Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Seattle

Removing "Seattle Slime" and Clearing Blackberries in Seattle

In Seattle, the rain doesn't wash the headstones clean; it feeds the things that make them dirty. The constant mist and grey skies keep the stone pores filled with water for nine months a year. In cemeteries like Lake View and Crown Hill, we don't just see moss. We see a heavy, black slime on the granite. It coats the stone. As soon as the rain starts, those flat markers get slick. You have to be careful walking through the rows because it is like stepping on ice.

We also fight the landscape. Seattle is hilly and green. In the older sections of Mount Pleasant, gravity pulls stones downhill as the rain softens the soil. Then there are the blackberries. Himalayan Blackberry vines are relentless. They grow into dense thickets that completely hide the family plots. They root everywhere, burying flat markers and rubbing against the polish of the uprights. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to scrub off that slippery black film and to cut back the vines that are taking over their family plots.

Cleaning the Black Bio-Film

That black streaking you see on the headstones isn't dirt. It is a biological colony. It bonds hard to the stone. If you try to power wash it, you might blast the surface off, but the roots stay in the pores and it grows right back.

We use a slow-acting soft wash. We apply a cleaner that soaks into the stone and kills the organism at the root. It softens the hard shell of the algae. We let it work, then we rinse it. The black slime melts away. The stone is clean again, and it won't turn black again in a month because the roots are actually dead.

Battling Himalayan Blackberries

Blackberries are a constant fight here. They move fast. In one season, they can completely hide a flat marker. The canes are woody and sharp, so clearing them takes serious effort.

We prune the vines back carefully. We don't rip them out, because dragging those thorns across the face of a monument will scratch the finish. Once the stone is clear, we dig out the root ball. If you don't get the root, it will be back in a month.

Stabilizing Stones on Slopes

Seattle is built on hills. Cemeteries like Lake View have steep sections. The glacial soil here is rocky, but when it gets saturated with rain, it moves. We see monuments tipping forward as the soil washes out from the downhill side.

We relevel these by digging a bench into the slope. We pull the stone and build a level pad using crushed, angular gravel. We tamp it until it is rock hard. This gives the monument a flat shelf to sit on that won't wash away in the next November rain.

Cleaning Moss from Rough Granite

Moss loves the rough, rock-pitched edges of the monuments here. It grows thick and holds water against the stone, which can cause cracking during our rare freeze events.

We saturate the moss to kill it. We don't scrape it while it's dry and alive; that damages the stone crystals. Once the moss turns brown and soft, we brush it out of the crevices with nylon tools.

Service Costs in Seattle

We have flat-rate pricing for Seattle, Shoreline, and Burien. 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.