The calculator prices per square foot of face, using a standard 12 in x 12 in x 12 in niche as the costing unit, one niche per square foot. A 12 ft by 8 ft face is 96 square feet, so it holds 96 standard niches. For corridor installations, the back to back configuration places two faces on the same footprint and doubles the niche count. Three deep is possible as a custom island order, and the per square foot calculation and engineering differ, so speak with our team for that design. Real installations often mix configurations: companion niches, larger feature openings, custom rows. Cost scales with the square footage rather than the front layout, so the totals hold for a mixed layout. A larger niche simply occupies more square feet and sells at its own price. For mixed layouts, enter an average selling price across the installation.

From niche price lists that cemeteries across North America publish publicly. Commonly published niche prices run about $500 to $5,000 and higher. The tier buttons are rounded averages of those public lists: for glass-fronted niches, Standard from $2,000, Eye-Level from $4,000, and Feature from $5,500. For granite-fronted niches, Standard from $1,500, Eye-Level from $2,200, and Companion from $3,500. Premium positions such as eye-level rows, corners, curved glass, and lighted features commonly sell above standard rows. Your own price list is always the better input, so enter your price any time.

Project cost is a rounded per-niche planning anchor multiplied by your niche count. The Specification buttons, Classic, Select, and Premier, set the anchor level. The Cost basis buttons set what the anchor covers: Niche units only is the unit price alone, the way much of the industry quotes, with installation, delivery, and foundations additional. Installed and delivered includes installation and delivery. These are planning figures, deliberately rounded, not quotes. If you have your own estimate or a real quote, type it into the project cost field and it overrides the anchor.

Sellout value is the niche count multiplied by your average selling price. The headline multiple divides sellout value by project cost. With the default settings: a 12 ft x 8 ft single face is 96 niches, at $4,000 average that is $384,000 of sellout value, against a $57,600 unit-only cost, a 6.7x multiple. Results vary by site, and stronger positioning or pricing raises the multiple, which is why entering your own numbers matters.

Opening and closing fees are set and collected by the cemetery at each interment. The calculator counts the fee once per niche, your fee multiplied by the niche count, and shows that revenue on its own line with its own multiple. The headline multiple, break-even, payback, and profit lines exclude fee revenue, because fees arrive over the life of the installation as niches are used rather than at the time of sale. That makes the break-even shown conservative. In practice, fee income arrives alongside sales, and real break-even can come sooner than the number shown. The $600 default reflects the published national average for cremation interment fees. Use your own fee schedule, or set it to 0 to exclude fees entirely.

Niches sold to break even is project cost divided by your average selling price, rounded up to a whole niche. Payback years is that break-even count divided by your expected niche sales per year. Years to full sellout is the total niche count divided by the same sales pace. Pre-need and at-need sales both count toward the pace. The blue band on the drawing marks the break-even niches to scale, and every niche outside the band is return.

Several things, all of them deliberately. Inscription, accessory, and personalization revenue is not shown, and it adds revenue in practice. Selling costs, endowment care contributions, and administration are not netted out of the profit line. Fee escalation over the years an installation sells through is not modeled. The model stays simple so that every line can be checked by hand and defended in a meeting. It is a planning tool, not a quote, and results vary by site.

From the National Funeral Directors Association. The U.S. cremation rate reached 63.4% in 2025 and is projected to reach 82.3% by 2045, with annual deaths projected to rise about 26% over the same period. Cremated remains need placement, and niche inventory is how a cemetery serves that demand.

Submitting the form on the calculator page generates a PDF report of your exact scenario, prepared by Global Bronze for the meeting where the decision gets made. It contains your assumptions, a to-scale elevation of your wall, the key figures, a year-by-year cash flow timeline, the opening and closing fee schedule, a conservative case, answers to the questions boards ask, and photography of installed Global Bronze work. Each report carries its own document number, and every number in it can be checked by hand.

The report reruns your scenario with the average selling price 25% lower and the sales pace cut in half, then shows the new break-even count and timeline. If the plan still clears under those conditions, the downside case is covered. It is the first question a careful board member asks, so the report answers it before it is asked.