The Unturned Stone

Columns: contrasting styles

Marc — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:11:37 +0000

We have been working on these four columns for the last few days, when the weather cooperates. They are built of a Virginia sandstone that we are taking pains to lay in the bedded plane. That can be difficult in a narrow veneer. The wooden timbers are not on center or square to the house, meaning we have varying amounts of room to work on each side of the column. It gets very narrow on the back and we have been using the diamond blade to get stones down to a settable depth. These columns are set on a very solid footer and we have used brick ties throughout the work. This is not the Unturned Stone’s typical project, but it’s been fun. Hornets have been hatching out of the column over my head on the suddenly hot days and I have become a trowel foo expert at dispatching hornets.

I found this column in progress on a construction site near my house. This is what is called cultured or faux stone. As a mason working almost exclusively in natural stone, I can’t help but have some strong opinions of this material, which is colorized concrete. It is becoming increasingly common because it is cheaper and faster to install and I’ll venture requires less skill than stone. The area is generally prepped as for a tile application, which saves time and money as well.
My favorite part of this picture is how the column appears to be levitating. Stone is often added to commercial buildings like this to give a sense of presence; it’s a solid, reliable, grounded, permanent institution, that just happens to hover a few inches off the ground. Is that false advertising?

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Brindle and Bricks

Marc — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:34:42 +0000

Three distinctive elements meet at the corner of the front stoop. The formal edge of the steps leads to the reclaimed brick walkway, which borders a random or mosaic style stone patio.

The homeowner commented that a handful of the paving stones look like the coat of a brindle dog.

The reclaimed bricks originate from the Southern Clay Manufacturing Company in Robbins, Tennessee and were made in the early 1900’s. No two bricks are the same width or depth, making setting this paving more like laying stone than bricks.

New Stoop and Stone Classes

Marc — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:05:25 +0000

Last week Fred and I built this stoop in north Asheville. It’s part of a design by Landscape Architect Tony Hauser of Ambient Design Group. The weather has been such lately that it took almost a month to get the footer poured. Too wet, too cold, too wet and cold. The riser build-up is of Tennessee flagging and fieldstone. The treads are also Tennessee sandstone, snapped in multiples of 12″. They average 2 1/2 inches thick and give the stoop a real solid feel. The formal look of the stoop is meant to complement the formality of the brickwork on the house. The walkway, to be started tomorrow, will be built of reclaimed bricks. As you move away from the house, the work gets more relaxed. The walkway will curve. There’s a stone patio of random shapes and a wall that features notches for matchbox cars.

On Friday February 27th I will be leading a class on stonework design and construction for homeowners and gardeners at the North Carolina Arboretum . I will be focusing on drystone landscape work. I kind of imagine it like the Burpee’s catalog of stone, lots of pictures to get people excited to plan their yards and gardens. There will be classroom presentation and then, weather permitting, a walk around the grounds to explore some of the work at the Arboretum. If you are interested in attending, check out the Arboretum’s adult education link or drop me a line at marc (at) unturned (dot) net. This class is good for stone lovers, do-it-yourselfers and people planning a new yard or garden.

In April I will lead two hands-on sessions on installing drystone flagging. A brief classroom presentation will be followed by a day’s worth of playing with stone in a big sandbox made for grown-ups. Class size is limited so sign up now. E-mail me with questions.

Highlands Greenway and other stuff

Marc — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:02:26 +0000

Recently Fred has been venturing to Highlands, a town a couple hours southwest of Asheville, to conduct trail-building workshops with volunteers of the Highlands Greenway. Last week she led a winch workshop

for a handful of volunteers. The staff there have been adding web pages about the work being done at their Highlands Plateau Greenway site.

Our current stone project is a small retaining wall that will soon frame a patio of Tennessee sandstone. The wall features niches for matchbox cars. And of course, marbles.

Lantern

Marc — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:51:25 +0000

On my birthday, my son Abraham and I built this small stone lantern out of leftover chips from the Thyme project. It’s lit by a single light bulb and rather short and squat. Small whimsical projects like this help me understand more about how stone works- and fails to work- and gives me ideas for larger, more permanent structures.

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Thyme finale

Marc — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:51:06 +0000

I visited the Thyme Project at dusk on a very rainy day. The rain and the light combined to give the stonework its richest colors.

Thyme: step repair

Marc — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:07:57 +0000

After finishing the front yard, there was a small project around back at the Thyme House. This step up onto the back deck had caved in over the course of its short life (less than ten years.) The exposed paint edge shows how much it had settled.

Removing the step tread revealed this interesting arrangement. The riser stones are snapped square, so set well, they’re unlikely to shift, but they still seem too thin to me. The bigger problem being that there’s no back edge to support the step, or prevent the fill from trickling out. Dried leaves are not an effective backfill. Don’t look too closely or you’ll see the leathery corpse of a rat, again, not recommended backfill.

The real problem revealed itself as I dug further. The step rested on a patio that sat on twelve inches of shifting sand. Sand is great for leveling under flagging, but I don’t suggest it as a structural fill. Other parts of the flagging have been compromised by moles burrowing through the sand. Immediately behind the step, under the deck, the ground slopes away quickly, giving the sand a place to slump towards. Gravity won and the whole thing relaxed.

I neglected to photo the small underground retaining wall I built to support the flagstone patio, that then supported the new step. I decided to stack stone instead of re-using the snapped edging. I did use a couple of pieces as tie stones, reaching toward the center of the step.

The old step made new again.

Stone Art Photo Cards

Marc — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:05:58 +0000

I have just begun selling note cards and art prints featuring photographs of stonework. I have one set of cards available of work done by the Unturned Stone. More sets will soon follow.

Check them out at my design studio site, Papershine.

Thyme Wall: completed

Marc — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:55:49 +0000

We finished the wall feature earlier this week on a cold, soggy day. It’ll be a little while before the yard recovers, but even amongst the mud, one can see how the wall and walkway trace each other through the yard. In some places they echo each other and in others they drift in their own directions, meeting again at both ends. The tallest section of the wall is about sixteen inches. One-man boulders pop up here and there as step-downs, places where the wall drops to stay in scale against the sloping yard.

Thyme Bench II

Marc — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:40:14 +0000

Yesterday we finished out the area around the bench, where the formal garden flagstone walkway fades out into a mulch path. Not quite visible in this image is how the joinery loosens up towards the end of the flagging, as the stonework peters out.