Nice job in all three videos! Gonna do the soap and water method on a military marble from 1936 thats weathered poorly. The things that grow on it have actually destroyed the surface over time! Also, thanks for showing the sod removal! Saw some foot-stones today from 1946 that I never knew were there because they were so badly overgrown with healthy grass! Seemed like a knife might do well for cutting it back, but I'll bring the garden spades!
I was wandering in an old cemetery and stepped on a patch of grass that seemed a little harder than the rest of the soil. I just started pulling grass and found a footstone that was completely overgrown with grass - couldn’t see it at all. The inscription ironically read “Never forgotten”. Well, your family forgot where you were buried!
I've actually been considering after visiting family by a nearby cementary, almost everyday in 2020. Then I helped my mom clean off family at another end of town on a mouslem wall. I gave Auntie and Her Wall mates some nice fake flowers and They are still very Vivid.
BTW be careful not to get hooked... I started out just cleaning and recording a few family gravestones. It becomes addictive and I have now photographed nearly 1000 stones and transcribed 2000! I find the Billion Graves app the easiest way to record . It's become quit a hobby and is both interesting and relaxing - a bit like gardening. ;)
Brother, I feel you ! I started with one, then a voice said, Hey !! " What about us " Then I heard another one say,..." us too " Now, it's my passion. Some have been dead since the 30's. I slowly raise the stone up, and reset it and clean it. I feel blessed doing something for these families. I believe they will reward us. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK !!!!
I just started last year doing veterans stones and now I have all kinds of people at the cemetery wanting me to clean. I do veterans for free but not private stones. One was 6ft tall with 4 layers. Took a month of scrubbing 4 times and 3 sprays of D2. I only charged her $100 now I have them coming out of wood work wanting to pay $100. No more. $250 for large stones. $100 for small. D2 is expensive and I can't afford to give it away. Finally people stopped asking me. But I looked it up and professional cleaners charge that much. People want something for free. I'll stick to our veterans who gave us our freedom. God Bless. Beautiful work you do.
@@markpridgen809lmao I thought I was the only one who felt like others were saying "what about us" or "don't forget about us" lol like how when I was a child I imagined my baby dolls felt bad or sad lol. Maybe that imagination (or kind of empathy) never goes away....
I se stones that are as much as 200 years old. ( In the burial ground of a church built in the 12th Century! )Some can be very hard to get clean and need multiple applications of the biocide (D2 or sim) and may take many weeks. Others can come up very quickly! A lot depends on the type of stone and how damp a place they are in.
A church friend has a family marker in Nashville that was erected in the late 1700s. I’m guessing spray D2 and leave it would be best. I’m not sure what stone it is, whether slate or sandstone or whatnot.
Actually they recommend circular motion to minimize scratching the headstone where as the back and forth scrubbing causes more abrasions and in time more damage to the integrity of the stone also you should invest in D2 biological solution to clean headstones not only is it recommend by the national cemetery association but it’s also used in all our national cemeteries it continues to kill mold mildew liken and moss even after the headstone has been cleaned because it gets into all the pores and kills the roots that have grown in there and please don’t take my comment the wrong way I’m just trying to help you with what I know
MORE GOOD CLEANING AND PRESERVATION INFORMATION -- go to the National Cemetery Administration website [part of the US Dept of Veterans Affairs] and in their search box search for "Fact Sheet: Cleaning Government - Furnished Headstones / Markers " See also UA-cam postings: "Veteran Headstone Cleaning Protocol for Private and Municipal Cemeteries" and "MUST watch before cleaning Gravestones, by a Stone Carver"
I read a lot of information from the VA before using D2, including a research paper where they compared D2 to other potential products for widespread use. I’ll check those out.
On this trip, I simply used a dish soap that I had in my kitchen. On my next trip, I sprayed down all the stones with D/2 Biological solution. It made a world of difference! And D/2 keeps working to kill the biological life even after you leave.
It would be more effective if you started at the top & worked your way down. Your past work was wasted because the dirt from the top resettled at the bottom.
The national cemetery administration recently added Wet & Forget to their list of products. Personally I recommend that over D2 since it's a lot cheaper and gives the same results. I've had great luck with it removing biological growth off granite style headstones. It's also safe on Marble currently working on one right now for my great-great-great grandfather this stone seems a lot harder to clean but that could be because it has over a century of biological growth on it.
I don’t have the patience for Wet & Forget. How did it work so well for you, maybe I am missing something? I am using the rest of mine (I bought more) on my sidewalks at home and I have moved on to D2 for the cemetery.
@@HappierHeadstones I found doing a 1 part wet and forget solution and 5 parts water. Go to the cemetery on a day where the stone is dry and there is no rain in the forecast ( the stone has to be dry ) . spray a coat on let the stone soak and wait about 10 minutes and spray a second coat and let it sit. The stone has to have atleast a 5 hours window wheere it won't get wet with rain or water for best effect. Once I do that i go back in about 3 weeks or a month and do the process again a second time and let nature take it's course. If you want to speed it up you can also use a Tampico brush the stone after wetting it with the chemical to help speed up the process. Though with Wet & Forget it can take a month to see a difference and about 6 months to see a huge difference. I typically recommend doing it in the late summer / early fall. You want to do it on a cooler day so it doesn't evaporate as fast off the stone but you want the weather to be above 40F so it doesn't risk frosting inside the pores
@@oOignignoktOo1 Hm...Although you are saying Fall, which I get, I do have one cemetery that I need to do that is over an hour away and in the middle of nowhere so I would need to pack a ton of water and stuff (I do have Tampico brushes too). I do have some W&F ready to go so maybe I will go now and spray it and then we will have cooler weather (well above 40F) until about late April and I can go back then and see how it's doing. I do need a good test site for W&F. The site I was testing on is so close to my house that I couldn't wait so I busted out the D2, on my first over 40F days, there. Which that stuff is the bomb too. I also have red clay where I am, so I sure wish I could find something that deals with that. I think the red clay turns into rust, but that’s just my thought on that, I have nothing to back that up. To date, I have not been able to find anything that tackles that. Thanks SO much for your input!
@@HappierHeadstones The best way to know its working is if the stone turns slightly orange / brown after spraying wet & forget with the growth. typically that means the chemical is having a good reaction towards the growth. It is recommended to scrub the growth off once wetted with the chemical with the subsequent spray after 10-15 minutes that will help with getting the chemical into the roots of the growth and kill it. I've never used D2 personally but I know it produces a lot faster results but it's a lot more expensive too. Wet & Forget is much cheaper and works great but it's a more lengthy cure process for results.
Nice to see a young man even care about such things! Very refreshing.
What a great job you did! Your family is smiling down on you! Respect!
Great to see a young person care about their family. My sister and I do our graves
Nice job in all three videos!
Gonna do the soap and water method on a military marble from 1936 thats weathered poorly.
The things that grow on it have actually destroyed the surface over time!
Also, thanks for showing the sod removal!
Saw some foot-stones today from 1946 that I never knew were there because they were so badly overgrown with healthy grass!
Seemed like a knife might do well for cutting it back, but I'll bring the garden spades!
I was wandering in an old cemetery and stepped on a patch of grass that seemed a little harder than the rest of the soil. I just started pulling grass and found a footstone that was completely overgrown with grass - couldn’t see it at all. The inscription ironically read “Never forgotten”. Well, your family forgot where you were buried!
If you’re going to use soap it has to be a Ph neutral soap so that it doesn’t cause harm to the integrity of the stone
I've actually been considering after visiting family by a nearby cementary, almost everyday in 2020. Then I helped my mom clean off family at another end of town on a mouslem wall.
I gave Auntie and Her Wall mates some nice fake flowers and They are still very Vivid.
BTW be careful not to get hooked... I started out just cleaning and recording a few family gravestones. It becomes addictive and I have now photographed nearly 1000 stones and transcribed 2000! I find the Billion Graves app the easiest way to record . It's become quit a hobby and is both interesting and relaxing - a bit like gardening. ;)
I saw a video where a couple of sister were quoted $700 for the cemetery to clean one single footstone. Maybe I’m doing this hobby wrong! lol
Brother, I feel you !
I started with one, then a voice said,
Hey !!
" What about us "
Then I heard another one say,..." us too "
Now, it's my passion.
Some have been dead since the 30's.
I slowly raise the stone up, and reset it and clean it.
I feel blessed doing something for these families.
I believe they will reward us.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK !!!!
I am quickly heading down the same path! My knees are shot so I can’t kneel, but I can still get them pretty clean, but sure wish I could kneel.
I just started last year doing veterans stones and now I have all kinds of people at the cemetery wanting me to clean. I do veterans for free but not private stones. One was 6ft tall with 4 layers. Took a month of scrubbing 4 times and 3 sprays of D2. I only charged her $100 now I have them coming out of wood work wanting to pay $100. No more. $250 for large stones. $100 for small. D2 is expensive and I can't afford to give it away. Finally people stopped asking me. But I looked it up and professional cleaners charge that much. People want something for free. I'll stick to our veterans who gave us our freedom. God Bless. Beautiful work you do.
@@markpridgen809lmao I thought I was the only one who felt like others were saying "what about us" or "don't forget about us" lol like how when I was a child I imagined my baby dolls felt bad or sad lol. Maybe that imagination (or kind of empathy) never goes away....
Your great great grandfather and I had the same birthday
Interesting! It’s fun looking at the dates.
I se stones that are as much as 200 years old. ( In the burial ground of a church built in the 12th Century! )Some can be very hard to get clean and need multiple applications of the biocide (D2 or sim) and may take many weeks. Others can come up very quickly! A lot depends on the type of stone and how damp a place they are in.
A church friend has a family marker in Nashville that was erected in the late 1700s. I’m guessing spray D2 and leave it would be best. I’m not sure what stone it is, whether slate or sandstone or whatnot.
Actually they recommend circular motion to minimize scratching the headstone where as the back and forth scrubbing causes more abrasions and in time more damage to the integrity of the stone also you should invest in D2 biological solution to clean headstones not only is it recommend by the national cemetery association but it’s also used in all our national cemeteries it continues to kill mold mildew liken and moss even after the headstone has been cleaned because it gets into all the pores and kills the roots that have grown in there and please don’t take my comment the wrong way I’m just trying to help you with what I know
hello uncle nate
My grandma's name was Mayme 🥺
MORE GOOD CLEANING AND PRESERVATION INFORMATION -- go to the National Cemetery Administration website [part of the US Dept of Veterans Affairs] and in their search box search for "Fact Sheet: Cleaning Government - Furnished Headstones / Markers "
See also UA-cam postings:
"Veteran Headstone Cleaning Protocol for Private and Municipal Cemeteries"
and
"MUST watch before cleaning Gravestones, by a Stone Carver"
I read a lot of information from the VA before using D2, including a research paper where they compared D2 to other potential products for widespread use.
I’ll check those out.
Use D2, it works in 10 minutes. All black is gone
What soap did you use?
On this trip, I simply used a dish soap that I had in my kitchen. On my next trip, I sprayed down all the stones with D/2 Biological solution. It made a world of difference! And D/2 keeps working to kill the biological life even after you leave.
It would be more effective if you started at the top & worked your way down. Your past work was wasted because the dirt from the top resettled at the bottom.
🙂
The national cemetery administration recently added Wet & Forget to their list of products. Personally I recommend that over D2 since it's a lot cheaper and gives the same results. I've had great luck with it removing biological growth off granite style headstones. It's also safe on Marble currently working on one right now for my great-great-great grandfather this stone seems a lot harder to clean but that could be because it has over a century of biological growth on it.
I don’t have the patience for Wet & Forget. How did it work so well for you, maybe I am missing something? I am using the rest of mine (I bought more) on my sidewalks at home and I have moved on to D2 for the cemetery.
@@HappierHeadstones I found doing a 1 part wet and forget solution and 5 parts water.
Go to the cemetery on a day where the stone is dry and there is no rain in the forecast ( the stone has to be dry ) . spray a coat on let the stone soak and wait about 10 minutes and spray a second coat and let it sit. The stone has to have atleast a 5 hours window wheere it won't get wet with rain or water for best effect. Once I do that i go back in about 3 weeks or a month and do the process again a second time and let nature take it's course. If you want to speed it up you can also use a Tampico brush the stone after wetting it with the chemical to help speed up the process.
Though with Wet & Forget it can take a month to see a difference and about 6 months to see a huge difference.
I typically recommend doing it in the late summer / early fall. You want to do it on a cooler day so it doesn't evaporate as fast off the stone but you want the weather to be above 40F so it doesn't risk frosting inside the pores
@@oOignignoktOo1 Hm...Although you are saying Fall, which I get, I do have one cemetery that I need to do that is over an hour away and in the middle of nowhere so I would need to pack a ton of water and stuff (I do have Tampico brushes too). I do have some W&F ready to go so maybe I will go now and spray it and then we will have cooler weather (well above 40F) until about late April and I can go back then and see how it's doing. I do need a good test site for W&F. The site I was testing on is so close to my house that I couldn't wait so I busted out the D2, on my first over 40F days, there. Which that stuff is the bomb too. I also have red clay where I am, so I sure wish I could find something that deals with that. I think the red clay turns into rust, but that’s just my thought on that, I have nothing to back that up. To date, I have not been able to find anything that tackles that. Thanks SO much for your input!
@@HappierHeadstones The best way to know its working is if the stone turns slightly orange / brown after spraying wet & forget with the growth. typically that means the chemical is having a good reaction towards the growth. It is recommended to scrub the growth off once wetted with the chemical with the subsequent spray after 10-15 minutes that will help with getting the chemical into the roots of the growth and kill it.
I've never used D2 personally but I know it produces a lot faster results but it's a lot more expensive too. Wet & Forget is much cheaper and works great but it's a more lengthy cure process for results.
@@oOignignoktOo1 And yes, The national cemetery administration did add W&F to their guidlines.
Try D2
That's what he's using.
Still got Indians in Nashville ? That haircut says yes……😂