Restoring a Cemetery Plot (part II)

Ahh, I most definitely, and probably my father, are now feeling the pain, tight/sore back muscles from restoring the grave site of my great great great grandparents Michael & Magdelena Behrhof and some of their children at Our Lady Help of Christians cemetery in Glenmont.  The project took a little under four hours to complete.  It was hard work digging up the marble bases and the lower foundations and then leveling them.  But it had too be done.  All four grave stones had toppled over from age, gravity, settling of the soil, and I am sure the stones were hit by lawnmowers over the years.  

A series of photographs and details will be used to explain how this was accomplished.  Unfortunately the project is not 100% complete.  The stones need to be fully scrubbed with a monument cleaner called D/2 Biological Solution and the upper stones will need a monument epoxy spread in between the upper stone and the lower base to fully secure them.  All of the stones have been re-pinned with new steel rod.

Plenty of hand tools, levels, rakes, shovels, stone dust, crusher-run, a hammer-drill, a portable generator, steel rods, tampers, water, and cleaning materials were brought to the cemetery.  I did not want to forget anything that I might need!  The area looked like a construction zone.

After the grave stones were moved out of the way and the lower bases also removed, the bottom foundation was dug up and removed.  It was tilted approximately 45 degrees.  Very far from being level.

Next the soil under the bottom foundation was tamped down and a crusher run base was laid over the tamped soil.  The crusher run was then tamped down (upper photo).  A layer of stone dust was then put over the crusher run and leveled (lower photo).

The foundation stone was then placed on top of the leveled stone dust and checked for levelness (above picture).  Next the area around the foundation was back-filled and tamped (lower picture).  Note the drilled holes in the foundation.  Originally these holes had steel nails which held the base stone to the foundation.

Although this next photo is a gravestone base for a different tombstone at the Behrhof plot, it shows the new steel pins which were measured, cut, and installed in the base.  The actual gravestone then was set upon this base stone.  Holes were already drilled in the gravestone to accommodate the steel pins.  Note the cracks in this base stone.  My next project here will be to epoxy and seal the cracks.  The stone is cracked but not broken.

The remainder of this project will be continued in part III.