When The Heck Will My Monument Be Installed?

As you may know, these last few years have been very trying on the granite side of the funeral home business. We would like to take a moment and go over some of the issues causing these delays.

• A lot of monuments sold in the United States are made from granite that is quarried in China, India and elsewhere overseas.
• A lot of stone-working equipment comes from Europe.
• Shipping costs have risen dramatically.
• Every detail impacts a monument’s timeline, including customization and special requests.
• Some overseas shipments are forced to wait offshore until a dock is available.
• Trucking is also an issue when getting granite. Many companies have multiple loaded flatbeds at their facility waiting to be delivered, but no driver to deliver the supplies.

What used to take 8-10 weeks to design, order, and install can now take 8-10 months. Due to this fact, the monument companies can no longer guarantee a time frame for installation (this came directly from our suppliers/MFG). When monument materials and supplies are received, it’s for an order that has already been placed, whereas before, the monument companies just kept “stock” in their yard.

Domestic quarries have not been able to keep up with demand. Domestic facilities were not able to expand infrastructure to accommodate the uptick in orders due to the rise in deaths from COVID-19.

These are some of the issues that are causing the major delays we are seeing with headstone, monument, and marker orders.

At this time, we will continue to do our best. You can still order a monument, it’s just going to take a little time.

We are beyond thankful to our community for being so understanding during these trying times. It almost makes you ask, “What next?”

Janice L. Smallwood

Norberg Memorial Home, Inc. & Monuments

701 E. Thompson St.

Princeton, IL 61356

Ph: 815-875-2425

https://www.norbergfh.com/