Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Oklahoma City

Scrubbing Red Dirt and Fixing Sunken Markers in OKC

Oklahoma City has a red dirt problem. The soil here is full of iron. The wind picks it up and blasts it against the headstones in Fairlawn and Rose Hill. When that red dust gets wet, it turns into a rusty paste. It soaks into the pores of white marble and grey granite. It dyes the stone orange.

The ground is tricky, too. We have heavy red clay. Wet clay is heavy and sticky. In August, it turns into concrete. This ground moves constantly. It tips upright monuments and sucks flat markers down into the mud. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to get that stubborn red stain out and to pull their family markers out of the clay.

Removing Red Dirt Stains

You cannot wash the Oklahoma red dirt off with dish soap. The red color is iron oxide—rust. It bonds to the stone. If you scrub it, you just push the rust deeper into the grain.

We treat it like a rust stain. We use a specialized chemical that neutralizes iron. We apply it to the orange discoloration. It turns the rust purple, then clear. We rinse it away. It usually takes a few rounds to pull decades of red dust out of the stone, but we get the natural color back.

Sinking in "Red Gumbo" Clay

The clay here is heavy and sticky. We call it gumbo. In the spring rains, it gets soft. Heavy markers sink. In the summer drought, the ground shrinks and leaves the stone uneven.

We stop the sinking by replacing the base. We dig the marker out. We remove the red clay. We fill the hole with crushed granite or limestone gravel. We tamp it down hard. Gravel doesn't shrink in the heat or get soft in the rain. We set the stone on this solid pad, and it stays level.

Windblown Dust in Engravings

The wind here acts like a sandblaster. It drives fine red dust into the lettering. Rain packs it in tight. On many older stones, the letters are filled flush with the surface. You can't read the name.

We clean the letters out by hand. We use steam to soften the packed mud. Then we use picking tools to clear the debris from deep inside the carving. We flush it clean. The shadow returns to the letters, and the inscription pops out again.

Sun-Damaged Bronze

The Oklahoma sun is brutal. It burns the clear coat right off. Once the metal is bare, it turns ugly. It gets chalky and green.

We restore the finish. We strip the old, baked-on coating. We clean the metal down to the raw bronze. We heat the metal to get it bone dry. Then we spray a heavy-duty clear coat. This seals the bronze so the sun can't get to it.

Hard Water Irrigation Scale

Cemeteries water the grass heavily to fight the heat. The water here leaves mineral deposits. We see thick white lines across the bottom of the stones where the sprinklers hit. It looks like white paint.

We dissolve the minerals. We apply a buffered acidic cleaner to the white crust. It fizzes as it eats the calcium. We scrub the residue away. This reveals the polish underneath without scratching the stone.

Lichens on Sandstone

Older cemeteries like Fairlawn have many sandstone markers. They are soft and porous. Lichen loves them. It grows in patches that eat the stone face.

We are careful with sandstone. We kill the lichen with a biocide. We let it die and release its grip. We rinse it gently. We never use high pressure or stiff brushes on sandstone; it would turn the marker to sand.

Fixing Mower Damage

Grounds crews move fast. They hit the stones. We see black rubber marks on flat markers and fresh chips on the corners of uprights.

We wipe the rubber marks off with a solvent. We use diamond pads to grind the sharp edges down. The missing piece is gone for good, so we smooth the damage out. It blends in and prevents future chipping.

Service Costs in OKC

Removing deep iron stains takes expensive chemicals. Digging a marker out of dried clay takes hard labor. We need to see the job to price it. Use our online pricing tool. Pick the cemetery, show us the stone, and we give you a quote.