Joined
·
722 Posts
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?
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?
