Stone Effect? How?

[Richard]

Hi Folks,

We have a work in progress whereby the outside of the house needs it's finishing touches. Currently, the original part of the house is rendered (well, almost) and the extension is still breezeblock.

Are there any products available that would allow me to have the entire outside of the house look like the old stone cottages/buildings? I know, probably stone itself; but that would be gastly expensive and would change the shape of the house.

I don't want to have the entire house rendered, as it would make the house look too close to new-build; would like to keep some/most of the character.

Many thanks in advance!

Richard

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

In part it depends on what your local stone is, and the finish style on the old houses. I certainly can't think of any way to give a house a 'stone' look without using real stone. When I lived in the cotswolds there was a new development near us that used a thin (2-4 inch) layer of real stone applied over the concrete block walls. It took a couple of masons 2-3 weeks (not cheap)  to do one barn-stle house. It was very convincing until you looked at the corners.

If the local style is suitable you could spend a year or two on a labour of love to try and match things. Personally I'd go for a roughish render, rather than trying to imitate real stone. Maybe using a local sand rather than having a pure white finish.

Maybe if you could show a picture of what your local traditional houses look like someone might have a burst of inspiration.

 

[cooperlola]

As Albert says, much depends upon where you are.

I'm no builder but here is my little thought based on what's around here.  Most of the old buildings here are rendered in lime (chaux) with some "pierre apparente" (bits of the original stone showing through) on some of the buildings.  I wonder if you could lime render and add a few large lumps of limestone to the mix to give a pierre apparent appearance to the newer parts (I have no idea if this is possible, btw)?  The render varies in colour and texture based upon the sand used so that even new render looks very in keeping with the rest of the places around. I'll try to do a pic for you later!

[Loiseau]

We rebuilt a house where there had been a tumbledown cottage (when I say "we", I do mean the local maçon!).

To make it look older, we asked him to retrieve the large corner-stones from the original walls, and to insert them in the corners from ground to roof level where the new concrete blocks were giving too crisply modern an effect. 

It was not cheap to do, as it meant hacking out the corners of the new-ly constructed building to put them in, but I don't regret it as the effect of the old corner-stones against the otherwise white-painted, rendered walls is just what we wanted.

Angela

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

And failure to do something similar is why most stone cladding attempts fail. At the corners you can see that there is a very thin layer of stone over some underlying structure.

Richard, It would help if you gave your French location -- I don't think there are very many exposed stone buildings in Knowle Village. [:)]

[Théière]

Parex-lanko make a patrimone of reconstituted stone and polymer which is made in two colours round our way, (Tours) and (Angiers)

I have used it to reface damaged stone work and no gaps around the edges.

[Debra]

I've seen these at bricodepot and noted they were for exterior use, but I've no idea how they look!

http://www.bricodepot.fr/angouleme-champniers/carrelage/plaquettes-de-parement/plaquettes-de-parement-pour-exterieur

[Alex H]

You could always do this at the corners - it seems quite common on the 'town' houses round here.

It's not stone  - either cement or lime mortar

Sorry about the pic quality - my phone is not what it used to be [:)]

[IMG]http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu210/alexh01/house2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu210/alexh01/house3.jpg[/IMG]

[Théière]

Most likely the Patrimone I mentioned above.

[just john]

The quoins at the corners of traditional stone built houses are commonly applied to new houses as in limestone plaques cut to size and stuck on or by using prefabricated reconstituted stone corners commonly available at any decent quarry or builders yard; then when rendered up to is a reasonably professional finish (as in the pics)

 

[Richard]

Apologies everyone, for taking this long to respond. Thank you ALL for your great feedback.

Alex, that's exactly what I'm trying to acheive.

Debra, I'll have a look into the stone you suggested in your link.... might be a bit of a faff to get done, but it would look nice!

Cheers!

Richard