Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Edmond

Cleaning Red Dirt and Saving Crumbling Sandstone in Edmond

The soil in Edmond is red. It stains everything. In Gracelawn and Memorial Park, the wind blows this iron-rich dust against the headstones every day. When it rains, that dust turns into liquid rust. It soaks into the white marble and grey granite. It turns them orange.

The other issue is the age of the stones. Gracelawn has markers from the 1890s. Many are made of soft red sandstone. They are falling apart. The wind erodes the face, and the stone turns back into sand. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to stop that erosion and to get the stubborn red mud out of the fine engravings.

Removing the "Oklahoma Red" Stain

You can't wash Edmond red dirt off with water. The color comes from iron oxide. It is rust. It bonds to the stone. If you use a pressure washer, you just drive the stain deeper.

We treat it chemically. We use a cleaner that targets iron. We brush it onto the orange discoloration. It reacts with the rust. The stain turns purple, then it releases from the stone. We rinse it away. It often takes two or three passes to pull a hundred years of red dirt out of a porous marker.

Consolidating Soft Sandstone

The pioneer graves in Gracelawn are fragile. The sandstone is soft. If you touch it, red sand comes off on your hand. The lettering is fading away because the surface is shedding.

We stop the shedding. We clean the stone very gently—no stiff brushes. Then we saturate it with a consolidant. This fluid soaks deep into the rock and hardens. It acts like a glue. It bonds the loose sand grains back together. The stone becomes solid again. This saves the inscription from being lost to the wind.

Restoring Bronze in Memorial Park

Memorial Park is massive. It has thousands of flat bronze markers. The sun beats down on them. The clear coat peels off. The metal turns dull and green. It looks abandoned.

We refinish the bronze on-site. We strip the failed coating and the green corrosion. We scrub the metal down to the bare, brown bronze. We heat it with torches to remove moisture. Then we apply a heavy-duty clear coat. This seals the metal and makes it look new again.

Digging Out Sunken Markers

The clay soil here moves. It heaves in the rain and cracks open in the heat. Flat markers sink. The grass grows over them, and they disappear.

We locate the buried stone. We cut the sod and lift the marker out. We don't put it back on the clay. We dig the hole deeper and fill it with crushed gravel. We tamp the gravel down hard. This base drains water and doesn't move. We set the stone on top, flush with the ground.

Cleaning Impacted Engravings

The wind packs dust into the letters. Rain turns it to mud. The sun bakes it hard. On granite stones, the letters get filled in completely.

We pick the dirt out. We use steam to soften the mud. Then we use wooden or plastic picks to clear every letter. We flush the debris out. The shadow returns to the carving, and you can read the name again.

Hard Water Scale Removal

Irrigation keeps the cemetery green, but the water leaves calcium deposits. We see thick white lines across the stones. It looks like white cement.

We use a buffered acid cleaner to dissolve the calcium. It fizzes as it works. We scrub the residue off. It reveals the polish underneath without scratching the stone.

Fixing Mower Damage

Maintenance crews have to mow fast. They hit the stones. We see black rubber marks on flat markers and chips on the corners of upright monuments.

We clean the tire marks with a solvent. For the chips, we use diamond pads. We grind the sharp, broken edge until it is smooth. We can't replace the missing chunk, but we can make the damage look intentional and finished.

Ant Mound Repair

Fire ants build nests under the stones. They push the dirt out. The stone loses support and can crack under a mower.

We lift the stone and remove the nest. We fill the void with gravel. Ants don't like gravel. They move somewhere else, and the stone stays supported.

Service Costs in Edmond

Consolidating crumbling sandstone takes expensive materials. Stripping bronze takes time. We need to see the stone to give you a price. Use our online pricing tool. Pick the cemetery, upload a photo, and we give you a quote.