Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Stillwater

Cleaning Payne County Red Dirt and Tree Sap in Stillwater

Stillwater is the capital of Red Dirt country. The clay here is distinct. It is bright red, heavy, and sticky. In cemeteries like Fairlawn and Sunset Memorial Gardens, this dirt causes two big problems. First, it stains the granite and marble a deep orange. Second, the ground moves constantly, swallowing flat markers whole.

The older parts of town have massive oak trees shading the graves. This looks nice, but trees drop sap and pollen. This sticky mess mixes with the red dust and bakes onto the stone. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to scrub that black crust off and to pull the red iron stains out of the porous stone.

Removing Deep Red Iron Stains

The red color in the dirt is iron oxide. It rusts the stone. Soap and water won't touch it. The iron is deep inside the grain. Bleach makes it worse; it locks the rust in for good.

We use a chemical that hunts down iron. We apply it to the orange stone. It reacts with the rust and turns purple. That means it is working. We rinse it away. Sometimes we have to do this three times to get a century of Payne County clay out of a white marble marker.

Digging Out Markers from Sticky Clay

The clay here heaves when it rains and cracks deep when it dries. This motion works the stones loose. Flat markers sink. We often have to probe the ground with a metal rod just to find them.

We dig the marker out of the mud. We scrape the back clean. We don't put it back on the dirt. We dig deeper and put in a bed of crushed gravel. We tamp it solid. Gravel drains the water away, so the stone sits flat and doesn't sink again.

Cleaning Sticky Tree Sap

The big oaks in Fairlawn drip sap all summer. It lands on the headstones. Dust sticks to it. It hardens into black bumps that look like tar.

Water won't touch it. We use a solvent made to dissolve organic resins. We soak the spots until they turn liquid again. Then we wipe them off. This gets the stone clean without using a wire brush that would scratch the polish.

Windblown Dust in Engravings

The wind drives that fine red dust into the lettering on the monuments. Rain turns it into mud. The summer heat turns it into concrete. We see names that are totally flush with the stone surface.

We clean this by hand. We use steam to loosen the plug. Then we pick the dirt out of every letter. We flush it clean. The inscription becomes sharp and readable again.

Restoring Sun-Damaged Bronze

Sunset Memorial Gardens has many bronze markers. The sun destroys the protective coating. The metal oxidizes and turns green. It looks neglected.

We refinish them. We strip the old coating and the corrosion. We get down to the clean metal. We remove moisture with heat. Then we spray a new architectural clear coat. This seals the bronze and stops the oxidation.

Hard Water Scale Removal

Sprinklers keep the grass alive, but they coat the stones in calcium. We see a thick white haze on the polished granite. It hides the name.

We dissolve it. We use an acidic cleaner. We brush it on, and it fizzes as it eats the minerals. We rinse it quickly. The stone looks polished again once the crust is gone.

Lichen on Sandstone

We see lichen growing on the rough bases of monuments and on older sandstone markers. It eats into the rock.

We kill it with a biocide. We soak the growth. It dies and lets go of the stone. We wash it away. This stops the stone from crumbling.

Fixing Mower Damage

Mowers run close to the stones. We see tire marks on flat markers and chipped edges on upright bases.

We clean the tire rubber with a solvent. For chips, we grind the sharp edges down with diamond pads. We blend the damage into the stone. It stops the mower from catching that jagged edge again.

Service Costs in Stillwater

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