Stone Veneer

[Stoney]

Hi all,

I am just starting to design our family home which will be built on our 55 acre farm. I am looking to build a stone veneer home. Either sandstone or something similar. I understand that this can be applied to concrete or besa block walls. Is this very very expensive to achieve. I have yet to find a builder in South Australia that can help me. Any ideas or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Stoney.

[DJ’s Timber]

G,day Stoney

I would have though that you would just use sandstone bricks
At my Uncle's farm we built the house and garage with sandstone bricks
For the retaining walls we use beta bricks with reoenforcing onto a concrete footing and filled with 6mm stone concrete mix
When laying the beta bricks you need to put some bricks ties in each row to tie the 50mm thick sandstone veneer and cap the top with a special glue mud as the normall mud will not last

Cheers DJ

[Stoney]

Thanks for the reply. I don't think I explained myself very well. What I am trying to achieve is the look of a say a slip form stone wall but just using veneer. We are trying to get away from the straight up and down "lego" look of a brick house. Does this help making it clearer?

[johnc]

I think the style you are refering to is fixed directly to the wall with a mortar mix sitting obviously on the same foundations as the wall there is no risk of it moving south at all however you do need to consider damp course issues. The mortar is applied between the block wall and the stone and between the stone and cleaned up as you would laying bricks, either raked, struck or built out. Would have thought a tradesman prepared to do it to be about as rare as hens teeth.

goodluck, John.

[ozwinner]

and cap the top with a special glue mud as the normall mud will not last

Why not?

Al :confused:

[DJ’s Timber]

Al

We use the special mud glue cause the retaining walls we built was done in a series of steps and if you bumped the top cap or brick it would loosen the normal mix mud
The special mix had a bonding agent in it to stick to the sandstone bricks better

Cheers DJ

[Stoney]

I was thinking about building a shed first to just get the technique down first. Is this something that is within the capability of the home handyman or not. I would be quite confident i building the bessa block part but attaching the stones is where the skill is. I have seen it done here in Hong Kong to great effect. So I would get a builder in to lay the footings and start the wall. I would finish the main bricklaying, I would then get the frame up for the roof agiain by a tradesperson, I would put the roof on. Then it is a case of attaching the stone on the outside. Does anyone know anyone in SA that would be able to help?

[Stoney]

Here is a picture to try and explain. I don't particularly like the stone but this is the effect we are trying to achieve. It is how to do it that is the hard part.

[thebuildingsurv]

http://www.hooblerstone.com.au/ may be what your after but it is quite expensive.

[Jason Steele]

Hi Stoney,

I have just about finished working on a random stone house, similar to the photo. ( I know thats not what you like.) Whilst I have only been doing the Carpentry the stones have been going at it for months ( 11 months).

I have also worked on Limstone houses however being block work cuts down the laying time considerably. And a whole lot cheaper. So easy to cut and have on site.

To compound the problems with laying random stone work, the quarrys won't let the stoneys pick the stone. A lot more product to ramble through on site. Additionaly here in vic you also need to have a water proof membrane between the stone and the frame. ( We used blue board) again extra cost in time and material.

Good luck, I love the look of stone houses done well. The Limstone one was outstanding. 9 gable ends covered with stone. Heavy work.


Jason
P.S.
Though I didn't lay the limstone blocks I did assist and noted a couple of things that you may or maynot be aware of.
The morter mix as to be consistant (Colour wise).
The Stone blocks tend to be top heavy when laid so watch how the wall is going when laying. We had a small portico gable fall. Close one.

Anyway good on you for going for a product with a little charm and class.