Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Cranston

Tight Quarters and Heavy Granite in Cranston

Cranston is home to St. Ann Cemetery. It is packed. The monuments here are huge, but they are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. There is almost no room to move between them. It’s a nightmare to navigate equipment through the rows without bumping into something.

We see two main issues here: damage from maintenance crews trying to squeeze between the stones, and aggressive vines choking out the older plots in places like Pocasset. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to buff out mower scuffs and to cut back the thick bittersweet vines that swallow entire monuments.

"Bumper Car" Damage from Mowers

In sections of St. Ann, the headstones are inches apart. Landscapers have to drive commercial mowers through these gaps. They hit the corners constantly. We see black rubber streaks transferred onto the granite, and jagged chips on the bases.

We use a solvent to dissolve the rubber marks without dulling the polish. For the chips, we can't grow the stone back. We grind the sharp edges down to make them smooth. It stops the stone from cracking further and looks deliberate rather than accidental.

Oriental Bittersweet Vines

We fight a lot of Oriental Bittersweet here. This vine is aggressive. It grabs onto the rough edges of the stone and digs in. The roots crawl underneath the base and get thick enough to actually tilt the monument.

You can't just yank these things off. The vines hold on tight. If you pull them while they are green, you will rip the mortar right out of the joints. We sever the vine at the bottom and kill the root. We leave the dead vine there for a few weeks until it turns brittle. After that, it crumbles right off without hurting the stone.

Haze on Polished Black Granite

St. Ann is full of high-end "Jet Black" monuments. You see them everywhere, especially with the laser-etched photos of loved ones. They look incredible until the sprinklers hit them.

The water here is full of calcium. It dries into a white crust on the stone. That crust clouds up the black granite, and the picture underneath it just vanishes. The portrait looks like a ghost. Glass cleaner doesn't work on this. We use a calcium breaker to strip the mineral layer. Then we apply a stone-specific conditioner. It darkens the black background so the white etching pops out clearly again.

Sinking Family Mausoleums

Cranston has many small private mausoleums. The soil shifts, and these structures settle unevenly. This causes the door to jam or cracks to open in the roof. Once water gets in, mold grows on the interior marble.

We clean the vents to get air moving inside again. We wash the interior walls with a mildewcide. For structural settling, we often have to dig out the perimeter and shore up the foundation with fresh gravel and concrete to stop the sinking.

Service Costs in Cranston

Working in tight spaces takes more time because we have to be careful not to bump the neighboring stones. Vine removal is labor-intensive. We need to see the plot to know if we can get our truck close or if we have to haul water in by hand. We give you a price after we walk the site.