Instructions
Body Board/ Bier Burial
"A leakproof container" is often stated in the law as being required to transport a body.
Leakproof does not mean a box or bag that can be turned into a swimming pool.
Leakproof means you won't get bodily fluids trailing you wherever you bring the body.
The goal is to make transport through public spaces leak-free & smell-free
(the sooner in the first 24 hrs that cooling the body begins the less likely there will be a smell).
Bring, to make initial transport of a body from a care facility easier:
-A rigid board with handles (or a casket, or ask to use their stretcher or gurney).
-Two sheets from home (one under the body with a disposable diaper or chux pad) and one to cover the body: 3 min video demonstrating using a sheet to lift a body as a team: How to Carry a Body. A sheet is nice because if seepage begins it can be identified and bound immediately whereas a plastic body bag can spread leaking fluids all over the body, as well as build up heat and smells.
-A plastic sheeting or tarp for the bed of your vehicle in case travel leads to some seepage.
Larkspur Conservation Cemetery
Taylor Hollow, Nashville, TN
To make a solid board (a Bier) for carring a body, find a 2 ft wide sheet sheet of plywood (1/2" thick for light person, 3/4" thick for heavy person) of CDX plywood (must be sanded) or ACX plywood (no need to sand).
A 4 ft wide sheet from a home improvement store will cost about $60. They can cut it in half for you if you don't have a table saw.
Draw hand-holds about 1 1/2" from the edge. Drill a hole on the line of each (so you can get the saber saw into the hole. Saw the hand-hold ovals.
Use a king size sheet or blanket. In the above photo the body and board are wrapped separately. But if you don't want the form of the body to be visible then either place the body (on the board) on top of the fabric and wrap them together, or wrap the body as pictured above then cover with a pall (another sheet or blanket).
Setting the wrapped bier on a set of sawhorses may facilitate wrapping strips of sheeting at 5 points along the body (head, chest, waist, legs and feet).
Here is a guide for lifting, carrying and lowering a casket or body board for burial.
Get approx 1/2" rope or straps for lowering the bier into the grave.
For a 6 ft deep grave you need approx three 20 ft lengths of strap or rope (or six 10 ft lengths -which are left in the grave because they are tied to the handles). Manilla Rope is biodegradable.
Bring two or three heavy boards to traverse the grave if you want to the bier to rest over the grave before lowering. You would need another person to pull these out as the pall bearers lift the body before lowering it.
Heartwood Preserve Conservation Cemetery, Trinity, FL
Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery, Gainesville, FL
Photo courtesy of Melissa Hill
https://www.thenaturalfuneral.com/shrouds/
This is a company in Colorado that provides products like shrouds with heavy duty handles for use in lowering the deceased. AND they offer body composting (biological facilitated decomposition), alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation). and much more.
Premier Funeral in Utah mentions that they sell a Cremation Board for $75.