The Unturned Stone

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I have recently added two new portfolio pages to the site. The first shows stone benches we have built. You’ll notice that they are all quite different from each other. We let the site and stone we’re using guide us as we design and execute benches, though we have a definite fondness for big stones. All of the benches are built dry, meaning no mortar was used to put them together.

The second page features the element fire. A handful of images show different ways stone and fire can be integrated into a project.

There’s grouting to be done and some more clean-up, but we are mostly done with the granite garden project, started three weeks ago. This photo, suffering for late afternoon sun, shows the big wall with the granite monoliths framed by stacked stone. Today we installed the beefy capstones, which serve double duty as curbstones for the driveway. The sweeping staircase is visible to the foreground- Pennsylvania bluestone treads over stacked risers. We cut the steps to fit the step radius from big slabs; our step scraps are visible leaning against the block wall. We made cardboard templates of each step and used our Achilli wet table saw to cut the desired shape. The finished treads are about 49 inches across and just barely fit on the saw.

Crossing over one of the monoliths.

Always with the marbles…

I engraved a nautilus into this six by six bluestone tile with a Dremel tool. I will do a future blog detailing the process I used because it’s a really easy way to get the line you want. This one is found on the stoop. There’s another at the top of the steps as well, suggesting the sweeping shape of the staircase.

There are several different types of mortared stone work represented in this project. The big wall with the monoliths is a free-standing structural stone wall. The backside- which is hidden from sight- is ugly as anything, but it’s solid and would stand even if the driveway weren’t there. On the house and along the stoop we built a mortared veneer, generally eight inches thick. There’s a small area on the house (behind the black drain-pipe) where we cut stones down to two inches thick and applied them with thinset, as if they were tile. We made this design decision so that the stone on the house foundation didn’t stick out oddly. The steps are also structural stonework, resembling castle walls, four feet thick with a mad amount of in-fill.

On our first day of wall building, I spent an afternoon working between two of the monoliths. I decided to recess the wall two inches back from the front edge of the big granite, for a visual effect. I didn’t like it and worried how it would impact the top of the wall. It took a laborer a day and half to remove about six square feet of wall with a sledgehammer, chisels and pry bars. It be plenty sturdy.