Masonry Magazine November 2003 Page. 27
Freeze-thaw Issues
ANOTHER ADVANTAGE to full-stone veneer is it's ability to accommodate various joints and dry-stacking.
"If the homeowner wants a dry-stack look, I'm going to encourage at least a minimal mortar joint to prevent moisture from getting behind the masonry wall," says Buechel. "Whether it's freeze-thaw climates or not, if you get moisture behind it and you're not using good masonry practices, you're going to get stress fractures up through your scratch coat."
Swirzon agrees. "If the detailing isn't 100% perfect or it wasn't constructed correctly, moisture can get into the assembly and behind the masonry units," he says. "If you're applying it like a tile and moisture gets into your mortar bed or attachment system, when the moisture freezes it will expand by 10%. When it expands by that 10%, you can get the units actually popping right off the wall. Thin veneer works very well in the Southern United States, where they don't have freeze-thaw cycling. Once you get a little further north where there is freezing, there can be a potential issue with the moisture causing the unit to fall off the wall."
Mindset
THE FINAL FACTOR is not a physical, economical or technological point, but rather a state of mind.
"In the Carmel/Pebble Beach area, which is a high-end residential area, the emphasis on the houses I'm working on is almost the complete opposite of thin veneer," states DeMaria. "They're going about their housing project with the idea that their home is going to last for generations, and they're not really looking for shortcuts to finish it. Usually when I'm talking to them, they want an authentic stone-style of lay, what generations of masons have done, and they want to create a very authentic style of house."
"There's a psyche about all of this," Leonard agrees. "Even though thin veneer is natural stone, it's not the full-depth natural stone."
"There is absolutely very minimal difference, if any, on probably 90% of the thin stone as opposed to the full masonry," states Buechel. "There's something about it; it's the prestige of having the full stone on a house, but when you look at it you can't tell the difference. It's a mind over matter syndrome."
Conclusion
SO WHAT'S THE ANSWER when it comes to using thin veneer or full-dimension stone veneer?
Buechel weighs the advantages of each type and simply states: "What are you trying to accomplish out of your project?"
Meanwhile, DeMaria answers the question from a proud stonemason's point of view. "You could do two houses, side-by-side, one full-dimension stone and the other thin veneer, and literally not be able to tell the difference if the jobs were prepped correctly," says DeMaria. "My background is I'm a fourth generation stonemason here in this area and we still do our installations the same way our great uncles did. In my opinion, price-wise and authenticity-wise, the top of the line is full-dimension stone."
Then there's one aspect that's on everyone's minds. "There are so many different materials you can put on a building now that we've got to figure out a way to compete," Leonard states. "Masonry can be replaced by so many different materials on the skin of the building that we've got to get more cost-effective. We have to figure out better ways of keeping masonry materials on the skin of these buildings. Thin stone veneer just happens to be one of them."
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