About us
An Independent Edmonton Monument Shop
Making granite memorials on 181 Street since 2018. Not a distributor, not a funeral home, not a franchise.
How it started
Three generations of monument builders
Vlad learned this trade in his family’s workshop in Knezha, Bulgaria, where monument building had already passed through two generations before him. His father and grandfather taught him to work raw stone directly — cutting it, shaping it, carving lettering by hand with traditional tools, long before a computer was involved in any of it. That was more than thirty-five years ago, and he has been at it ever since.
After coming to Canada he learned the other half of the job: the modern North American production and engraving technology this industry runs on now. Headstones Edmonton opened on 181 Street in 2018 to put the two together — hand skill where a person is genuinely better, modern equipment where the machine is.
Most of the trade in Alberta orders finished memorials from a distributor and resells them. We never have. Keeping the saws, the sandblast bay and our own setting crew costs more than buying in, and it is the only reason we can fix something rather than send it back down a supply chain.
Since 2018 we have set memorials in every cemetery in the Edmonton region, from the 1880s Catholic sections at St. Albert to the newest lawn-level blocks at Northern Lights.
What we hold to
Four things we do not bend on
Solid granite only
No veneer over concrete, no resin, no painted marble. If a cheaper material would serve you better we will say so, but we will not sell you something dressed up as granite.
Nobody pays us for a referral
We pay no commission to funeral homes or cemeteries for sending you here, and we accept none for sending you elsewhere. When we recommend somebody, that is the whole reason.
The proof is not a formality
Granite cannot be un-cut. We redraw as many times as it takes, we will not rush you toward approval, and we would rather lose a week than cut a misspelled name.
We tell you when we are not the answer
Sometimes the cemetery's own marker programme is cheaper than we can be, and sometimes an existing stone should be cleaned rather than replaced. We say so, and we lose the sale.
The showroom
Come and look at the actual stone
Granite colour on a screen is a rough approximation at best. Jet black photographs as flat grey, and the browns and greys that make up most of Edmonton's cemeteries look nothing on a monitor like they do in daylight. Our showroom at 10749 - 181 Street has full-size samples in the yard and finished memorials in progress you can walk around.
There is no appointment needed and no sales process waiting for you. Most visits are half an hour, some are ten minutes, and plenty of families come twice — once to choose the granite and once to see the finished stone before it leaves for the cemetery. Both are welcome.
| Monday – Friday | 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM |
| Saturday | Closed |
| Sunday | Closed |
The people
You deal with the person who makes it
The shop is deliberately small. Vlad draws your proof, checks your spelling, cuts the stone and oversees the setting. There is no layer between you and the person holding the tools, which is the whole point of buying from a working shop rather than a distributor.
Come by, or just call
10749 - 181 Street, Edmonton. Or ring (780) 293-0873 and we will talk it through from wherever you are.