Buy an Affordable Casket Today!
First a Few Tips
#1 Don't buy a Sealer Casket, unless you want the inside of the casket 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.)
#2 If you order a casket to be shipped to the Funeral Home don't agree to a casket handling charge
Better yet ship the casket to your home and bring it to the FH in your SUV, van or pickup truck.
#3 BUY DIRECT
Robert Alexander in Farr West, Utah 801-388-9158
For $850.00 & up he builds this and similar: http://somethingcreative-alexanders.blogspot.com/
If a body is over 300 lbs funeral homes pressure you to buy a costly over-sized casket, and an over-sized vault too. Robert builds caskets for bodies weighing 300-500lbs AND his fit in a standard cemetery vault!
BUY DIRECT continued:
ArtisanCaskets.com based in Salt Lake! Unique affordable designs, ready in 4 hrs.
TitanCasket.com Arrives to Utah in 2 to 5 days. Eco Pine $1K wool coffin $1300! Free s&h
ArkwoodCaskets.com Arrives flat, interlocking dovetail metal-free assembly $695 s&h
TrustedCaskets.com Ships Standard metal and wood caskets, $1100 & up
Shroud & Carrier Cotton $350 or Bamboo $500 plus Willow tray $800
The old fashioned bier & shroud (gorgeous examples [pronounced "beer"]
Cardboard Caskets $500 includes s&h from Titan casket
Cardboard casket facts article: https://funeralcircle.com/cardboard-caskets/
Build your own Casket
6 different kinds of Instructions here: https://www.lastthings.net/coffins
Robert Alexander donated this 2 page casket plan to build a simple casket yourself.
Robert says what to do 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."
More on sizing and other benefits of building your own: https://homefunerals.substack.com/p/build-your-own-casket/comments
A volunteer made this video about his experience with funerals from the time he was a little boy until he met Funeral Consumers Alliance:
The Funeral Homes say they want you to be at their facility when your casket arrives because they had an incident where one has arrived damaged.
I spoke to another director that 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. So, if you're buying on your own, plan accurately.
If a Funeral Home charges a fee for disposal of packaging it's usually too high (upwards of $150!). Have someone with a pickup truck to take packaging to the dump for you. The Transfer Station fee is around $12, depending on which county you live in.
BUY DIRECT
April 2023, 5 minute Money News video about Titan Casket's direct sales to families. Buy a casket at TitanCasket.com to ship to Utah in 2 to 5 days.
Michael Sheetz, formerly of Provo, with one of his Handcrafted Coffins. He is temporarily not building caskets until perhaps 2025 but remains a true advocate of funeral liberty.
Don't know how to carry a casket or beir?
https://www.heartandsoulfunerals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/guidelines-for-coffin-bearing.pdf
