Walking throughout Manukau Cemetery last week, I thought I would walk around the area of 20 to 40 year old headstones, plaques and memorials.

Imported granite became the norm in New Zealand across these times, and you can visually see the change and move from using things like concrete or limestone with granite plaques, to concrete bases with granite tops, to full granite.

What is noticeable is the degradation of these granite stones is often worse than the concrete and native stone headstones.

The engraving and inscription is variable with maybe 30% still legible for standing headstones and maybe 5% on flat, recumbent headstones and plaques.

So when paying $1000s for headstones we think will last and tell the story of our loved ones forever, in reality forever is about 30 years.

Warranties on engraving generally are from 3 to 10 years.

Selling memorials as a forever thing, when clearly they are not just does not feel right. At LifeStone we will be 100% on expected durability, and also look to provide options that either do last, or are far more affordable to replace in years to come if needed..