Moving a headstone... any tricks?

[texasjohn]

Well, all done yesterday....

I schmoosed the grave digger/fellow doing the transfer... he wouldn't do the headstone transfer for the funeral home, but, for me, when I said I would assume all risk if something broke, he said he'd do it... charged $75 after it was all done...I gave him $100 because of the quality work he did all along the way.

Here's the rest of the story...

1. Legally, you need paperwork sent to the state of TX for permission to exhume a body. No paperwork needed to bury one (a death certificate is for a different purpose). That took about 3 months.
2. Digger is the only one doing the work in the entire county. His dad started the service. They do a fabulous job, very reasonable, respectful and careful. He uses a Ford 3 cylinder back hoe(with teeth)/FEL(no teeth), about 50 hp, 1970's model, manual transmission. He uses a load lever with two metal cables attached to a centered chain on the FEL to lift heavy objects.
3. The headstone turned out to be in two pieces... a base and the vertical headstone. A small amount of "caulk" was around the edges of the vertical headstone to keep moisture from getting between the two stones.
4. A 10 lb sledge hitting a wood 4x4 segment applied at the very base of the headstone at the joint at one end of the headstone popped loose the caulk. Clearly, the two pieces needed to be separated before moving, both to make the load lighter AND to prevent separation during move.
5. The headstone was manually rotated (not very hard to do, polished surfaces) and the steel cables attached to a load leveler were placed under the stone at even 1/3 distance intervals, heavy padding placed between stone and cables to prevent chipping, then lifted into a trailer and placed on wood runners.
6. The base was resting on "saccrete" that had been placed under it on the ground and smoothed out, allowing rain to set the concrete. In other words, the base was resting on the concrete, not "concreted in."
7. The base was levered up vertically using a 6 foot pry bar and wood fulcrum and wood block placed to maintain the height. There was no concrete sticking to the granite base.
8. Again, padding between granite and steel cables, then lift into trailer and placed on wood blocks.
9. Reverse the above at the new grave site. I used clear silicone caulk to seal the two stones together and prevent moisture penetration.
10. All above done carefully, slowly, no fingers pinched or chips from the stone. It was only 104 degrees yesterday.... work done starting at 8:30am, completed about 12:30am.

Dad's happy, memorial service tomorrow morning. All is well.

 

[jayste]

John, I'm glad this job went well for you. I'm sure a lot was resting on your shoulders. Seems like your original plan was a good one being that the mover did it about the same. If you had just had the, now gained, knowledge of how the top connected to the base and what it was all resting on I think you could have handled it. It still sounds like a well spent "hunnerd" dollar bill! Only thing that could have made this thread better was pictures but in the situation you were in I'm sure you felt it too awkward. Probably would have looked like "documentation for liability purposes". Thanks for sharing.

Jay

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Nice outcome to an important person matter.

Prices for things like this do seem to be a lot cheaper in the mid-West than out here. I'm also addressing a similar matter. Grandfather never had a marker on his grave. Ninety yrs with nothing to ID the grave. I've contacted a funeral home in small Ok town and was pleasantly surprise at the $60 price quoted to receive marker from the VA, mount it in concrete then take it all out to the grave site and set it in the ground. Was really surprised that this was the same funeral home that took care of grandpa's funeral. Lady I spoke with gave me a lot of info about the service.

A few yrs back I had a marker set for my parents and cost about $180.

Like you TxJohn, I plan on paying the funeral home a little more than what they are asking.

 

[Redbug]

I think that turned out to be a really great deal all the way around. And the family is satisified, too.

Like Jay said...Just file what you learned into memory. One day you will have to move something else and you can draw on the past experience. That's why some older people get to be wise...

 

[wvpolekat]

If it's a double and already in place... what do they do when the second person passes? They don't engrave it right there in the cemetery do they? I would think that pull, engrave and re-install is not unheard of.

They are not actually "engraved", they are actually sandblasted. They use a rubber mask material to layout the pattern and then use a sand blaster to "mark" them.

I used to picture a guy with a hammer and chisel, until I met someone that did it.

 

[texasjohn]

Thanks for the sandblasting info... makes sense... also, in our case, the marker was completed some years ago along with the agreement that the death date would be added when the time came. Mom's date got added to the stone quickly. I saw no evidence of removal/replacement. Now, makes sense.

I, too, assumed chisels, removal, replacement.

Talking to the monument company, they said that it had been 17 years or so since they moved a marker. Funeral home person said they move a body only maybe once a year.

Seems what I did is rare, perhaps understandably.

What I did learn is that I would do well to make my own load leveler for moving heavy items myself in the future on the ranch...sometimes the FEL/forks alone isn't quite the ticket. I have the materials already.

 

[radioman]

wow - very interesting project esp. when it ended well. I sure learned a few things.

 

[2manyrocks]

that was a very, very reasonable price for peace of mind. Glad you got it done.

 

[charlz]

They are not actually "engraved", they are actually sandblasted. They use a rubber mask material to layout the pattern and then use a sand blaster to "mark" them.

I used to picture a guy with a hammer and chisel, until I met someone that did it.

Interesting info for sure, makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

 

[Wis Bang]

If it's a double and already in place... what do they do when the second person passes? They don't engrave it right there in the cemetery do they? I would think that pull, engrave and re-install is not unheard of.

I used to walk thru a pair of adjoining cemetaries to go to the municipal pool.

They do engrave the 2nd person's info at the grave w/ a small media blaster using their air compressor that powered the jackhammer & tamper. I also used to see the other person's info w/ their birth year a dash and 19__ already carved, think of all those 19__ that need to be blasted away and replaced by 20__....

Every new installation I saw included a wet contrete 'footer'...Take a post bar and check under the base slab; the footers were large and may add considerable weight.