Thread: Placing tombstones on driveway?

Tweet

Normally I put my tombstones in my back/front yard using rebar (I've made my own stoned and drilled holes in the bottoms, lined with electrical conduit to protect the foam). This has always worked a treat to keep them upright and from blowing away.

Now comes this year....I have a problem this year. I am doing a pirate-themed haunt in the back yard (complete with ship, treasure chests, et al) and the cemetery just won't work with it. None of the tombstones are nautical or pirate-themed and it just won't flow.

So....I plan on putting the tombstones on the driveway leading to the backyard. Does anyone have suggestions on how I can secure the tombstones for this purpose? I don't want anything too large or expensive (I'm sinking my money on pirates this year - forgive the pun), and nothing that TOT's can trip on in the relative darkness. I'm not too concerned with making it look like a grave - that I've got covered with green and brown towels, newspaper and leaves.

What to do with the tombstones themselves?

Perhaps glue the stone to a plywood base (but make sure you drill holes out for the rebar holes). Like this:



Then throw plywood sheets on the driveway and screw the bases to the plywood. Or, you could make the plywood bases bigger and weight them down individually. Also, you could screw the bases to lengths of 2 x 4's and weight the 2 x 4. Oh... or drill out holes in the corner of the plywood base and tie off to 2 x 4's that are weighted down. Cover the 2 x 4's with leaves or burlap and you shouldn't see them.

The reason I suggest to drill out the holes for the rebar is if you one day want to put them back in your yard. That way you'll have flexibility.

Thanks for the suggestions Terra! That's awesome. I will be using them in the backyard again, so the rebar holes are a must. I'm not sure about the plywood bases though - will the glue bond between the bases and the tombstones be strong enough to withstand wind?

Yes, it should. I use the base only for the obelisk and tie it down with tree stakes and no problem. Not sure if that is because the base area is bigger but am fairly confident that it should work for you.

What do you use for glue? I usually use Weldbond for my tombstones, but I'd like to know what you're using, since it works

Again, thank you for the advice, as I've been puzzling over this for a while.

I've been using loctite Instant Grip foam board glue but lately haven't been able to find it at home depot. They have a more generic version called loctite 300 foam board glue. Seems okay but not my preferred. Many others use it and they like it. I don't like it because it always seems old and dry and a pain to squeeze out. Could just be my luck...