Here are three mistakes to stay away from:
No Tomb Stones - When you are working with Ashlar, Square and Rectangular or Ledge cuts of stone you never stand them up. The stone should never be taller than it is wider. Welcome to the tomb stone look. In New England this wrong direction of stone breaks the horizontal look of these linear cuts as well as creating a weaker structural bond. Growing up working for my father's comany if we had set a tomb stone my father would say "Who is buried under that?" Then he would have us take it down and rework the area. Keep in mind we worked with 6" veneer stone back then not thin veneers. After fixing an area with a full bed stone you learned quickly not to be in that position again.
No Cross Joints - Some people call these cross joints an intersection. Think of it as when four pieces of stone meet creating a cross in the joint. This is one of the laziest and biggest mistakes an installer makes. Not only does this look bad it also is a weak spot in the structure of any full bed job since the stones are not breaking the joint. Even though in thin veneer installation the structural strength is not needed this goes against the goal of any thin veneer job which is to make it look like a full veneer job. There are thin veneer corners now to help create the appearance of the full bed stone veneer. Keep an eye out for these cross joints and know that any good stone mason would never have one in their work.
No Dolphins - As you can see in the photo smack dab in the middle is what we call a "dolphin" breaching upward. Who in their right mind does this? This photo is of an older display that no longer lives here at Plymouth Quarries, thankfully. This display had many things going on that represented lazy installation. First off none of the ledge or ashlar stones are even close to level - keep in mind they don't have to be perfectly level, it is not brick - but there should be some level point that the stones eventually meet without pulling your eye. The crooked, breaching dolphin stone is the icing on the cake in this display.
In summary these are the three most common mistakes that installers make. Even if stone installation is not your full time career you can create good looking stone veneer by staying away from these three mishaps. There are many more tips to give you regarding stone veneer and we will continue with them on future blogs.
