Headstone Cleaning & Restoration Services in Essex Junction, VT

Cleaning Traffic Soot and Re-Leveling Stones in Essex Junction

The Junction is busy. With the traffic at Five Corners and the trains running through, the air is thicker here than in the hill towns. In the Village Cemetery on Lincoln Street, we see headstones coated in a greasy, dark film. That is exhaust soot. The soot bonds to the polish. It makes the stone look flat and grey. Rain won't touch it; you have to physically break that bond with a cleaner.

The ground here vibrates. Heavy freight trains and the trucks on Route 15 shake the earth. That constant movement makes the sand shift. We find stones that have sunk or tipped because the vibration destabilized the ground underneath them. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to cut through that oily traffic grime and to reset the monuments that the busy village life has shaken loose.

Removing Exhaust Soot

Soot from diesel trucks and idling cars is oily. It isn't like regular dirt. If you try to just wash it with water, it smears. It makes the stone look worse.

"I was pleasantly surprised that this company surpassed my expectations. The work was done beautifully, as promised, and in a timely manner. Daschi was my personal contact and he kept me apprised of the project. My questions were answered promptly - literally within an hour of my emailing them. I would recommend Tending.app to anyone considering the need to clean and/or repair a headstone."

— Lynn Ward, Vermont

We use a degreaser made for stone. We dab it onto the black spots and let it break down the oil. It cuts through the grease so the carbon lifts out of the pores. Then we rinse it away. It brings the natural color back to the granite without damaging the finish.

Fixing Vibration Settling

The soil in the Junction is sandy. When you add constant vibration from the main roads and the train tracks, the ground shifts. Stones slowly sink or tilt as the sand vibrates out from under them.

To fix it, we have to create a dead base. We dig out the loose sand and pack in angular gravel. The jagged edges of the gravel lock together. They don't shake loose like sand does. This gives the monument a stable platform that handles the vibration without moving.

Cleaning Pine Sap

Many of the local plots are shaded by big white pines. Pine sap drips onto the granite and hardens. It forms raised black spots that look like tar. It captures dirt and pollen, creating a rough, dark crust on the face of the stone.

Scraping is the wrong move. If you take a blade to that hardened sap, you will ruin the mirror finish. We use a solvent that chemically melts the pine pitch. It softens the mess so we can wipe it clean without ever touching the stone with a tool.

Repairing Sidewalk Salt Damage

The cemeteries here are right in the middle of neighborhoods. The plows salt the sidewalks heavily. That salty slush gets thrown onto the stones near the fences.

Salt eats into the stone surface. It causes "spalling," where the face of the stone flakes off. We flush these stones with fresh water to get the salt out of the pores. If the damage is already done, we carefully clean the loose material away to stop it from spreading.

Repairing Mower Scuffs

The plots in the Junction are tight. Mowers have to squeeze between stones. We see a lot of black rubber marks and chipped corners on the lower bases.

We clean the tire marks with a solvent. For the chips, we use diamond files. We grind the sharp, broken edge into a smooth bevel. It looks finished and prevents the mower from catching that same jagged spot again.

Service Costs in Essex Junction

We have flat-rate pricing for Essex Junction, Essex Town, and Williston. We don't need to visit the cemetery to give you a price. Check our subscription builder to see the exact cost for your plot.