Thread: How do you stop gravestones from flying away??

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Anyone have tips for putting gravestones in the ground so they don't fly away? The cheap ones from the stores have the cheap plastic mounts and they break or fly away..tips?

I use Liquid Nails (the foam safe variety) and secure pvc pipe about 1/2 to 3/4's the way up the tombstone, then slip the pvc pipe over rebar that has been pounded into the ground.

What I did was drive in some flat spikes i made out of left over fence boards, put one in front and one in the back creating a vise to hold them in.

Originally Posted by The Crow 1994

I use Liquid Nails (the foam safe variety) and secure pvc pipe about 1/2 to 3/4's the way up the tombstone, then slip the pvc pipe over rebar that has been pounded into the ground.

This is exactly how we did it just last night! OMG after YEARS of frustration and generally being MAD...I found this forum and one of the members here gave me the same advice...it works GREAT! The PVC pipe we used was 3/4 inch, (i believe. Big enough to slip over rebar ) Also used the liquid nails. They will go nowhere...and once you make them and buy the reabar, you are set. Nothing else to do year after year. The smaller stones we just put one pipe in the center, the larger ones two to keep them from spinning. Its just the greatest! This forum saved me from trashing about 30 tombstones in frustration!!!

I used 12" bamboo skewers from Walmart ($.98 cents for 100). I have the tombstone for Kmart and Dollar Tree and the skewers worked great to keep them in the ground. I just pushed the pointed end in the the holes that were already in the bottoms of the stones and pushed them about 4 or 5 inches in then pulled them out and put the flat end in. I use another skewer to make holes in the ground then put them in the wholes. We had pretty gusty winds here and they never moved at all.

I made my stones out of plywood and screwed pvc to them and then pound it into the ground.

PVC pipe and Liquid Nails Construction Adhesive.

I'm doing this: Tombstone Anchoring

You could also attach them to a piece of plywood with Great Stuff and then cover the wood with dirt/leaves, ect..

I will go out on a limb and say the consensus here after 6 years is the pvc/rebar approach.

I actually retrofitted my "cheap" stones by laminating them to 2" piece of foam cut into the same shape, and painted. This gives the stone more depth for realism and allows me to embed the pvc inside the tombstone.

If you don't use pvc, you stand the risk having your rebar, stiff wire, bamboo, etc, poking out thru the front and ruining your night. ;-)