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[Posted on February,21 2011]
Stone Veneer: Still Affordable and Beautiful!
Before you tear down walls or spend thousands of dollars in order to change the look of the inside or outside of your home, consider a material that has a long history of being both lovely and affordable: the stone veneer.
Although many people think of stone veneers- or thin facades of stone that cover other masonry materials- as a recent development, architects and builders have been using them for hundreds of years. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the middle class grew larger and more people built homes of their own, they searched for an affordable, aesthetically pleasing outer material for their homes. Many palaces, estates, and country homes of the gentry and upper classes were built out of quarried stone. For the ordinary person, however, building an entire home from limestone or other materials which were expensive to dig and transport was not an option. This is where stone veneers entered the picture and changed the look of history.
Now, centuries later, this fantastic building material remains; and, people still turn to it for the same reasons they did in the beginning: it costs less than full stone facades.
Although there is a significant difference between the cost of a veneer and real stone, there are some variations within veneer costs themselves. According to Masonry Magazine, thin stone veneers cost significantly less than full-dimension veneers for several reasons: they are easier to install and therefore take up less labor hours. They are also cheaper to haul to a building site and they are cheaper to manufacture.
Beyond the economic advantages, there are many places where a stone veneer of any kind can add an eye-catching and natural look. Covering an old fireplace, for example, is a great use of a veneer. Since the veneer is relatively thin, it will blend naturally into the other walls around the fireplace (as opposed to an obtrusive cover-up method like painting over a brick fireplace). Stone veneers come in many colors, styles, layouts, and textures, so you can really get exactly what you want. You can have the look of classic marble, or colored limestone, or worn, smooth rough river stones around your fireplace.
Another place where a stone veneer is great is on the outside of your home. You can simulate the look of a French Chateau, a medieval castle, or you can just add in stonework accents that compliment the color scheme of your home. These veneers are so convincing that if you have the work prepared carefully and installed by a professional, it should be very hard to tell from a distance whether your home or fireplace is built of full stones or just covered by a veneer.
As people have found for over two hundred years, a stone veneer is a great way to update and change the look of their home’s interiors or exteriors without breaking the bank. Your home is your castle, so why not think about making it resemble a real castle just a little bit?