Simple Affordable Caskets, Shrouds & Beirs

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Moving a Body 

The group effort of Lifting a Body (3 minute YouTube video)

Making & Using a Bier (pronounced beer) Pictures and Instruction.

Handy Tips for safely carrying & lowering a casket

You don't have to be licensed to transport your own dead.

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Sealer Caskets 

Avoid buying sealer caskets unless you want the contents to become gaseous and moldy (Picture a tomato decomposing in a cardboard box vs a plastic bag. The sealer casket is the disgusting plastic bag method.) A sealer casket may cost hundreds more but just adds a rubber gasket between the closure edges.

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Affordable Caskets Further Away​

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Cardboard Caskets Typically purchased as part of a cremation or immediate burial package. $150 & up 

TitanCasket.com Ships to Utah in 2 to 5 days. Cloth Covered $1K Steel $1300 & up Includes s&h

ArkwoodCaskets.com Arrives flat, interlocking dovetail assembly in 30-40 min (no screws!) $788 includes s&h

TrustedCaskets.com Standard metal and wood caskets, $1,450 & up Includes s&h

Shroud Cotton, Denim, Bamboo $395-695 

Basket Carrier Willow $895

 

Cardboard casket facts article:  https://funeralcircle.com/cardboard-caskets/

 

Build Your Own Casket 

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6 Different Casket Building Instructions here: https://www.lastthings.net/coffins

 

Free 2 page casket plan (donated by Robert Alexander) 

Robert says,

"if a cemetery requires a vault or a grave liner, the first thing a DIY homemade casket builder should do is find out the inside dimensions of the (standard, mid-sized, and large) burial vaults used in that cemetery. 

In [Northern Utah] the interior of a standard-sized burial vault is 86 inches long by 29 inches wide by 24 inches deep. A casket needs to be made 1 inch smaller than those dimensions.

So the casket cannot be any bigger than 85 inches long by 28 inches wide by 23 inches tall.

Robert continues, "The caskets I build are 80 inches long, 28 inches wide and 17 inches tall.
If a family needs to build a wider casket for a oversized person they can build the width of the casket up to 33 inches wide and still get a mid-sized burial vault that is 34 inches wide."

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More on sizing and other advantages of building your own: https://homefunerals.substack.com/p/build-your-own-casket/comments

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If Buying a Casket

-Mortuaries want you to be at their facility when the casket arrives so you can verify the condition it arrives in. Very inconvenient for you, and THEY KNOW IT! So why not have the casket delivered to your home. Then bring it to the FH in your SUV, van or pickup truck.

-Another director said MOST arrive damaged! But that same director said locally built caskets NEVER come damaged.
 

-One Director spoke of a casket not arriving in time for services because it was ordered by the family. 
 

-If a Funeral Home charges a fee for disposal of packaging it's usually too high (upwards of $150!). So let a friend with a pickup truck take packaging to the dump for you. The Dump Transfer Station fee is around $12 (varies by county).​​​​​​​​

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