It can be hard to keep up with all the standards for building products, especially as they frequently change. In this column, Barry Hunt throws some light on the standards, identifying those you need and those you don’t. This time he looks at BS 8415, the specification for memorials.

BS 8415: Monuments within burial grounds and memorial sites – Specification.

My Mother and Father were both awarded the Benemerenti Medal by Pope Benedict XVI in July this year. Rather sadly, my Mother has died before she could formally receive this recognition of years of tireless, committed and selfless assistance to many good causes.

The Medal is a fitting memorial for someone who would have wondered just what all the fuss was about. But life is not always so easy and the death of a loved one brings with it many challenges, few of which can be more emotive than the selection of an appropriate memorial in natural stone.

Things must be perfect with regard to build quality and the placement of inscriptions and other items. Memorials need to be of the highest quality and durable without obvious changes within at least a generation.

It is this degree of perfection that demands higher stone prices, as the presence of flaws will inevitably result in full replacement without question.

There is always a degree of stress and navigating people’s feelings can be a labyrinthine task.

Advice on memorials is provided by the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM), and a significant part of this advice is included within the requirements of BS 8415, which was updated at the start of 2012.

The standard was first published in 2005 and updated in 2009. After the title, contents and foreword pages there are now nine pages of text, two of which are figures. The Appendices comprise 13 pages, of which five are figures, before the bibliography and further reading. In total there are about 6,000 words of useful text, nine figures and four tables. It costs £136.

The latest changes and additions are not extensive, but they include important issues that make the standard worth buying if you are involved in the upkeep of burial grounds.

Be aware, however, that much of the newly added advice simply summarises the good practice guidance issued freely by the Ministry of Justice.

In most circumstances it would not be necessary to have a copy of Appendix F, either. This deals with the fixing and anchorage system verification, but NAMM’s website includes a list of the fixing systems that have met the requirements. Be aware, though, that the list is currently being contested by Stone-Safe, the maker of a fixing system, on the basis of the soil conditions in which the tests were carried out. Stone-Safe says they did not meet the requirements of the British Standard.

It is pleasing to know that the standard asks for a prediction of a stone’s durability, although in my own experience this aspect is often completely overlooked. My requests for stone test details have typically been met with profound silence.

There are similar requirements for steel and other materials used that should always be checked.

I am particularly fond of the figures included in this standard, which are clearer to understand than most you find in British Standards. The tables are not over complicated, either.

This is a noble standard that tries hard to cover all aspects of memorial design, installation and upkeep. But it is one that I fear may have been taken too lightly in the past and apparently selectively ignored by many.

There is no excuse for not having this standard if you are working with memorials in any way – it will be of considerable benefit to users.

Anything that helps to avoid problems in this particular field is to be highly commended and I give the standard 10 out of 10, even though there is always room for improvement. This allows me to give the standard a 100% value for money rating using my arbitrary system when also taking into account the amount of text versus price.

I would like to see a simplified version of the standard produced for public consumption that is free.

The NAMM website covers some requirements of the public expectation but does itself no favours by just falling short of providing more robust advice.

Thankfully, though, there aren’t too many problems that actually occur with memorials aside from the unpredictable and unfathomable heinous acts of vandalism occasionally perpetrated.

This standard is a good model for other like-minded standards.

Barry Hunt is a Chartered Geologist and Chartered Surveyor who has spent 20 years investigating issues relating to natural stone and other construction materials. He now runs IBIS, an independent geomaterials consultancy undertaking commissions worldwide to provide consultancy, inspection and testing advice. Tel: 020 8518 8646