What to Expect When You Hire a Headstone Cleaner

Booking takes a few minutes online. You select a service tier — Standard Cleaning for routine biological growth and surface grime, or Deep Restoration for heavily weathered, lichen-encrusted, or long-neglected stones — and complete the checkout. We'll ask for the cemetery name, the location within the cemetery (section, row, and plot number if you have them), and the name on the stone. You don't need to be present for the work. Sacred Stone Co. serves all of Utah County — Provo, Orem, Springville, American Fork, Lehi, and the surrounding communities.

Once your booking is in, we'll confirm it by email. If anything about the location or stone condition needs clarification, we may reach out — sometimes a cemetery has multiple sections with similar names, or a particular plot is easier to find with a quick landmark. For Deep Restoration appointments, we may ask for a photo of the current condition so we can bring the right supplies and plan adequate time. No prep work is required on your end. You don't need to visit the cemetery, clear anything off the stone, or coordinate with cemetery staff.

On the scheduled day, we arrive at the cemetery with everything we need. We use D/2 Biological Solution — the industry standard recommended by the Association for Gravestone Studies and the National Park Service — and apply it with soft-bristle brushes. Never pressure washers, never wire brushes, never harsh household chemicals. Those tools cause permanent damage that often isn't visible until years later.

For a Standard cleaning, the process is application of biological solution, gentle scrubbing across the entire face and sides, and a thorough rinse. For Deep Restoration, we add extended soak time, careful attention to stubborn lichen, moss, and mineral deposits, and detail work along the inscriptions to lift growth out of every carved letter. The visit typically takes 30 to 90 minutes depending on the size of the stone and the severity of the condition.

When the work is finished, you'll receive a photo of the result. Many stones look even better in the days and weeks after the visit — D/2 keeps killing biological growth long after application, so faint staining that was still visible at the end of the appointment often continues to fade. If you're enrolled in our Annual Care Plan, we automatically schedule the next year's visit and remind you when it's coming up. No follow-up action is needed on your end.

We're honest about what cleaning can and can't fix. Structural damage — cracks, chips, broken corners, or leaning stones that need to be reset — is outside our scope. If we see issues like that, we'll tell you clearly and can point you toward a reputable monuments company in the area. What we can fix is the long list of cosmetic problems most families are actually dealing with: biological staining from moss, lichen, and algae, air pollution deposits, mineral buildup, and surface grime. Most markers that look "ruined" are simply dirty, and they respond beautifully to professional cleaning.