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Friday July 30,2010

Purchasing a monument, tombstone, memorial, headstone or footstone

by Susan Cox

There are a lot of considerations in purchasing a monument/tombstone/memorial/headstone/footstone:

A) First you must consider the regulations your cemetery has.

• Do they require the grave have a permanent marker within a specific time period?

• Do they require a cement border at the base of your marker?

• Do they require you to purchase your marker through them?

• Do they require an installation fee for some other vendor to come into their cemetery to install your marker?

B)Style:

• flat or grass level

• bevel

• slant

• wing (two uprights connected by a common base)

• upright

• composites

• statuary

C ) How many persons will the stone be for?

• for one person

• for two persons

• for three persons

• or a large (family) "headstone" in the center of the plot with "footstones" for the individual grave spaces with the individual's personal data on it

D )Design:

If you can dream it and can aford it, it can be done!

E) Material:

1) Metal:

2) Bronze

3) Stone:

4) White or Gray Marble

Traditional Blue-Gray Granite, along with a number of other colors of granite ranging from black to pink to red to brown to mahogany to green! Some of these stones may have to be special ordered, because some come from other countries, and that will take as much as nine months to receive locally; then your design may be carved and the stone installed. Just remember that different colors of granite come in vastly different price ranges. I've also seen monuments in brick or terra cotta. I'm sure in other parts of the country (world) other materials are used as well.

F) Cost factors:

1)Materials used

2)Type of style

3)How much detail in the design you want:

(is the design a stock design of the monument company [if it is how elaborate is it?] or is it an individual design you want created?)

4) Size of monument:

Measure the die (upright part of the stone)

a)from top of base to highest point for height

b)from front to back for thickness

c)from side to side for width

[the base will be cut in proportion to the die]

5) Extra Lettering (verses ['at rest', 'beloved mother', etc.] are usually charged per letter, even if the verse is part of their stock design) [Generally the Surname, given names of the deceased, their dates of birth and known dates of death are included in the cost]{Unknown dates of death generally are not covered in the cost and will have to be etched or carved and paid for after that date is known.}

6) How much of the stone do you want polished?

Monument companies think in terms of how many sides of the die or top, upright part of the monument you want to have a polished finish.

• If you want just the front & back polished, that's P2.

• If you want just the front, back, & top polished, that's P3.

• If you want the front, back, top, and both ends polished, that's P5.

Generally the top of the base is polished, but not the sides of the base. It is left in what is called 'rock pitch' because of the high risk of the lawnmowers nicking the side of the base, it will not show up as bad. Many times folks want a polished die, but they want "frosted" panels for the areas where the names and dates appear. A "steel" finish is also available for the die (upright part) of the monument.