Thread: Mausoleum questions

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I'm in the planing stages of making a mausoleum, and i was wondering if it was possible to make it without using wood framing. I was thinking of drilling holes in the sides of the foam and inserting dowels at intervals and gluing them down. then the sides would be held together that way. Also when i bought my house it came with 3 huge boxes of gypsum ceiling tile, I was wondering if i could use it for that instead.

Do you plan to store this inside or outside? Inside, you should be ok. Outside, it doesn't stand a chance with the elements. I framed mine and added a layer of 1 inch white foam. The first off season, the wind tore the back off. Just last month, a freak storm punched a hole in the roof and ripped off one side of foam. I'm replacing the foam with thin sheets of wood panels.

In theatre, we always do wood framing, then cover it with thin plywood (louon), then glue foam on top of that...even for sets that won't ever be interacted with.

So, while you could go without wood, I wouldn't recommend it.

If you're placing it outside at all, I'd go with wood framing and some sort of wall system that has a bit of weight - either light plywood, masonite, etc... both for weather resistance and for stability.

I built my crypt/mausoleum out of wood 1x2s, 1/2 inch foam core. It worked, but it's being rebuilt this year with heavier materials - too much damage from wind and stormy weather due to it being so lightweight. Last year a very short storm moved through and within 15 minutes, the roof was ripped off and in pieces, and my square wall form was a parallogram - had to use snips to cut the screws at the corners that bent.

Sure, you can build one out of nothing but foam, but it won't be really sturdy with even a light wind and it really, really sucks when you build something and put a whole lot of paint and detail on it to have it destroyed by wind.

i have done allot of work with styrofoam, lots of big things like mauseleums, however I have very thick styrofoam , ,i would not do the dowling thing if you have thin styrofoam walls itll just crumble and the dowling would not support the walls properly,in tougher conditions. what you could do however is get a 1/2 inch piece of plywood and cut it into 2 inch strips and bond it to the styrofoam then all you would have to do is get some 90 degree angle brackets to put it together, framing is most effective if you are making a mauseleum, I have to build my stuff for very inclimate weather , trust a canadian haunter

I was thinking of having it in the garage with a fog chiller inside. I think the thickest you can get is the 2 inch blue foam, is that right?

I agree with the others here. Build something that will last, but something that can be taken apart easily and stored. Just doing the set-up then break down will place immeasurable stresses and strains on a prop or setting. If you take the extra time and don't skip steps, you'll have something that will endure.....inside or out. The more i look around this site, the more i can see the care, time and patience put into some of the props here and year after year i can see in the photos and videos those very same elements used over and over successfully because the builder was careful. I know that i don't want to have to do something twice or repair it on the "big day" because i broke it unpacking it!

I have 8 inch to 12 inch thick styro you can find it but it may be expensive I recovered mine from a industrial dump site they had literally a truckload of 4 foot by four foot by 8 inch thick pieces, i took as much as I could haul in a one tonne, it was the white stuff i think it is also used for floatation docks and building concrete forms around??

I built mine with a 3/4" PVC frame covered with 1 1/2” foam. I used dry wall screws with large washers to attach the foam. The best part was that I could disassemble it. I identified the points where I wanted it to come apart at and didn’t glue the PVC in those areas. I travel to multiple State Parks and need it to be portable. It lasted through one season but was destroyed by high winds at the end of the season but only because I didn’t have it anchored properly. Here is a picture of it at Indian Lake State Park in Ohio and under construction in the garage: