How long does a cremation take, and when do you get the ashes

People ask how long a cremation takes and mean two different things: how long the cremation itself takes, which is a couple of hours, and how long before the ashes come back, which is days. This guide is both, in the order of the day and then the week, for a direct cremation and for one with a service, because the cremation part is the same for either.

Before the day

The crematorium gives a date once it has the paperwork: the application for cremation, which you sign, and the registrar’s certificate for cremation or the coroner’s, which the funeral director obtains. That paperwork, not the cremation, is what sets the seven to ten days a direct cremation takes with us; direct cremation step by step explains each document. Until it is complete, nothing is booked.

The day

Your loved one is brought from the chapel of rest to the crematorium in their coffin, with a card bearing their name that has been with the coffin since it left the funeral director. At a direct cremation there is no service and the coffin goes to the crematorium’s committal room rather than the chapel; at a funeral with a service, the service comes first and the coffin goes through to the same room afterwards.

Before the cremation, any pacemaker or similar device is removed, because it cannot go into the cremator. The coffin is not opened otherwise and nothing is taken from it; the cremation is of the person in the coffin, as the law requires.

The cremation itself

The coffin is placed in the cremator, which runs at around 800 to 1,000 degrees. The cremation takes between one and a half and three hours, depending on the person and the coffin; a larger person or a heavier coffin takes longer. Each cremation is carried out on its own, one coffin, one cremator, start to finish. The name card stays with the cremator throughout.

Most crematoria cremate on the same day the coffin arrives, and the code of practice they follow says a coffin may only be held over to the next day with the applicant’s written consent, so a crematorium that works that way will tell you.

After the cremation

Once the cremator has cooled, what remains is bone, which is reduced to the fine ash families recognise. Any metal, from surgery or dentistry, is removed and recycled under a scheme most crematoria run with the family’s consent, which the application form asks about. The ashes, about two to four kilograms for an adult, are placed in a sealed container with your loved one’s name and the crematorium’s certificate, and the name card goes with them.

When the ashes are ready

The same day, usually, or the next morning. The crematorium holds them for the funeral director to collect, or for the family if they have arranged to collect directly. A crematorium will not release ashes to anyone but the applicant on the form or the funeral director acting for them, which is another part of how you know they are your loved one’s.

When the ashes come back to you

With us, within a few days of the cremation. We collect them from the crematorium and arrange the handover when we ring to tell you the cremation has taken place, in a container or in an urn you have chosen. Some providers deliver by courier and some charge for delivery; ours is included. What to do with the ashes is for the question that follows, and there is no hurry about it.

If there is a service

The timing of the cremation itself is identical. What changes is the day: a service at the crematorium is booked into a slot of twenty to forty-five minutes depending on the crematorium, the family attends, and the coffin is committed at the end of it before going through. What happens at a cremation service, and how long it takes covers the attended version, and direct cremation or a traditional funeral sets the two beside each other.