Raising and Leveling the Coping

The gravestones were excavated and placed on a tarp to get them out of the way and to prevent any further damage. Care must be taken to ensure the stones are placed in the order that you excavate them so you can replace them in the correct order. The footstones were removed also.

All the stones will be replaced when the coping has been raised, leveled, and straightened and new bases have been constructed for the headstones.





Excavation of the coping was begun. The granite coping consisted of four corner posts and ten rail sections about
4 ft. long: two on each side and three across the front and back. The top and around 5 inches of each side was finished, with the bottom and the remainder of the sides being unfinished. The uneveness of the bottom made leveling the rails a little tricky.



String lines were pulled to ensure the corner posts were square. After the corner posts were squared, the rails were raised, leveled, and set according to the corner posts. We used a mixture of sand and pea gravel under the coping to raise and level it. We wet the sand and use a tamp bar to compact the mixture under the coping to ensure it doesn't move. The sand and gravel also promotes drainage.


In the photo on the right, the plot is ready for the bases to be built and the gravestones repaired and replaced.




The two side sections of the coping on the left was left out and a board was used to keep the soil from washing.


These two sections will be replaced when the large coping rails of the Willis plot next to it are raised and leveled. We needed to leave some working room between them.