Advice for cleaning up headstones for Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend is nearly here and that means people will be heading to the cemeteries. Along with placing flowers on graves, many people clean their family’s headstones.

Monument experts said there are some things to be careful of for people cleaning headstones themselves.

Walker Monuments said oftentimes people aren’t careful about what they use to clean headstones. Sometimes people just grab any type of cleaning agent, assuming it will work.

But Renee Babcock with, Walker Monuments, said that’s not a good thing to do.

“You’ll see people cleaning out the cemeteries with lots of different things,” Babcock said. “Be really mindful, be really careful because you can ruin your headstone.”

Babcock said just using soap and water won’t do the trick. Headstones need to be thoroughly cleaned.

She said she’s seen people use other types of cleaning supplies, such as Lime-Away or WD-40. Babcock said not to use these types of cleaners because they will do damage to the headstone.

“WD-40, anything with an oil base is going to leave oil stains,” she said.

Walker’s recommends a diluted hydrochloric acid solution for cleaning. They sell a professional-grade cleaner called “Sparks.” Babcock said if people try to buy their own hydrochloric or muriatic acid, they need to make sure it’s severely diluted before using it on the headstone.

Babcock said hydrochloric acid does not work on marble or bronze headstones. Instead, for marble, she recommends using fine grit sandpaper.

One other effective cleaning tool Babcock said works on most all types of headstones is a pumice stone.

“You can use pumice,” she said. “It will not scratch the granite. And pumice is really good at taking plaque off when it builds up and creates a plaque on it.”

Cemetery caretakers also have other precautions for those who visit graves on Memorial Day.

“Everybody has to be a little patient,” said Martin Peace, supervisor for Mountain View Cemetery in Pocatello. “There’s a lot of cars out here. It can get crowded.”

Peace also said the cemetery does its best to get the cemetery looking as nice as possible for Memorial Day and it takes weeks.

The first step is raking the leaves and clearing any old flowers. That takes about three to four weeks. Then the workers lay down any sod that needs to be put on plots. They trim up the trees and mow the grass. Peace said it takes about a week to mow the entire cemetery.

Peace said he wants to remind people that a problem they see every year with every cemetery is people stealing such things as flowerpots. So he reminds people to be careful about what they leave as they’re decorating for the holiday.

Peace said anyone with questions or a request for service can call the cemetery office at 208-234-6195.