FAQ

Standard delivery is 3 to 6 weeks from the day you order, depending on where you are. Expedited delivery is 2 to 3 weeks and can be chosen at checkout.

Nothing here sits on a shelf. Your piece is made after you order it — engraved or kiln-fired in our own factory, checked, then shipped. That is why it takes the time it does.

We would rather give you a real date than a hopeful one. If you are working to a service, a burial or an anniversary, tell us when you order and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it.

Shipping cost depends on the size and weight of the piece, so it is calculated at checkout.

Yes. Before anything is engraved or fired, we email you a draft layout — the full design, with the names, dates and photo exactly as they will appear on the finished piece.

Please open it as soon as it arrives. You have 24 hours to reply with changes. If we do not hear from you within that time, we take the design as approved and begin making it.

Yes — during the 24-hour review window. That is what the window is for. A misspelled name, the wrong date, a better photograph, a change of mind about the layout: tell us and we will send you a new draft.

Once the window closes we begin engraving, and from that point the piece cannot be changed. Granite and fired porcelain are permanent — there is no undoing a line once it is in the stone. It is worth taking a few quiet minutes with the draft before you approve it.

These words get used loosely, so here is how we use them.

A plaque is a thin panel of engraved granite. It sits in a stand, mounts on a wall, or rests in a garden. It is the smallest of the three, and it is what most people want when the memorial is for their own home rather than a grave.

A marker is a full-size stone that sits at ground level — flush with the lawn, or raised on a bevel or a slant. Most modern cemeteries use markers rather than upright stones.

A headstone stands upright. It is the largest and heaviest, and the most involved to make.

Two more you will see here. A photo tile is a porcelain portrait that fixes onto any of the above. An insert is an engraved granite panel set into a monument that already exists.

Both put a face on stone. They do it differently, and neither is better than the other.

A porcelain portrait is a photograph fired into a ceramic tile at high temperature, then set into a recess in the stone. It holds full tone and detail, and it can be color or black and white. It looks like a photograph, because it is one. It costs more because it is a second material, made by a second process, and fitted by hand.

Laser engraving puts the image into the granite itself. The picture is formed in the surface of the stone, in shades of gray against the dark polish. Nothing is added and nothing can come loose. It is quieter and more traditional, and it does not reproduce fine detail the way porcelain does.

A simple way to choose: if you want it to look like the photograph, choose porcelain. If you want it to look like stone, choose engraving.

Every design has its own sizes, and they are listed on that design's product page with the measurements. Choose the design first — the sizes appear with it.

One piece of advice worth more than a number: measure the space it is going into, then draw the outline on paper and put the paper where the stone will sit. Granite photographs smaller than it feels in the hand, and almost everyone underestimates the weight.

Usually, yes — but your photograph decides the result more than anything we do afterward. We can only work with what is in the image. A sharp, well-lit picture makes a sharp, well-lit memorial. A small or blurred one stays small and blurred once it is engraved into stone or fired into porcelain.

So send us the best version you have. The original file rather than a screenshot. A scan of the print rather than a photograph of a print held up to the light. The largest file your phone or computer will let you attach.

Photo Retouch — optional, but we recommend it. Engraving is permanent, so this step prepares your picture for the best possible result. There are three choices when you order.

Original. No editing. Your photo is engraved exactly as uploaded. Right when your image is already sharp, well lit, and clean behind the subject.

Photo Enhance. The popular choice. We adjust brightness and contrast, sharpen the detail, and tidy the background.

Enhance + Cutout. The best result. Everything above, plus finer lighting and detail work, the subject lifted away from the background, a clean and distraction-free backdrop rebuilt behind them, and a final check that the image is ready for engraving.

If your only picture is old, faded or damaged, choose Enhance + Cutout. Old family photographs almost always carry more meaning than condition, and this is what closes that gap.

Yes. Both are made to stay outside.

Granite is one of the hardest stones on earth, and polished granite absorbs almost no water — which is what makes it survive freezing. Water that cannot get in cannot expand and crack the stone. The engraving is not printed or painted on. It is cut into the surface, so there is no layer that can peel, fade or wash away. Sunlight does nothing to it.

A porcelain portrait is fired into the glaze at high temperature, which turns the image and the glass into a single sealed surface. Porcelain portraits have been standing in European cemeteries since the 1800s and are still clear today. Rain, frost and sun do not reach the image, because the image sits underneath the glaze rather than on top of it.

Looking after it. Almost nothing is needed. Warm water, a little mild soap and a soft cloth, once or twice a year. Rinse and dry it.

Please avoid bleach, acidic or abrasive cleaners, scouring pads and pressure washers. None of these will harm the granite quickly, but they will dull a polished surface over time and they can craze a porcelain glaze. If snow is likely where you are, keep de-icing salt off the stone.

You need to check before you order, and it is worth doing properly.

Every cemetery sets its own rules, and they differ more than people expect — sometimes between sections of the same cemetery. What they usually control is the size, the material, the color, whether the memorial may stand upright or must lie flush with the lawn, and whether a photograph is permitted at all.

Call or email the cemetery office and ask for their regulations in writing. Give them the size and the type of memorial you are considering. If a photograph matters to you, ask about that specifically — some cemeteries permit portraits and some do not.

We make everything to order, and an engraved stone cannot be returned or resold. So a piece the cemetery turns away is a piece that cannot be undone. Ten minutes on the phone before you order removes that risk entirely.

If you are unsure how to describe what you want, contact us and we will help you put the question in the right words.

That depends on whether you ordered a stand with your plaque. The stand is an option, not an automatic inclusion — select it when you order and it ships with your plaque. Order the plaque alone and no stand is included.

Our stand is a powder-coated metal frame that the plaque slides into. Nothing is drilled, glued or fixed to the stone itself. We never drill granite, because every hole is a permanent weak point. The plaque rests in the frame and can be lifted out again.

The frame does two jobs.

In the ground. The legs push into soil, in a garden or at a graveside. Smaller plaques use a single-leg frame; larger ones use two legs for stability. The frame is matched to the size of your plaque, so you do not need to choose.

On a wall or any flat surface. Fix the frame using the screws and wall plugs we supply, then slide the plaque in. The legs are not used for this. It means you can mount a granite plaque on a wall, a post or a shelf without a single hole in the stone.

Porcelain photo tiles and granite inserts are bonded to an existing monument. Email us with a photograph of the stone and we will tell you exactly how to fit yours.

Yes. We are a manufacturer, not a reseller.

Most memorial websites are storefronts. An order is taken, passed to a workshop somewhere, and the seller sees the finished piece for the first time in the same photograph you do. That is not how this works. The stone, the engraving, the porcelain firing, the inspection and the packing all happen in our own workshops, by people we employ.

It is the reason your draft layout comes back with your actual changes rather than a form reply. It is the reason we can move a line of text, adjust a shape, or do something that is not on the menu. And it is the reason that when something goes wrong, there is nobody for us to pass you along to.

We work from more than one location, and we are opening workshops closer to the regions we serve as we grow — so that pieces travel less far to reach the people waiting for them.

Tell us and we will replace it. That is the short answer, and it is the one that matters.

Stone is heavy and carriers are not always careful. It is rare, but it happens, and it is not something you have to argue about with us.

Please contact us within 48 hours of the package arriving, and send photographs of the damage. Photographs of the packaging as well, if you still have it — they help us see what happened in transit and stop it happening to someone else.

Once we have verified the damage, we make your piece again and ship the replacement. You do not normally need to send the broken one back. It is engraved with your names and dates, so it cannot be sold to anyone else, and asking you to package up a damaged memorial and stand in line at a post office is not something we are willing to put you through.

Our phone line, +1 628-252-3481, is answered 24 hours a day. A specialist will follow up with you within one business day.

By email, write to info@adfstone.com or use the contact form on this site. We reply within one business day.

If you are writing about an order you have already placed, include your order number and we can answer in one reply instead of three.

And if you are not ready to order yet — you are choosing between two designs, you are unsure whether a photograph is good enough, you do not know what your cemetery permits — write to us anyway. We would rather help you get it right than sell you something you regret. There is no hurry on our side.