How To Set A Headstone

Cemetery Headstone Installation

What to watch out for before a Grave Marking gets Installed

A few months after the expiry of a loved one, when family unit and friends have long departed from their gatherings for memorial services, those who were closest to the deceased frequently struggle with the side by side stage of memorializing their loved one: installing a headstone. In platonic cases, this stage is mostly an easy one considering the deceased has already arranged for his or ain headstone to exist installed. In fact, many people across the Us still take practiced the tradition of installing headstones well before their expiry and simply leaving instructions that their date of death be added to the marker erstwhile after their burying has occurred.

But, in this 24-hour interval in which pre-need funeral and burying plans are often discouraged by consumer advocates and other experts, such arrangements are becoming less and less common. And that means family members, often still in the midst of grief, are left with the responsibleness of buying and installing a grave marking or headstone for their lost loved 1. And, for those whose feel of arranging a funeral and burying has been harrowing, confusing, stressful and frustrating, dread is often the emotion most commonly felt upon realizing that a headstone must also exist installed. "Will this nightmare e'er end?" is how one grieving daughter expressed information technology recently on a blog she has maintained about her struggles in burying and properly memorializing her father.

This article aims to take some of the mystery and frustration out of the experience of installing a headstone over a loved one's grave. (Please annotation that nosotros cannot promise to remove all of the negative experiences. As with near every other attribute of today's death care industry, purchasing and installing a headstone can bring about much expense and frustration, even in the best of circumstances. We practise hope to be able to help customers lessen the negative aspects, however.)

Frequently, nosotros hear families are hesitant to expect into purchasing cemetery headstones or memorial grave markers online, because they are not sure of the ordering process, and are concerned that they volition run into issues with the cemetery. We work very hard to continue the lodge process as elementary every bit possible, and contact the cemetery before hand to ensure that there are no issues or complications in producing the marker. Beneath are a few things customers should consider near purchasing a marker online, our ordering process, and having the marker installed in the cemetery of their selection. Also included, which is worth noting, are a few questions that we recommend asking the cemetery prior to ordering the memorial monument. This saves families time in knowing what the basic regulations of the cemetery are, then they are enlightened of those specifications when selecting the different options for their memorial. (Nosotros will add tips to this list from time to fourth dimension. Please permit us know if you accept whatsoever suggestions to include.)

• Before your order for a headstone club can be placed, we need three crucial pieces of information from the cemetery:
  - Is in that location a certain size the headstone must be?
  - What color of bronze and/or granite is acceptable?
  - And finally, should the grave marker be statuary on granite or granite only?
  
• Other important questions to enquire include the following:
  - What are your options in choosing a companion headstone?
  - Is a bronze vase that turns into a marking allowed on the headstone?
  - Are in that location whatsoever installation fees for the memorial?

• While we do contact the cemetery to verify the marking volition meet their rules and regulations, we recommend asking your cemetery the questions higher up before-hand, and then you are aware of any special restrictions they may have when selecting the details of your mark order.
  
• Some cemeteries crave customers to complete a variety of forms before they will accept or give blessing for a headstone. Nosotros will make every try to complete these forms on your behalf, but in some cases that is impossible. We will help y'all as much every bit possible in making sure the right forms are filled out correctly. We commonly forrard the forms to you lot for your information or signature either electronically or past standard post, and are happy to help if you have any quesitons or need assistance reviewing the forms.
  
• Some cemeteries require that y'all submit a drawing or layout of your gravestone. Nosotros are able to supply that to them if they request it. Upon receiving their approval for the marker, nosotros would forward the aforementioned layout of the marker to y'all for your review. We exercise not keep in making a marker until we have your final approval on the layout.
  
• Cemeteries will typically install the grave marker for a fee, merely, if yours does not, you lot can commonly find an independent installer for hire in the area. In this instance, we recommend that you contract an experienced monument installer to install your headstone. We practice non currently accept a list of monument installers, but this on-line directory may assist: http://www.Superpages.com/.
  
• Catholic cemeteries are all maintained by the Catholic Diocese, which has very strict rules (such as the requirement that headstones have a Christian symbol of some sort). Nosotros are familiar with these rules and will work with you lot, as much as possible, to make certain the cemetery accepts your headstone.
  
• We cannot deliver headstones to rural cemeteries, and others that do not have business offices in which someone can sign for the delivery. Nosotros can evangelize the headstone to another local business or to a freight company location. In this case, you would be responsible for delivering the headstone to the cemetery and for making sure the headstone meets the cemetery's requirements. If you plan to apply this delivery option, we will ask you to sign and return a special form to our role. Shipping regulations prohibit us from sending headstones to residential addresses.
  
• Cemeteries, regardless of what some proprietors may tell you, are required to accept headstones purchased from other companies (such as Memorials.com) and then long as those headstones accommodate to the their established policies. If yous experience a trouble along these lines, you should consider filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Committee.
  

Installing a Headstone in a Commercial Cemetery

Almost headstones in our modern lodge are installed in commercial cemeteries run by companies that profit from burying and funeral services. So that is where we begin this look into how to install a headstone.

The get-go matter to know is that nearly every commercial cemetery in the The states today will non allow families to install headstones themselves. This may be confusing to some who presume that, once a family unit buys a plot of land in a cemetery, the family is costless to practise with every bit they wish. Nevertheless, those assumptions are typically erroneous. In nigh every instance of a cemetery plot sale, the heir-apparent signs an understanding promising to abide by the cemetery's rules – even if those rules modify between the date of auction and the fourth dimension the plot is used as a grave site. Information technology is oft the instance that the buyer does not remember signing such an understanding but, nevertheless, such documents are typically routine parts of any cemetery plot transaction. Only in very rare cases are they not a office of the transaction with the cemetery.

The typical process for installation of a headstone in a typical commercial cemetery is as follows (overall, from the consumer's perspective, a very unproblematic and easy process, even if it does not always sit well with those who would rather have a little more command over the installation): the family of the deceased orders a headstone from a retailer who, before production gain at the customer'south expense, checks with the cemetery to clinch that the plans for the marker are acceptable and that the cemetery will allow (and, in near cases, provide for) its installation after the marker is delivered. (A very important note: cemeteries usually offer headstones for auction on a retail footing themselves, but customers should understand that they are nether no obligation to purchase a headstone directly from the cemetery, fifty-fifty though the cemetery staff volition likely non brand that fact known voluntarily – they accept a vested interest in keeping customers from patronizing their competitors, of course.) Once the retailer has received written verification that the cemetery will take the marker, the headstone order is submitted for product. Production is normally completed within 4 to 6 weeks of the submission, and the headstone is then delivered, usually past a special freight aircraft company, to the cemetery. Later on the customer has paid the cemetery staff a special fee for installation (this fee is known in the expiry care industry as a "setting fee"), the headstone is and so installed by the cemetery's ground maintenance crew, and customers tin usually expect their loved one'south grave to exist marked well within a month of the headstone's commitment.

(Important notation nearly the setting fee: customers should realize that it is in violation of Usa Anti-Trust rules for a cemetery to offer whatsoever customer a lower charge per unit than others for this setting service. If a cemetery tries to discourage a client from ordering from a competitor past offering reduced cost – or even gratuitous -- installation, customers should realize that the offering is made in violation of federal constabulary and is, at the very least, unethical. Though information technology may exist tempting to have such an offer because information technology ends up saving the client some money, a more than appropriate response would be for the customer to immediately consult an investigator with the federal trade committee and consider contacting an attorney as well. It would exist unwise for the family to continue doing business organisation with a company who would make an unethical and potentially illegal offer. Disinterment – and re-internment in another grave yard -- may end upward existence a wise move likewise.)

Installing a Headstone in a Private Cemetery

Though most people in today'south memorial service market are buried in commercial cemeteries, a sizeable portion of burials are still conducted in private cemeteries run by pocket-size groups such as families, churches or other not-for-profit organizations. In these cases, installation may non be offered by the cemetery'southward staff. (Actually, this sort of cemetery very likely does not have any official "staff.") The good news for a family of a deceased relative in cases such every bit this is that the cemetery management will likely be much less stringent than a commercial cemetery's staff would exist about enforcing rules that my be in conflict with a family'southward plans for a headstone. The bad news, of grade, is that the family would exist entirely responsible for installing the grave marker.

In many cases, the person who is chiefly responsible for the private cemetery – whether it exist a church building pastor, a family unit patriarch or the volunteer leader of a cemetery clan – will probable maintain a list of qualified and competent contractors who volition accept delivery of a grave marker from a manufacturer and will install the marker at the cemetery for a fee (often much less than the fees charged by commercial cemeteries. We will not venture to offering a thorough estimate for headstone installation service in this article since those prices vary greatly according to many factors involved in the installation. That said, information technology is realistic to expect that the service could cost equally much as $500 or more, simply information technology could also price far less than $100.)

In some cases – ordinarily in very remote areas – an installation contractor will not be able to be located who can do the service for a practical fee, and that means that a family must conform to install the grave mark on its own. Though this may be a daunting, stressful idea to someone who is not experienced in such work, such a project is not to a higher place the skills of anyone who has access to a few hearty friends, a trailer sufficient for moving the marker to the grave site, and few simple tools. That said, for brevity's sake, we will not go into item about common methods for installing a grave marker at a cemetery merely, rather, refer all readers to the many do-information technology-yourself manufactures and videos that are readily available on this topic on the cyberspace. (A uncomplicated search for "installing a grave marker" in only about any search engine will yield plenty of excellent advice from people who have been successful at such a job.)

Best Times to Install a Headstone

A final consideration near installing a headstone over a family fellow member's grave site is the timing of the installation. In warm climates, just about whatever time of year is by and large considered okay, given that the ground is sufficiently dry. Installing a grave marker on wet ground is considered unwise because the ground is prone to shifting every bit information technology dries, thereby leading to an unstable installation. Headstones installed on basis that is likewise wet will about always need to exist leveled (by adding dirt underneath the service) inside a few months of the installation. In cold climates, of course, information technology is almost always best to wait until the spring or summer months to install a grave marker. Installing on basis that is covered with snow, or will exist covered with snowfall soon afterwards the installation is a risky proposition in terms of assuring that the marker will remain level over the long term. Most commercial cemeteries in regions that have snowfall on the basis throughout the winter months, in fact, will typically not accept delivery of a headstone until spring has arrived, across a shadow of a dubiousness, each year. In these cases, manufacturers are usually equipped to shop the produced marker until the cemetery is set to accept commitment.

In Conclusion

Purchasing a statuary on granite headstone online tin certainly seem like a daunting task, but we would like to assure whatever family interested in this pick that nosotros truly work hard to make sure the process is every bit easy as possible. Our outset pace is to contact the cemetery to make certain the memorial ordered will abide by their regulations. Upon their approval, we forward the details of the marking or headstone to our skilled designers, so they may generate a layout of the memorial. That layout is forwarded to you by email, for your review and approval. Once we receive your approving of the layout, nosotros send the marker into product. The memorial does not go into production without your approval of the layout, to help ensure that all the necessary requirements have been met. In one case the marker is produced, it is shipped directly to the cemetery, or other specified recipient. Nosotros strive to meet any requests, so long equally they are possible, to help create a beautifully touching tribute to a loved one, that honors their memory and celebrates their life well lived.

Source: https://www.memorials.com/Cemetery-Headstone-Installation-information.php

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