy-duty degreaser for our headstone cleaning services. It cuts through that oil film. We let it dwell, then rinse it clean. The stone goes from a dull gray back to a deep, shiny black.
The Prairie Wind
There aren't many trees to stop the wind here. It picks up grit from the fields and blasts the cemeteries constantly. Over decades, that wind acts like sandpaper on the soft marble and limestone markers.
We see stones where the edges are rounded off and the names are worn smooth. Pressure washing is the worst thing you can do here. It blows away the little stone that's left. We use soft bristles and stone consolidants. We carefully pick the dirt out of the engraving to make the name pop. Then we apply a consolidant. It toughens the stone up against the wind.
Flooding and Water Lines
When the Red River swells in the spring, it puts the lower cemeteries underwater. When that water finally recedes, it leaves a dirty brown line across the monuments. That river mud stains deep into the pores.
Scrubbing with soap usually doesn't touch it. The silt is too fine. We use a specialized poultice that draws the mud out. We apply the paste over the stain and cover it. As it dries, it pulls the brown river muck out of the stone. We hose it down, and that stubborn brown line finally lifts out.
Lichen on Rough Granite
Granite handles our brutal weather better than marble, but those jagged "rock pitch" edges are a problem. The rough texture creates a perfect hideout for lichen. It digs in deep.
Wire brushes damage the stone. We use a biological solution. We soak the lichen, and it kills the root system. Over a week or two, the dead growth releases its grip and falls off. We get the stone clean without having to take a wire brush to it and chip those granite crystals.
Agricultural "Snirt"
We deal with "snirt" every winter. That dirty snow blows off the plowed fields and piles up on the markers. When it melts, it leaves a nasty scum of mud and fertilizer behind.
This stuff bakes onto the stone in the summer sun. It creates a hard, gray haze. We use plenty of water and soft scrapers to lift that crust. As part of our grave site cleaning services, we remove that seasonal buildup so the polish can shine again.
Sugar Beet Dust
During beet harvest, the trucks kick up a unique kind of dust. It is sticky. It lands on the markers and turns into a gluey mess when the morning dew hits it.
If you leave it, it attracts mold. We use a gentle detergent to break down that organic binder. We wash the sticky film away. For cleaning stone gravestones, we ensure all that sugar residue is gone so the stone stays clean longer.
