Stone Faced

By: Max Alexander, This Old House magazine (Page 1 of 4)

Photo: Russell Kaye

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

Step back, and it's clear that the clean, rectangular stone face on the Cambridge project house's walls and chimneys is in keeping with its Modern style.

a large array of stone pieces for Cambridge project house facade

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

A large array of stone pieces to keep the pattern random and varied

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

A pointing trowel and a ready supply of thinset mortar for buttering the back of the stone

specially cut pieces for corners of Cambridge Modern project house

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

Specially cut pieces for outside corners

Roger Cook varies the stonework's pattern

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

TOH landscape contractor Roger Cook carefully lines up a sliver of natural stone veneer to continue his running pattern on the foundation wall. He keeps his tools and materials close at hand.

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

Every few rows, Roger stops and marks a new level reference line, to keep his stone rows straight and neat.

A finished wall section in the Cambridge house shows the rustic beauty of stonework

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

The nearly finished product recalls the artistry of rural dry-stacked walls.

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

Natural Stone: (clockwise from left) Cobblestone Fieldstone, Virgina Ledgestone, Olympia Ashlar from Natural Stone Veneers international.

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

Manufactured Stone: Mackinac River Rock from Cultured Stone

Enlarge this image Photo: Russell Kaye

Manufactured Stone: Romana Old Country Fieldstone from Cultured Stone

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Bent over a large bucket of thinset mortar, Roger Cook reaches in with a triangular pointing trowel and scoops up a glob of the icinglike gray mix. In front of him looms a broad concrete foundation wall almost entirely covered in rows upon rows of neatly arranged stone slivers, while behind him, piled on a table, are scores of the rock pieces, looking like the wall's crumbled mirror image.

Grabbing a slice of rock off the table, he butters its smooth back like a piece of toast. Then he turns to the wall and carefully slips the sliver into place along the 20-foot-long horizontal line. It has taken the This Old House landscape contractor nearly three days, but row by row, he's managed to turn a cold concrete foundation face at the TV show's Cambridge project house into a rock sculpture. Using lightweight slices of real stone, he has applied a veneer to the slab that makes the Modern-style house look as if it has grown out of an old farm wall. As Roger explains, applying stone veneer requires some patience. "Slow and careful gets the best results," he says. "It's all about paying attention to the details."

Houses have been built from stone for thousands of years, but today the look of stone construction is much easier to achieve because it can be created with veneer—rock cut into thin, smooth-backed pieces that are applied to cement board or poured concrete. There's no footing required because the pieces are relatively lightweight, ranging from 8 to 15 pounds per square foot. And the flat rear surface of the veneer simplifies mortaring, though you still need to fit stones carefully in relation to others—that's where artistry comes in. Then, unlike solid-rock-and-mortar jobs, there's no cure time, so you can keep right on working. Best of all, you don't have to exhaust yourself wrestling with boulders. "You can set veneer for hours and still function at the end of the day," says Roger.