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| Some markers are broken off at ground level and found laying flat in the cemetery. This exposes them to damage from mowers, pedestrians, as well as increased damage from acid rainfall. Such stones may be good candidates for resetting in a new socket. First, you need to be certain that other than the one break, the stone is otherwise sound -- there should be no cracks, spalling, or other damage. Another condition is that the stone must be able to be reset without hiding or burying any of the inscription. If your stone meets these two conditions, creating a new socket for the stone is really pretty easy and involves essentially two steps -- creating the socket and them resetting the stone. 1. Identify the location where the stone is to be reset and excavate a hole 6-10 inches longer than the width of the tablet and 6-10 inches wider than the thickness. The excavation should be about 8 inches in depth. This hole will serve as a "ground form" for commercial Portland cement (this is one of the few instances where commercial gray Portland cement is appropriate in cemetery preservation efforts). |
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 2. Prepare a wood form to create a slot in the concrete. This slot will be used to hold the stone upright. The wood can consist of 2x6s or 2x8s depending on how deep the socket needs to be to provide support to the stone. You will likely also need to use shims to make the form about 1/4-inch wider on each of the four sides than the stone (in other words, the slot in the concrete form will be 1/2-inch larger than the stone). Oil the wood so it will more easily slip out of the ground form as the concrete sets up. |
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 3. Place several inches of concrete at the base of the ground form, set in the prepared wooded slot, and fill the ground form with concrete to within a couple inches of the ground level (be certain that your slot form extends up beyond the concrete so you can remove it). Allow the concrete to set up for several hours and remove the wood form when the concrete will hold its shape (if you wait too long removing the wood form will become very difficult; if you attempt to remove it too soon, the wet concrete will slump. Allow the form to set up for at least 24 hours and preferably 72 hours.
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4. Prepare a fairly wet 1:4:8 mix of white (NOT gray) Portland cement : hydrated lime : clean sand. You use white Portland cement (ASTM C-150, Type II) since it does not contain sulfates or other soluble salts that can cause staining and efflorescence. The hydrated lime (ASTM C-207, Type S) helps provide high plasticity and water retention with a safe degree of strength. This setting mortar is softer than the stone and any failure is likely to occur in the mortar, preventing the stone from being broken. |
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 5. Place mortar mix in the base and on the sides of the slot, set the marker, and ensure that it is straight. If necessary, additional mortar can be added to the sides of the slot and small pieces of soft waste stone can be used as shims to hold the stone in position while the mortar sets. |
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 6. Never set a stone directly into cement. Not only does gray Portland cement contain impurities that will harm the stone, but the set concrete is far stronger than the stone. Any pressure to the stone (such as being hit by a lawn mower) will result in the stone snapping off at the base. The use of a form and a 1:4:8 mortar mix helps ensure that the stone won't be damaged. |
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Copyright©Alabama
Cemetery Preservation Alliance (ACPA), 2003-2009 |
