History of Burial Vaults

Leo Haase first realized in the late 1800s that concrete could enhance the construction of burial vaults. Prior to the 1800s, graves were lined with brick at the cemetery.

He proposed building two-piece concrete receptacles (cover and base) and began manufacturing them in 1880 through his business, the L.G. Haase Manufacturing Company.

In 1919, at age 26, Leo’s son Wilbert bought out his father’s growing business and changed the name to American Vault Works, which he incorporated in 1924. He would later incorporate a separate business, the Wilbert W. Haase Company, in 1933.

A natural-born dreamer and innovator, Wilbert planned to enhance his company’s products and build a tightly interconnected network of licensees to distribute them.

Necessity bred invention in 1927, when a disinterred concrete burial vault containing a former prominent Chicago-area businessman revealed water in the vault.

Around the same time, Wilbert had attended an exhibit on Egypt’s King Tut. The exhibit awakened him to the possibilities of using asphalt—employed by the Egyptians as a preservative—to line his burial vaults and give them extra protection from ground weight and subsoil elements.

Wilbert created and patented his asphalt-lined burial vault in 1930. He committed his entire life until his death in 1959 to improving his vaults and introducing new ones. He also raised awareness through marketing and grew the licensee network.

In 1961, Wesley “Bud” Chandler was elected president of the Wilbert W. Haase Company. Determined to follow in Wilbert’s inspirational footsteps, he focused on a new lining material for the burial vaults.

Asphalt had served well as a liner, but it had also been a hazardous and time-consuming product to work with. Making a lined burial vault with asphalt required the asphalt be heated to 400°F for pouring and then allowed sufficient time to cool. A strong odor and the threat of a fire or injuries always accompanied the procedure.

Talk fatefully turned to plastics as an attractive option for lining the vaults. Plastic was a highly moldable material that could be formed into a seamless, reinforcing, and protective part.

During this time, the H.B. Fuller Company developed a two-part epoxy that could be applied to a plastic liner to form a bond between the liner and the structural concrete. The epoxy bond also increased the burial vault’s structural strength.

Additional cooperative research resulted in a vault-lining system that included a high-impact polystyrene called Strentex®. The process for fusing concrete and Strentex used a specially formulated epoxy now called Unidex®.

With the materials and process in place, Wilbert then needed a top-notch manufacturer and supplier to integrate them into the Wilbert product line. After an intensive search, Wilbert and H.B. Fuller Co. purchased the stock and physical assets of Thermoform Plastics, Inc. (TPi), of St. Paul, Minnesota, in December 1966.

The new plastic-lined product sold itself to funeral directors with fanfare. For starters, the new burial vault was 40 percent stronger than the asphalt-lined vault. The Strentex liner also surpassed all previous hydrostatic pressure tests for impermeability and protection from outside elements. Even more, production of the new vault was safer and more efficient.

So began today’s thriving era of beautiful and durable plastic-lined burial vaults that provide peace of mind and lasting security.