Grave Cleaning & Headstone Restoration in Eau Claire

Cleaning Pine Sap and River Moss in Eau Claire

Two rivers meet in Eau Claire, so it stays damp here. That humidity hangs around the cemeteries like Forest Hill and Lakeview. It creates the perfect setup for moss. It grows thick on the stones, especially on the shaded north sides, and turns the granite green.

Then you have the trees. This is the edge of the Northwoods. The cemeteries are full of old white pines. They drop needles and sap all year long. That sap drips onto the headstones and bakes in the sun until it turns into black tar. Families searching for headstone cleaning services near me call us to get that sticky mess off the stone and to fix markers that are tipping over in the loose, sandy soil.

Pine Sap and Pitch

Pine trees are messy. The sap drips down and hardens on the markers. It makes these black, raised spots that grab onto dirt. After a few years, the whole stone looks like it was splashed with road tar.

Water won't touch this stuff. It just spreads the sticky mess around. We use a solvent that melts the pitch. We apply it and wait for the sap to get soft and gooey again. Then we just wipe it away. It gets the stone clean without us having to scrape or scratch the finish.

River Fog and Moss

The morning fog sits heavy on everything near the rivers. That mist soaks into the headstones. Moss and lichen love that constant moisture. On the older, rough-cut stones, the moss grows right over the lettering until the name disappears.

We don't scrape the moss off dry. That damages the rock. We soak it with a biological cleaner that kills the roots. Once the plant dies, it lets go of the stone. Then we can rinse it away gently.

Sandy Soil Washout

The soil in Eau Claire is sandy, not clay. Sand moves fast when it rains. A big storm can carry the dirt right out from under the base of a monument. We see a lot of stones leaning sideways just because the ground under the left corner washed away.

We fix this by lifting the stone and rebuilding the base. We pack in crushed rock that locks together. It allows the water to drain through without washing the support away.

Lichen on Sandstone

We have some old markers made of local sandstone. It is soft rock. Lichen digs its roots deep into it. You will see orange and grey scabs all over the surface where the lichen is eating the stone.

You have to be careful with sandstone. If you scrub it, you rub the stone away. We apply a cleaner and leave it alone. It kills the lichen so it falls off on its own, which keeps the soft stone safe.

Service Costs in Eau Claire

Dissolving baked-on pine sap is slow work. Leveling a monument in sandy soil takes materials and labor. I can't guess the price without seeing the plot. We built an online tool to help. You choose the cemetery, tell us the condition, and you get the price right then and there.