February 3, 2022
Memorials have been used to commemorate individuals or events for as long as humans have existed. Headstones and memorials provide a means to express your love for the departure of a friend or family member. It fulfils the human need to have a tangible expression of the years spent with the deceased.
However, like many other objects, headstones do not stay in their prime condition forever. Rather, they start to decay over time. This can either be due to harsh weather conditions or other means of damage. Sometimes, headstones may start to tilt due to soil settlement. Nevertheless, inconveniences like these can be avoided by purchasing high-quality headstones. Low-quality headstones don’t last long and even plant growth can damage its integrity.
Other common phenomena that end up damaging the surface of low-quality headstones include:
In this blog, we have listed some of the ways in which you can spot low-quality headstones.
Less expensive headstones are not necessarily the best value. When shopping for a headstone, you want something that will serve as a timeless memorial to the one you love. When you purchase your headstone from a well-known and renowned monument provider, you can rest assured that your money will not go to waste.
While choosing a monument, deciding on the colour and the type of headstone is not the only decision you have to make. Rather you have to consider the structural integrity of the headstone as well.
You want to choose a headstone that will stand the test of time and there are dealers out there who try to pass off lesser quality stones for less money.
The differences between a low-quality and a high-quality headstone can be very subtle and hard to see. If the headstone you are looking at costs significantly less than some other headstones you have considered, then you should be concerned that this is a lower quality headstone.
The problem with lower quality headstones is that they often contain undesirable minerals such as iron. The presence of iron can cause rust stains to appear on the surface of the stone. This is the iron ore coming out of the stone, which will require a lot of maintenance in the future to remove and even replace.
Lesser quality granites can contain small cracks. Especially here in Canada, water droplets in these small cracks can freeze during the winter, which can lead to larger cracks forming and eventually the structural decay of the memorial..
Higher quality granite has a natural contrast that will give dark shades for carving, unlike lower quality granites that will need to be highlighted with paint that will eventually fade over time, leaving the headstone hard to read and to see the designs.
The only way to deal with this is by going to a high-end and experienced monument provider. Summit Memorials only uses Grade A granite sourced from reliable quarries around the world. So when you buy from Summit Memorials, you know your headstone will look as good as the day it was installed.
Moreover, to keep the headstone in good condition, it is best to hire professional tombstone servicers who can provide regular maintenance for the headstone of your loved one. Headstones that are regularly maintained hardly require replacement or repair.
Let us help you honour your loved ones in the best way possible. Our specially trained staff tries to make the toughest time of your life a little bit easier by providing high-quality memorial services and products. The headstones that our craftsmen build are the best in the business. The granite headstones we provide in Alberta and Saskatchewan are guaranteed to never wear out or crack due to normal elements and weather conditions.
At Summit Memorials, we provide our customers with premium quality and well-crafted monuments, headstones, tombstones, and grave markers. For more information about our services, visit our website or contact us here today.
