What is the best monument to put. What are monuments made of? Materials for making tombstones

This article is not about the cost of the monument, but about the quality of the work to be done and what materials to use.

When the time has come to order a monument, one should not be led by various rumors and superstitions that allegedly give the exact time for the correct installation of this structure from the date of burial.

This is not true, since there is no such clear time. Work can be carried out after 2 months, or even years. The Church has no recommendations on this issue either.

In order to avoid any future misunderstandings with the owners of the cemetery or relatives of the person buried in a neighboring grave, make accurate measurements of your area without going beyond its borders.

If there is a monument that you want to replace, you should remove it yourself. First you need to take a photo of him and a nameplate. And then, for ease of transfer, destroy it with a sledgehammer.

So, it will be easier for you to transport it to places intended for garbage. Thus, your wallet will save about 2 thousand rubles. After this procedure, you can start looking for companies that provide the services you are interested in.

You need to be prepared for the fact that making a monument will not be cheap. However, a number of firms provide the possibility of partial payment. That is, half of the cost must be paid for the work immediately, and the rest can be given within a year. In this case, the storage of the finished monument is not paid.

Shape and dimensions

Which monument to choose? They are made from marble chips, natural or synthetic granite. The difference in materials lies in the strength.

For example, a monument made of marble chips with a black insert will be weaker compared to granite. Although it costs less, but its quality is much worse.

Therefore, it would be better to order a small granite stele. In addition, this material lends itself well to the hands of the master to acquire the necessary forms. Monuments made of artificial granite and marble chips are usually made in advance, and they can no longer be changed in size and shape.

The next step is engraving. This is quite an important point in the design of the tombstone. If you plan to have a photo engraved on the monument, then pay attention to other works of the master.

Evaluate them for quality, the portrait should exactly copy the image in the photograph, and should not be flat. And also make sure that the work is done in even letters. Specify how the engraving is performed: manual or mechanical.

The best option would be monuments made by the hands of a master. Of course, they will be higher in cost, but they will last longer and will differ markedly in quality.

You can also ask where the material was brought from. The best black granite happens if its homeland is the Karelian deposits, Swedish, Ukrainian, Chinese and Italian quarries.

Moreover, such material should not change its shade in sunlight. High-quality granite does not have inclusions, prominent spots and strong cracks.

If you have found defects, then you have the right to ask for a discount. To find the most profitable option, go through several companies, specifying the cost of work according to the same parameters.

When the monument is made, it is not necessary to observe its installation. The workers will do everything themselves, it will be enough for them to show only the place of burial.

You can check the readiness of the order after installation. Carefully inspect the finished monument, the joints, whether it was placed exactly, if there is any clutter. Then be sure to check the warranty.

In order to get rid of the fouling of the grave with grass, you can concrete the site. If there is still money in stock, then you can decorate it with tiles. As a cheaper option, it will be enough to cover the ground with a layer of rubble, under which you first put polyethylene.

Subject to this minimum number of tips, you can not waste your money resources in vain and will be satisfied with the monument made to the grave.

Monument to the grave: how to choose? - a difficult question for those who have not previously encountered the organization of the funeral. There is no need to rush in this situation, because the only thing that can be done for the deceased is to perpetuate his memory with dignity.

The death of a person is usually the least expected. Fortunately, exceptions are much rarer.

What material is taken as the basis for creating

Making a monument to the grave is a difficult and time-consuming task. Visiting cemeteries or meeting monuments on the roads, you can see that they are different in their form and appearance. Before you make a choice, you should find out what the monuments to the grave are made of. There are several materials that are taken as a basis:

• stone chips;
• Bronze or wrought iron;
• Polymer granite;
• Marble;
• Granite.

The last option is the most common. Monuments created from this material live much longer than the same structures, which are based on other raw materials. Granite is very resistant to external conditions: neither severe frost nor large hail can damage it. Before choosing a granite monument, it is important to make sure that the source material is of high quality and will not deteriorate over time. About, how to choose monuments from granite experts will advise you.

How not to make a mistake in choosing a monument for a person of a different faith

The question of how to choose the right monument for the grave of a Chechen is very important. Religion is something that requires a respectful attitude, and this applies not only to life, but also to the memory of a person. It is strictly forbidden to erect a monument in the form of a sculpture. The installation of mazars is also unacceptable, which, from the point of view of Islam, is wasteful and will not be able to help the deceased in any way.

Understanding how to properly sign a Kazakh monument on a grave will help to avoid conflicts with both representatives of the Kazakh nationality and Chechens. An important rule is the absence of a photograph. According to Islamic laws, only the name of the deceased can be written on the stone.

Which monument is best for the grave of parents

Often, spouses who have lived together all their lives ask to be buried next to each other. This long tradition passes from one generation to another. That is why it is important to figure out how to choose a monument to the grave of parents and fulfill their last will.

Paired monuments on the grave is a common practice that has many advantages and disadvantages:

1. Less money is spent on it;
2. It looks aesthetic;
3. Saving space at the burial site.

The area where the remains are buried usually does not exceed an area of ​​​​5 square meters. If two monuments are placed on this small piece of land, it will look cumbersome and ugly. Putting up a bench or planting trees is out of the question. That is why such a choice of a monument to the grave will not be the most successful, and a paired structure, on the contrary, will help to win.

Currently, there are many funeral agencies that will provide monuments of all sizes and shapes. You should not be skeptical about the proposal on how to choose a monument for a grave according to reviews, because in this situation, not only your preferences are important, but also the advice of relatives and close people of the deceased. Knowing potential performers is also important because you will have a large selection.

Installation of the monument

There are no restrictions on which monument is better to put on the grave in the photo. Here it is important to understand what faith the deceased professed. For example, among Muslims, as mentioned above, this is completely unacceptable.

In order to decide which is better to install a monument on the grave, it is important to understand the own material capabilities and wishes of the deceased. After you have made your choice, you need to decide when you will erect a monument. It is not necessary to do this immediately after the funeral, and in most cases it is undesirable. It is recommended to wait about a year until the earth can settle and compact, and after that put up a monument. In this case, it will not squint and fall.

It is also undesirable to erect a monument in the winter season. The ground at this time is frozen and therefore the installation cannot be of sufficient quality. However, the area cannot be left empty.

A replacement in this situation is an ordinary wooden cross, on which it is imperative to note reliable data about the deceased person. Decide which monument to choose for the grave: according to reviews or on your own - only you.

Thus, the choice of a monument to the deceased is not an easy task, it is important to know which monuments to the grave are better, as well as to navigate in religious practice.

A tombstone is a tribute to memory and respect, evidence of the undying love of the grieving loved ones for the untimely departed person. That is why I want the monument installed on the grave to be beautiful and durable. Granite is able to adequately express and preserve the memory of the deceased for centuries, and this largely determines the choice of this material for making a tombstone.

Numerous granite workshops in Moscow and the Moscow region offer a wide range of products. How not to get confused when choosing? How to buy a granite monument inexpensively, but not lose quality? What exactly does Monument Studio offer and what are our advantages?

Free consultation

Stage 1: choosing the type and shape of the monument

Almost any geometric shape can be created from granite: a stele, a cross, a slab, an exclusive monument or a whole memorial complex. The cheapest way is to buy a finished monument from the catalog or directly from us at the production site located at the Perepechinsky cemetery; ordering a monument according to a sketch and a photo will cost more, and in this case the final cost will depend on the complexity of the work.

At Monument Studios, you can buy a graveyard monument in a variety of shapes, sizes, and designs.

A stele is the most popular and widespread version of a granite monument for a grave.

• most often installed on the grave of one person. In the standard version, such a monument includes a rectangular granite slab, rounded or beveled from above, tapering or expanding downwards, and a pedestal on which this slab is installed.
• more often ordered for family burials. In contrast to the vertical stele directed upwards, in this case, the horizontal dimensions of the slab predominate. Here you can order a monument for a grave for two of a standard or figured form and supplement it with various decorative elements.
• The figurative monument is distinguished by complex shapes, it can be made in the form of a complex cross, heart, flower, consist of several elements carved from one granite slab, or from different types of granite. Such forms are a distinctive feature. Figured monuments are more often for women and children, monuments for men usually look laconic and strict.
• Memorial complex - a composition of several ritual items, a monument, a tombstone or half-tombstone, a flower garden or individual vases, a table, a bench and other elements. You can order a project of the monument in a complex - our craftsmen will justify your trust, create a unique composition that will convey all the sorrow for your loss.

The company "Monument Studio" manufactures and sells granite monuments of various shapes. You can buy a monument of a standard form, conclude an agreement for the manufacture of a product according to the catalog, purchase an additional granite plinth and a wrought-iron fence. You can order a monument project according to your own sketch or photograph - in any case, the monument created by us will be of high quality and will decorate the grave of a person close to you for a long time. All granite monuments and other ritual products offered by us are the embodiment of aesthetic taste and fully meet the expectations of customers.

2nd stage: material selection

"Monument Studio" is one of the best granite workshops in Moscow and the Moscow region. For the manufacture of monuments, we chose granite for a reason. This natural stone is highly resistant to fracture. Tombstones made of this type of granite have been preserved in their original form for hundreds of years, withstanding all the vagaries of nature: exposure to sunlight, rain, snow, wind, temperature changes and the aggression of vandals. They do not crumble, do not crack, do not deform or fade, and at the same time they do not need special care. Over time, the inscriptions fade on the stone, but after their restoration, the granite monument looks like new and does not require restoration.

Here you can order a grave monument made of noble black Karelian gabbro-diabase granite, gray Mansurovsky granite with green inclusions, black with blood-red sparks Garnet amphibolite. Dark red-brown shades are represented by Karelian Dymovsky granite and India Red, green - by Maslovsky granite and Pyroxenite. The bright raspberry Leznikovsky granite and sparkling red Aurora, gray-blue iridescent Blue Pearl and black interspersed with gray, blue and green Arctic Blue are unusually good. All these materials have not only distinctive external features, but also different characteristics and price.

The most popular is the Karelian gabbro-diabase granite, which has an optimal price-quality ratio. A little less often in the production of monuments, we use red and red-brown types of stone. You can get acquainted with samples of the material in the catalog and showroom of our production.

Doubt about choosing granite for the monument? We always provide our customers with comprehensive information, help to choose and order a monument at the cemetery, which is optimal from an aesthetic and financial point of view.

Stage 3: choosing a method for applying a portrait and decoration for a monument

After you decide on the type of granite and the shape of the monument, you need to order a photo for the monument, choose the method of drawing a portrait, informational inscriptions, the content and design of decorative elements.

Most often, engraving is used to decorate a monument - applying an image to a stone by impact and carving. The quality of work largely depends on how the portrait is applied - manually or using a special machine. A portrait made by a professional artist looks voluminous and most accurately conveys facial expressions, the play of color and halftones. Modern technologies allow the engraver to work with digital images. The photo of the deceased is scanned, retouched if necessary, subjected to artistic processing, digitized and transferred to the stone, after which the master proceeds directly to creating an engraving manually or automatically. When drawing a portrait automatically, it is possible to achieve an exact repetition of the facial features and geometry of the selected decorative elements, but the image turns out to be “flat”.

A feature of stone engraving is the gray color of the resulting images, so portraits made by this method are clearly readable on dark monuments. If you decide to order a monument made of light granite, our craftsmen will offer you an engraving of a portrait on an insert made of gabbro or dolerite, which are optimally suited for such works, and an engraving in color. When creating a color engraving, stable paints are applied to the portrait, which penetrate into the "pores" of the stone and are fixed on its surface. A portrait made in this way looks realistic and distinguishes the monument from other ritual structures.

Another popular option for portraits is photoceramics. The image is applied to a ceramic plate using a ceramic printer and special paints, fixed with glaze during firing, and due to this it acquires mechanical strength, resistance to moisture and UV rays. Such a portrait does not need special care and retains its clarity up to 50 years.

In addition to the portrait, information inscriptions, words of sorrow (epitaphs), religious symbols, frames, artistic compositions from hands, floral ornaments, images of angels, birds or animals are applied to the monument. An ordered monument made of granite can be decorated with decorative elements made of bronze, marble, acrylic, they are attached to a special high-strength glue or pins. In the catalog presented on the site you will find various design options for the front and back sides of the monuments.

What is the cost of a grave monument?

• The cost of the granite material used to make the monument;
• The cost of stone processing (cutting, cutting shapes, grinding, polishing);
• The cost of photoceramics or portrait engraving;
• The cost of engraving inscriptions (name, dates, epitaphs) and various decorative elements.
• The cost of delivery of the ordered tombstone to the grave (self-delivery is possible).
• The cost of installing a monument (self-installation is possible) is additional in case of ordering these services.

How much is the cheapest granite monument?

The cheapest monument in the Studio Monument costs 10,800 rubles. This is the lowest possible price for a quality granite monument.

We produce granite monuments ourselves, which eliminates the surcharge for intermediary services.

Intermediary companies that buy ready-made molds from manufacturers cannot operate at a loss; their income consists of a trade margin. Therefore, monuments at the same price as in the Studio Monument, the intermediary will be an order of magnitude worse than ours.

Why are the prices for monuments lower in some granite workshops in Moscow and the Moscow region? Can a granite monument cost 2 times cheaper than ours?

What do other manufacturers save on?

• cheap granite material

The quality and, accordingly, the cost of granite depends on the natural conditions of the deposit. In the production of tombstones, Monument Studio uses mainly Karelian granite, recognized as the best in terms of its physical and decorative properties. A monument made of Karelian gabbro-diabase granite can stand for hundreds of years without special care. While the monuments made of Ukrainian and Chinese granite require repair and even replacement after a few years.

Cheap granite from Ukrainian and Chinese deposits contains little quartz, which gives the stone strength, a lot of iron compounds and mica inclusions. Due to the high content of iron, a cheap granite monument bought in a couple of years becomes covered with “rusty” stains, the portrait and inscriptions on it become covered with a green coating and fade. Mica crumbles, and this causes cracks and destruction of the monument.

In addition, in most Ukrainian deposits, granite is mined by explosion, which causes the formation of microcracks in the stone. A monument made of such granite does not last long, water penetrates into the cracks, at low temperatures the water expands, the granite slab splits and collapses. Karelian granite is mined by chipping, which eliminates the appearance of hidden defects and microcracks in the stone monolith.

As a rule, one-day firms work with low-quality granite, therefore, when a monument is destroyed, there is no one to complain to. Monument Studio has been operating in the funeral services market for more than 15 years, has trusted granite suppliers, uses modern equipment and provides guarantees not only for ordered tombstones, but also for all types of work performed.

How to distinguish Ukrainian gabbro granite and Karelian gabbro-diabase granite? Ukrainian stone has a "dirty" color with "rusty" patches and streaks. Karelian gabbro-diabase is black with small gray patches.

• Cheap labor

Some companies cannot or do not want to maintain their own staff of installers and attract people “from the street” with insufficient work experience during the season. They do not provide any guarantees. The ordered monument actually costs less, but there is a high risk that it will not meet your expectations, lose its appearance and crumble in a couple of years.

Monument Studio specialists have a specialized education and more than 12 years of experience, we guarantee that the monument purchased from us will be beautiful, of high quality and durable.

• Incomplete and poor-quality polishing of the monument

Saving on polishing a granite monument is one of the most common ways to save money. Managers convince clients that granite in its original form, polished on one or three sides, looks highly artistic and exclusive. The fact that unpolished stone requires complex care and is subject to rapid destruction, as a rule, is silent.

The quality of a granite monument can be affected by artisanal polishing of the stone with the help of a “grinder” and a polishing nozzle. Upon closer inspection, the surface of the stone looks uneven and bumpy. Order a monument from Monument Studio and you can be sure that the surface of the granite slab, its curves and decorative elements will be mirror-smooth, polished from all sides.

• Savings on engraving work

Stone engraving is a type of graphic art that requires not only professional knowledge of the technique of stone embossing and carving, but also artistic taste. Engraving of a portrait and decorative elements is a crucial stage in the creation of a monument. It is difficult for a non-professional to achieve a complete resemblance of a portrait applied to a stone and an image in a photo provided as a model when ordering a monument for a grave. Surely you would not want the portrait on the monument to only remotely resemble a person close to you?

Monument Studios employs engravers with more than ten years of experience in the ritual field. When ordering a granite monument, we guarantee the high quality of the portrait and its full correspondence with the photograph of the deceased.

• Savings on installation work

The service life of a purchased tombstone largely depends on the quality of installation work. Some companies entrust the erection of monuments, wrought-iron fences and other ritual structures to dubious cheap brigades "from the street" recruited for the season of work in cemeteries.

The use of manual labor during unloading and installation of a ritual structure often leads to damage to the monument. Violation of the technology of its installation, neglect of the quality of the soil, lack of proper preparatory work, a solid metal frame and a concrete base cause the monument to skew, crack and prematurely collapse. Savings on materials make their sad contribution: glue, concrete mixture, grouts for joints, water-repellent composition for the final processing of granite.

The monument studio has a permanently formed staff of assemblers of ritual structures. We provide a guarantee for installation work for a period of up to three years and, if necessary, eliminate all problems that arise free of charge. In addition to the monument, you can order a wrought iron fence and a granite base from us - they will be installed in combination with the monument.

Entrust the landscaping of the burial site to the specialists of Monument Studio! We will meet your expectations!

How to buy or order a monument from us at Monument Studios?

1. Choose a finished monument yourself from the catalog presented, order a monument by filling out the form on the website, wait for the manager to call to discuss the details.

2. Order a free calculation of the cost of the monument according to your sketch or photo.

3. Select and order a ready-made burial project (memorial complex).

4. Come to our production site at the Perepechinskoye cemetery and order a monument by filling out an agreement and making an advance payment.

5. Order a free manager's consultation by phone.

6. Order a free face-to-face consultation with a manager and wait for his arrival.

Mistake #1

It lies in the fact that Most of the time people start worrying about monument almost immediately before the planned installation of it on the grave. That is, they come to the office of the company and ask to do monument as soon as possible, almost a week. At the same time, such customers are very surprised when they are denied in a short time, they even take offense at the company: after all, they are in a hurry, there is little time left until the funeral days, and they do not want to meet halfway. It is sometimes impossible to explain to such people that in a short time no firm of good monument won't do. Judge for yourself: average order production time - 2 months, what if monumentnot typical, then more. Hurrying customers do not want to listen to anything about the queue to order. But in good agencies there are always a lot of customers, and therefore there are considerable queues.

In short, I realized thatmonument to the graveit is best to order somewhere six months before its installation. Moreover, decent ritual companies always have warehouses for finished products, and they are stored until the required time. is free. So try to take care of the order monument a few months before installation, and you do not have to be nervous in the spring.

Mistake #2

- this is unsuccessful choicefirms. To avoid it, you need to take into account several factors and check something. Firstly, about when you visit an agency, immediately find out if it has its own granite workshop. If not, it's better to look for another funeral company, otherwise you won't get any problems. After all, no one is immune from the marriage of finished products. Whereas an agency that has a workshop will eliminate the marriage itself.

It is especially good, of course, if the company has not only its own workshops, but also quarries. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. In such, I found out the quality of the stone is always better and the price is monuments below.

And of course pay attention to different stock! Reputable companies often conduct them. For example, promotional discounts for monumentsin winter. They are usually very good. This is understandable: in winter, ritual agencies have few orders, people are sitting without work. So promotions are being announced to spur consumer demand at this difficult time for sales. So here, as in the proverb: prepare a sleigh in the summer, and a cart in the winter. That is winter monumentbuy much more profitable than at other times of the year, and even more so in the spring, when ritual firms have a lot of clients.

Mistake #3

Often people make mistakes. For example, they do not take into account the climatic features of the area where the cemetery and, accordingly, the grave are located. And yet, they did not understand the characteristics of the stone.

Let's say we chose you marble monument. Nothing to say, marble is a beautiful and noble material. Monument done, delivered, you are happy with everything. But after a year and a half, you suddenly notice that he, firstly, lost its original luster, Secondly, inengraved photos and inscriptions somehow "blurred". And in general, on your marble headstone mold has appeared! All this means that you, firstly, did not take into account the humidity of the air in your region. High humidity - the cause of fungus on marble. Secondly, marble, indeed, fades with time, and the images on it become more cloudy.

I myself when ordering monument, slab and other accessories to the grave , stopped at granite. It is beautiful, has different color shades and is durable. Granite monument on the grave of my great-grandfather for more than 40 years, and he is almost like new.

Mistake #4

She's bound with wrong choosing a portrait for a monument. Sometimes people order, for example, too much a large portrait that either hardly fits into the overall dimensions, or prevents it from being reasonably and beautifully placed on the body monument necessary and symbols. Sometimes there is another extreme: relatives want to have a full-length image on a small tombstone. But you have to understand that such choice only suitable for very large monuments , otherwise the face in the portrait will come out too small.

Here comes the disappointment – large.

When will you choose photo for portrait,try not to be group. Of course, modern computer technology will easily allow you to separate the desired image from the group. But now imagine the feelings of those acquaintances of the deceased from the photograph, who will understand that it was it that was used as a prototype. After all, many of us are superstitious, prone to prejudice and would hardly want such a discovery. One more thing. In order not to be mistaken choose, bring the artist a few possible photos, let him choose the right one in the process of making a portrait.

Mistake #5

Many people do it based on purchase monumentcheaper. The desire to save money is understandable. Most of us are not rich people. Some unscrupulous ritual offices are playing on this. They sell cheap monuments from surrogate materials, passing off artificial stone as natural. And after a short time monument on the grave starts to crumble. This is both embarrassing and embarrassing.

Remember my dears that real granite, marble or other quarry stone is not cheap. Hence the relatively high price of a blank for a truly durable tombstone. So that save wisely: better use promotions and discounts offered by agencies.

These are my observations and conclusions regarding how NOT to choose a memorial and what to consider in order to avoid mistakes in this complex matter and not add unpleasant disappointments to yourself. I hope my experience is useful to someone!

A person's close people are faced with a sad but necessary task - to order and install a monument on the grave.

In many cases, this causes heated discussions among family members or, on the contrary, general confusion - because no one has come across this issue before, and no one knows what is really important and what you can not overpay for ...

The site site will try to give objective advice.

Why are some monuments more expensive than others?

There are three significant factors that affect the price:

• Material.
• Dimensions and presence of additional objects near the tombstone. A set of a monument, a fence, a bench, a table and other items made in the same style is called a memorial complex.
• The uniqueness of the project. Ready-made “stamped” monuments, to which a tablet is only screwed or engraved, are fundamentally cheaper than monuments for special orders - with statues, portrait busts or bas-reliefs, non-standard shapes, etc.

As for the material, the most expensive are tombstones made of natural solid stone (granite or marble). Bronze and brass are even more expensive, but casting a whole monument out of them is so unreasonably expensive that such things are extremely rare.

"Budget" materials are polymer granite, artificial stone with the addition of marble chips and, of course, the most ordinary concrete.

Is an expensive monument necessary?

This question, of course, will arise at the family council, but… In our mentality, attempts to save money on rituals and ritual items are still considered something shameful, which is embarrassing to discuss…

It is not uncommon that a family spends a really significant amount on a memorial complex or an elaborate designer monument, guided by the motives “to be like people”, “to be worthy”, etc., but in fact, deep down everyone understands that these costs had no practical meaning, and the memory of the deceased does not depend in any way on the cost of that piece of stone that was placed in the cemetery plot ...

More expensive and durable monuments are more often ordered in such cases:

• For family or couple gravestones. If there is a family plot in a cemetery where several generations of relatives have already been buried, or, for example, the graves of a grandfather and grandmother are nearby, then it is worth putting one monument instead of several monuments of different prescription (and varying degrees of preservation). Indicate on it all those buried in this area and, perhaps, leave a place for the subsequent entry of new names ...
• If the family is large, and all family members honor the custom of "parents' day" - that is, the site in the cemetery will probably be regularly visited by a large number of relatives for many decades to come, for which both benches and a table will come in handy ...
• If the deceased was a public person, and his grave will certainly be visited by both relatives and various strangers, and subsequently, perhaps, will become of cultural and historical interest.

And now let's talk about purely practical points.

Durability

The most durable monuments are made of granite (they can stand safe and sound for several centuries!) and marble (marble is less resistant, but in the climate of central Russia it will surely last a hundred or two hundred years with dignity). Concrete-based monuments stand for several decades.

Modern materials such as polymer granite are also theoretically capable of standing for about half a century or even longer, but in practice this has not yet been tested - the material is new, and the oldest graves with such tombstones are now about 20 years old.

So what - is it still worth straining your financial capabilities and acquiring a granite monument "for centuries"? Not necessary!

Are you sure (objectively, without "rose-colored glasses") that all these centuries the grave will be regularly visited by descendants, that the monument will be important and necessary to them? After all, those people for whom the place of burial of a relative is really very important are those who caught him alive: you, perhaps your children, that is, one or two generations.

Statistics show that the majority of Europeans and Russians, our contemporaries, do not visit the graves of great-grandparents (and even more so distant great-great...), and often do not know where they are buried. And for one human life, for one generation, a tombstone made of artificial stone is quite enough. In the end, if this grave is as important to the descendants as it is to you, they will surely be able to replace the crumbling old monument with something new.

The need for care and restoration

In general, it will not be possible to do without care - even a polished stone will have to be washed and cleaned at least once a year to maintain a decent appearance. It is customary to tint concrete every couple of years so that it does not leave streaks and stains.

You may ask - why, then, every spring, almost the entire population of the country goes to cemeteries with rather big buckets of paint, what can be painted there? .. Everything is simple - cast metal fences, benches and tables require constant tinting - last year's peeling paint looks terrible and unpainted metal rusts.

Do not want to tint - order forged fences (but they are more expensive!).

Paired or single monument?

Here you need to show maximum tact.

For example, if the deceased was married several times, is he worth it together with one of the former spouses, how will children from previous marriages and / or a widow look at this? If he / she had a child who died and was buried before his / her death, is it worth arranging a common gravestone - what do those children who are alive, as well as a widow or widower think about this (after all, perhaps the widow / widower will want to indicate in own will, a request to bury her/him next to a previously deceased spouse)?

In general, there can be a lot of subtleties - and this is the question where you should not neglect the opinion of relatives.

Religious Requirements

If the deceased was religious, be sure to study all the canons of his religion before ordering a monument. For example, Catholics allow figures of mourning angels to be placed over graves, while an Orthodox headstone is just a simple cross without any statues!

Muslims consider statues, portraits, and plates with photoceramics to be blasphemy.

Cemetery Requirements

Do not forget to ask the cemetery administration in advance what dimensions of monuments are allowed here and what features should be taken into account in the design. This is especially true if the cemetery is specialized - say, a military one, or at a monastery, etc.

In general, the advice of the Beautiful and Successful site is this: look at the problem from different angles, listen to different opinions, look for information about materials, technologies, prices and design options - but remember that you are buying only a monument, not a memory of the deceased close person!

The size, quality and cost of the tombstone do not show your love and sorrow - they only show the amount of money that the family was able to allocate for the tombstone.