Industrial Carbon Crust
Pennsylvania steel and coal mills pumped smoke for decades. That pollution formed a hard "black crust" on our older cemeteries.
This stuff is harder than the stone itself. It bonds to the surface. Rain does not wash it off. If you try to chip it away, you take the face of the stone with it. We use heavy restoration cleaners for cleaning stone gravestones. We soften the crust chemically. It melts into a black run-off that we hose away. The stone underneath is finally visible again.
Freeze-Thaw Splitting
Our winter weather destroys granite. We get rain during the day and hard frost at night.
Rain fills the hairline cracks in the marker. When it freezes, the ice acts like a wedge. It pushes the stone apart from the inside. We see faces of monuments popped right off. We inspect for these cracks constantly. We seal them with flexible epoxy. We keep the water out so the ice cannot break the stone.
Groundhog Burrows
Groundhogs are a plague in PA. They dig tunnels under the flat concrete foundations of headstones to stay dry.
They empty out the dirt, and the monument tips over into the hole. Shoveling dirt back in is useless; they dig it out the next night. During cemetery plot maintenance, we pack the hole with sharp, angular gravel. Groundhogs hate digging in sharp rock. They move on to easier ground, and the foundation stays solid.
Historic Slate Peeling
We have many slate markers from the 1700s. Slate is made of layers. Age and water separate them.
The stone opens up like an old book. We call this delamination. A pressure washer will blow these layers apart and ruin the grave. We work by hand only. For tombstone repair and restoration, we inject stone adhesive into the gaps. We clamp the layers tight until the glue cures. This stops the decay.
Oak Tannin Stains
Oaks are the dominant tree here. Their leaves and acorns sit on flat markers all winter.
Rotting leaves leak tannin. It leaves a dark brown stain. It looks like coffee, but it is acidic. It eats into marble surfaces. Scrubbing fails because the stain soaks deep into the pores. We use a poultice for grave site cleaning services. We cover the spot and suck the brown stain out chemically.
Moss and Lichen
Our valleys are humid and shady. Moss grows thick on the base of monuments.
Moss holds water against the stone. It rots the surface over time. Pulling it off dry rips up the stone grain. We use biological treatments for professional headstone cleaning services. We kill the moss. It dries up and falls off with a stiff brush.
Acid Rain Damage
Decades of factory smoke made the rain acidic. Historic marble markers took the hit.
The acid ate the soft stone. The lettering melted away. The names are blurry. We can't replace the missing stone, but we can stop the rot. We apply a stone consolidant. It soaks in and hardens the surface. This keeps the remaining inscription legible.
