To understand the need for a burial vault, let's explain what takes place at a cemetery before, during and after a graveside service.

The cemetery workers will open a loved one's grave using a backhoe or other type of mechanical equipment. A backhoe can weigh up to 25,000 pounds. As it passes over the grave, it not only exerts tremendous dynamic or moving load, but possibly extreme impact loads while digging adjacent graves.

The burial vault is delivered to the grave just prior to the service. The vault is carefully moved to the gravesite and placed on a lowering device positioned over the freshly dug grave. Each Doric Vault includes a nameplate with the name, birth date and death date of the deceased.  Other personalization such as life or religious symbols may be placed on the vault before delivery.

Family and friends gather at the gravesite for final ceremonies and to say "good-bye."

Factory trained personnel properly seal the casket into the vault while it is above ground. It is then gently lowered into the grave.

Cemetery workers return to the grave, fill it with soil and compact it.  Later, sod is placed on the grave, or it is re-seeded.