Styrofoam Gravestone Update

We built our original tombstones for Halloween 1998, and have used them every year since.

Most of this page is written from the perspective of post-Halloween 2001, having had four years experience with these tombstones ("gravestones after 4 years").

What did we get right? What did we do wrong? How would we do it differently?

Most of the lessons we learned have been folded into gravestone details. This page indicates how we learned them.

Paint adhesion
Rounded Edges
That aged look
Detail
Overall
Related Pages

Paint adhesion

Gravestones After 4 Years

The gravestones have actually held up rather well over the years. If you look closely at one or two of them, especially at the edges, you can see where some of the top coat of latex paint is scraping off. Large flat surfaces, like the front and back, seem OK.

It would appear that the damage is largely due to scraping on the edges as the stones are packed, unpacked, moved, stored, and jostled around. If they were sitting still, they would probably be in much better condition.

The stones will probably need to be touched up. And if we have to do that only once every four years, we're not doing all that bad.

But perhaps we could have done something to improve the adhesion between the latex paint and the styrofoam.

Rounded Edges

Gravestones After 4 Years

All of our gravestones have sharp rectangular edges where the sides meet the front and back. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because some grave monuments are indeed made this way.

But we suspect that it would be better to smoothly round the edges with a hot-wire "router". This helps the stones appear old, because the rounded edges look worn.

We think that rounded edges should also help with paint adhesion as the stones wear. We suspect that the angular edges focus the force of an impact and make the paint peel. Perhaps the paint will stay on better with rounded edges.