Masonry Magazine December 2002 Page. 19
PROVIDENCE
Images courtesy of Continental Cast Stone
CAST STONE IS CREATED TO SIMULATE ALL TYPES OF NATURAL CUT STONE AND IS A PORTLAND CEMENT-BASED ARCHITECTURAL PRECAST PRODUCT MANUFACTURED USING HIGH-QUALITY FINE AND COARSE AGGREGATE AS ITS PRIMARY CONSTITUENTS.
The earliest known use dates to about the year 1138, and can still be seen at Carcassonne, France, a city that contains some of the finest remains of early architecture in Europe. Cast stone was first used extensively in London beginning around 1900, and has gained widespread acceptance in America since the 1920s. Fortunately, since that time many lessons have been learned and can be used to improve the mason contractor's utilization of cast stone.
The use of a high percentage of durable fine aggregate in cast stone creates a very smooth, consistent texture for the building elements being cast, resembling natural limestone, brownstone, sandstone, marble or granite. Applications that use cast stone can range from the simplest windowsill to the most complicated classical architecture. Therefore, the number of profiles and sizes required for any given project can vary from a single shape shown on a sketch to an unlimited quantity of shapes, perhaps not so clearly shown in a set of architectural contract documents.
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