Wife's family has a couple family grave sites where the marker stones have sunk and need to be re-set.

I don't think the cemetery will allow me and a couple redneck buddies with chains, come-a-longs, an old pickup or two and a couple bags of Quikrete to work on them.

So I told the wife we might spring for a gravestone company to pull and reset them... BUT before I expend any time or effort contacting and getting bids or committing to getting this done I thought I might ask the collective if anyone could advise a wild guess as to the cost.

Two stones. One larger newer one and one old one, circled in yellow. Note the vertical stone is starting to slide off the base. Circled in blue.

The small stone in between, circled in red, was made like that and is not sinking.

The larger, newer stone seems to have a concrete base under it that is still fitted to but angled, sunken, just like the actual stone.

The family is 6 siblings, but half of those would not be in condition to contribute funds toward this and I don't won't to ask the others and make some feel obligated to help. I can certainly afford to do it alone, just wondered if I need to prepare for sticker shock.

A few years ago a couple of monuments in the family plot started sinking. I called the shop that did the maintenance and asked about resetting. What I remember was about lifting the stone, then laying a bed of granite chips and resettling. Cost was a couple of hundred. (The city has granite quarries so there’s plenty of stone)
Last time I was back, the stones were fine.

Some rope, a couple two or three stout poles, a few cases of beer - and some farm boys (or girls).

Toss in a bag or two of gravel from Home Depot or Menards and you got this son!

I think I would first contact the cemetery and inquire what their rules were and perhaps what they would recommend.

flashguy

Ditto on working with the cemetery first. Our big cemetery here in town (city run as a park, in fact) has quite a bit of equipment adapted for the purpose of maintaining the graves.

Yes, asking the guys who maintain the park is the way to go.

The tops are connected to the base by either rebar rods or stone pegs and then sealed with caulking. Sometimes they are glued and it’s almost impossible to separate them.

This is a job for a pro.

Contact the cemetery and ask for any companies they suggest. This notifies them and will get you someone local.

The cemetery where my sister is buried has "perpetual care". They are responsible for grass cutting, among other things. When this occurred a few years ago, I called the church office and they took care of resetting the stone. You may want to inquire along those lines.

Absent that, as has been said, this may just be a job for someone who excels in this area.

Good luck.

I worked for a cemetery for about 7 summers through high school and college. Main responsibility was headstone leveling. The markers we adjusted or installed were much smaller but it was the cemeteries responsibility to address any concerns from family members. We would get work orders daily/weekly to make updates to markers, grass or flower vases. A spud bar and some Till would go a long way to get things leveled out. As otheres mentioned, start with the cemetery "office" and go from there.

If you decide to do it yourself , AND you get permission from the Cemetery ( doubtful ) , be extremely careful when prying and jacking on the base . If anything goes wrong , it will be expensive . That big double headstone in the picture has some serious weight to it .

I bottle of something tasty and $50 and one of the groundkeepers can probably take care of things for you.

Thanks for the replies...

The newer rock is ~50 years old.
I wouldn't tackle it myself, maybe 30 years ago...

It is a small Cemetery. No facilities at all. They will have zero employees and likely only a volunteer board.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
I wouldn't tackle it myself, maybe 30 years ago...

In February I drained, disconnected, and moved a radiator one foot. Lifting only one half at a time. Daaaaa-iiium! Who in the heck filled it with lead? Back in the day it would have been easy.

Twenty-five years ago I could scavenge an early 1800s marble step from a Fairmount teardown and get it into my truck with moderate effort but no issues. 350 pounds of stone. These days an 80 lb bag of concrete, I'm "careful".

G-mom's marker, we were going to pry it up and push dirt under it but a sly $20 tip, and the groundsman had it looking fresh and tidy before the next visit.

I wonder if foam concrete leveler like what is used on driveways would also work for this?

While I have no experience with tombstone resetting, I have built several stone/concrete block retaining walls. The key is always a good foundation. The hardest part will be moving the heavy tombstone. Once that's done you can excavate about 1 foot, compact the soil, and then put crushed limestone in the hole to a depth of 8-10 inches or so. A hand compactor should be enough to compact before leveling (from all sides) and replacing the stone.

quote:

It is a small Cemetery. No facilities at all. They will have zero employees and likely only a volunteer board.

I would still contact them, someone's taking care of the grounds, they may have people on file that will do this, those things are really heavy, they may have an arrangement with a firm or other cemetery to handle these things.