10/19/2025
GRAVESTONE CLEANING - RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS
Safety glasses and protective gloves. Knee pads and boots. Old markers may have broken glass around the base.
Natural or plastic soft bristle brushes of various shapes and sizes & plastic grout brushes. Nothing with metal edges that might scratch the stone.
Wooden scrapers, craft sticks, tongue depressors, and wooden skewers,
Plastic scrapers, various sizes.
Buckets for holding your supplies and water.
Quart size plastic spray bottles. 1 to 2 gallon garden type pump sprayer filled with clean water.
A Small can of compressed air or mini leaf blower. Rags and old towels.
Clean Water. One of the most important things to locate in the cemetery is the nearest source of water. It takes a lot of water to properly clean stone. If the cemetery does not have clean running water then it is important to bring barreled or bucketed water to the site, gallons and gallons of water. Old clean plastic milk bottles work great for transporting water to the markers.
D/2 biological solution. It works best at 45 degrees and above. Use undiluted for best results. (We recommend D/2 as the first choice in cleaning headstones and markers)
Orvus non-ionic cleaner can be used to remove heavy environmental deposits, grime and bird droppings, if water alone doesn’t remove the grime.
Enviro Klean, Biowash, Modec MDF-500 and Revive are also approved biological cleaners.
To Clean
• Ensure the stone is stable, secure, level and that all sections are securely attached to each other. Also check that the stone is not in danger of falling if you put pressure on it. Your safety is of the utmost importance.
• If the weather is hot and the stone surface is hot to the bare hand, do not put cool water on it. It may cause stress cracks in the stone. Cover the stone to cool it or let the water warm in the sun before using it.
• Do not clean a stone if there is any chance of freezing temperatures. Water will get into cracks and freeze. Water expands when frozen and may crack the stone.
• .Do not attempt to clean a broken headstone.
• Make sure you have enough water to thoroughly clean and then rinse the stone several times. Leave no residue from the cleaning agent on the stone as it could cause permanent streaking.
• NEVER use household cleaners, bleach, metal tools, scouring pads, wire brushes, power tools, pressure washers or nyalox brushes. A newer product called Wet and Forget has not been thoroughly tested, and this is not a product we can recommend. Check for delamination of the stone, this is where layers of the stone begin to separate. Lightly tap on the stone with your knuckle or other soft object. If you hear a ‘hollow’ sound, the stone is probably delaminating. Do not attempt to clean. This should be left to a professional stone conservator or preservationist.
• Check for stress cracks. This is an easy check. Thoroughly wet the stone with water. Observe it while it is drying. Stress cracks will show up as wet ‘streaks’ because the water has entered the crack and will take longer to dry than the surface water. If the stress cracks are wide or severe, again leave this stone to the professionals.
• Check for loose sections in the marker. If it needs to be secured, leveled or reset stop. This is a job for professionals. Always err on the side of safety.
• Check to see if biological growth has cracked the stone. The growth must be carefully removed and the stone repaired before cleaning. Material at the cracked edges is very fragile and will chip off even with gentle cleaning.
BASIC CLEANING PROCEDURE
• Soak the stone with water and wait a few minutes. Gently remove loose materials from the surface. Once saturated, the lichens and moss on the stone will loosen and can be removed easily with a plastic scraper or wooden spatula. This helps remove the big particles so you will not be rubbing them back into the stone. Rinse thoroughly.
• Clean the wet stone with a wet brush by making random circular motion, and rinsing frequently to remove dirt and biological growth. Always be as gentle as possible.
• Keep both the brush and the stone wet at all times while cleaning. Be sure to clean the entire stone. Normally, just clean water and soft scrubbing will remove the dirt and grime. If not, use one of the recommended cleaning agents. Be sure to rinse often and thoroughly.
