# Sturdier Tombstones?



## TipoDeemin (Oct 8, 2005)

Last year, I built my first _real_ set of tombstones for my yard haunt. They're made of that wonderful pink foam, are about an inch thick, and are glued with construction adhesive to wooden boards, which I then secure in the ground with some nice, heavy-duty nails (an idea I happily filched from someone's site). I love this, because I don't have to hide the backs of my tombstones--only the bases.

But there's a problem. It gets really windy here in October, and some of my larger tombstones catch the wind a little too well. So far, three of five large stones have cracked and fallen right off their bases. They always break off right at the bottom, either along the top line of the adhesive or directly through it. It's been suggested to me that I glue thin strips of wood along the backs of the stones, all the way down to the base, for support, but like I said, I love the fact that I don't have to hide the backs, so I'm very iffy on doing this. I've also thought about simply making the large stones double-thick by gluing another sheet of foam to the back, but I hate to completely rework them without knowing if the solution is a good one.

This year, I'm just going to do a quick fix on them and glue them back on, but is there anything I can do to them for next year to make them more sturdy without ruining the illusion I'm going for?


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

I'd suggest making them out of 2" foam in the future.

You could drill holes from the bottom up (be careful not to break through the face of the stone) and insert some wooden dowels to make it more sturdy in the middle areas.


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## Vlad (Aug 2, 2005)

I agree that the best answer lies in using a thicker foam to begin with. I've also heard that the foam can be strengthened by applying a top coat of something called adhesive ground coat, a thin cement type product, but I've yet to be able to find it. Neither idea is much help to you at the moment though. Zombies idea seems to have the most merit. Reinforce them from within. Or maybe some chicken wire glued to the back, and then covered with monster mud.


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