Guide to Selecting the Best Stone for A Headstone

A grave headstone is a sensitive item, and it must be selected carefully and chosen with care. It is a way of paying tribute to a loved one. Therefore, you should leave no stone unturned to find the best possible headstone material.

People in the past have used wooden plates, rocks, and mosaics, as a headstone. However, these things are no longer considered a proper way of paying tribute to a loved one. If you are looking for a proper way to pay tribute to a lost loved one through a headstone.

For many people experiencing the loss of a loved one for the first time, deciding on a headstone can be confusing. To better understand which headstone is best for your loved one you must know and understand the following:

What Is the Location of The Grave?

The location of the grave matters a lot in selecting the kind of headstone that you will need. If the grave is located in damp soil, you should go for a harder stone. This is especially needed when the grave is located beneath a tree. Granite is the most suitable type of stone for a headstone in damp places.

What Is Your Budget?

Your budget parameters help in determining the most suitable headstone for you. There are different stone materials available for graves, and you can buy them according to your budget. A headstone can cost you anywhere between $1500-$8000. Therefore, you must decide on the type of stone that you want according to your budget.

Inexpensive Stones For Headstones

Granite is an inexpensive choice and the most popular when it comes to having a headstone. Granite is the most common material that you find when walking through a cemetery. The cost can range from $250-$700 for a flat, grass-level headstone.

Granite headstone comes in a variety of colors such as mahogany, mist black, Missouri red, dominion pink, grey, and more. However, the price may vary according to the color, and every color may not be available in all places.

Other than this, natural boulders are also used as a headstone. If you have a large plain stone in your backyard, you can use it as a headstone. Or you can buy it at a cheap price. Make sure that the cemetery allows the natural boulder. Moreover, if you have one, you can contact companies such as Summit Memorials to have it engraved.

Expensive Choices

Expensive stones may include marble and bronze. Bronze is not a stone but can be used as a headstone. Marble was inexpensive in the 19th century, but it is until recently that its price has increased. Marble doesn’t go well with moist places.

The price of such materials can range from $1500-$15,000 for a headstone depending on the size and other considerations.

Do You Want Your Headstone To Blend In With Its Surroundings?

If you want to blend your headstone in with surrounding headstones, you may have a limited choice. This is because you would have to pick a similar color and stone as the other headstones have.

However, you can pick a different color and size of the headstone if you want your headstone to stand out from the rest. Ask your cemetery if it has a certain set of regulations for installing a headstone.

How Do You Want to In script Your Headstone?Your choice of a stone will also depend on the length of the inscription that you want on it. If you want long quotations on a headstone, you may need a stone that can have small letterings. Some stones are soft and therefore need larger lettering.Would You Like Your Headstone To Be Hand Carved Or Machine Carved?

While granite and marble are tough choices for using on a headstone, they are not hand-carved easily. You may need softer materials to pick for a hand carving. Granite and marble are hard to carve, even with steel and iron tools. Special machines can carve them and form the inscriptions that you want. Slate, limestone, sandstone, and york stone are a good choice if you want hand-carved inscriptions.

All these basic questions will help you to select the right kind of stone. The headstone finishes such as polished, honed, pitched, or part-polished also affect the outlook of your headstone.

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