Burial Vaults
 

I say this picture at Boston.com, of a soldier being buried in New Jersey. I was surprised there is no concrete vault, just the coffin in the ground. Many places the vault is required by law, is it where you live?

I've seen coffins buried like this-straight into the ground with no concrete vault around them.

They are not required by law in a lot of places, but many cemeteries require them.

My dad is being buried at a national cemetery, and he gets a concrete box for free. The vault is over the top, IMO...we could give a shit less about it having pretty sparkles and shit.

Vault requirement may be partially based on the depth of the local water table.

or the local concrete lobby

I thought the point of burying bodies was for them to rot away. All this pickling and sealing in coffins and vaults 'tain't natural.

Required here by local laws.

I found out no state requires a vault, but local ordinances may, and almost all cemeteries require a cave-in proofing, like a grave liner or a vault.
Evidently that NJ cemetery doesn't.

No grave liners here, and vault means something entirely different.
We just stick people in boxes and plant them. Or burn them of course, increasingly popular.

Or and we don't have open coffins either.

If there's no vault, how do you keep the undead in the ground?

We don't. Haven't you seen Shaun of the Dead?

That dirt looks like chocolate ice cream. Maybe I should get some lunch.

I thought about this to day and regretted my earlier post.

After consideration I would like to amend it.
In Shaun of the Dead all the zombies appear recent, in that they have been created by other zombies. Grave liner or not, it does not appear that the dead are literally rising from their graves, only that they are being killed and refusing to stay dead. I offer that in the interests of accuracy.

I think I'm more confused...

It's okay - you're much safer where you are.
Not only will the buried zombies have a harder time getting out, but you probably have guns somewhere in the neighbourhood too.

Back here, we have neither grave liners nor firearms.
I suspect this is one of the reasons you emigrated.
That and the fact that The Bitch's Maw (Hell's portal) is actually situation in Whitby (see Paul Magrs)

I have never been to a funeral here in central PA where the grave did not have a vault/liner. As someone else said, I believe many cemeteries require them so the ground does not sink when the casket finally succumbs to deterioration. Saves them the cost and effort of going around filling in sunken areas and re-seeding.

Can the extra dirt & reseeding really cost more than the cost of the vault?

The cemetery pays for the fill, seed, and labor, they don't pay for the vault.

There it is.

That coffin won't last long without a concrete vault. I've never seen that done before.

The coffin only needs to last until they're done filling the hole. If you want your body to last forever, build a pyramid.

Or get mummified.

Now accepting contract bids and slave labor applications for my burial pyramid.