American Headstones Company Provides Headstone Repair and Engraving
We at American Headstones Company have been in business for several decades now and we pride ourselves in the ability to transform ideas from paper into a beautiful work of art. Using the tools of the industry we can do headstone repair and engraving using traditional sand blast techniques or we can do laser engraving. This allows us to engrave using very fine sands and creating very small characters and letters making almost any design possible. Of course when straying away from traditional methods sometimes it impacts the overall costs.
We service local California cemeteries such as El Toro Memorial Park, a district Cemetery located in beautiful Southern California with gorgeous rolling hills and green landscapes. Under the district is also Santa Ana Cemetery a historic place with many headstones from the 1800’s and Anaheim Cemetery. These district cemeteries offer your best deals when purchasing property and services.
Rose hills Cemetery in the city of Whittier is one of the largest Corporate owned Los Angeles cemeteries offering full services with many acres of land. If you are looking for the most prestigious location in California along the Pacific Ocean try Pacific View Cemetery in Newport Beach. All of these cemeteries are good choices when selecting a gravesite for your loved one. Always ask for the general price list before you purchase so you can make the best decision for your family.
We are a traditional engraving company and do very little laser etching, today laser etchings come with colors. Our experience with laser etchings is that they can be easily scratched off due to the micro shallow engraving and in almost every complaint we receive it’s due to the hard water calcium deposits that is laid on the stone thru the watering cycles at the cemeteries. Once the calcium is built up then the art is shadowed and can’t be seen. Depending on the buildup and depth of the laser cut we can try to remove the calcium then reapply printers block ink bringing the art back to some acceptable degree to the customer.
Traditional engraving whether deep or extra deep can be easily cleaned and a new coat of litho ink applied on site to restore the stone to a new finish. We offer clean and ink only or a complete clean, ink and polish for a reasonable price. Call us at American Headstones Company for a quick on line quote. Some cemeteries do not allow outside vendors to perform work on site so give us a call first.
We do get numerous calls for repairs and fixes to chipped granite, scratches and gouges caused by the ground equipment. In cases that large chunks are missing it’s almost too difficult to repair and we can only suggest complete replacement of the headstone. When dings or small pitts are noted then we can go in and use a UV epoxy to fill and polish the area. This method is quite successful on small reworks. Because it is a filler there is always the possibility that in time, heat and water that this patch may begin to lift. The cost to do this far outweighs the removal and replacement of a new stone. This process works well for families that have incorrectly given the engraver the wrong dates or misspelled words.
Scratches left on the surface of a headstone from ground equipment is a bit more detailed. Once we feel that we can remove the scratch then we start by a wet process of grinding using multiple grades of grit until the area is uniform and free of the scratch then be begin the polishing. We cannot bring the finish back to the factory shine but can come reasonably close. It takes professional in factory equipment to achieve the high gloss finishes of the original stone. We cannot remove scratches that is adjacent to porcelain inset pictures without fear of damaging the cameo with the multi operations we must perform with the grinders. In this case replacing the entire stone is going to be your best option. For more information on headstone repair or engraving services, contact American Headstones Company and speak with an expert.
