r/stonemasonry

Hey Nutmeggers,

this is an old hobby of mine, but I figured I show it off: I noticed no one ever made a survey of my town's old colonial stone walls, and being fascinated by their layouts since my days with the Lyme Land Trust as a wee lad, I decided to trace them myself.

They'll never be 100% accurate, unless somebody wants to book it out into the bush and measure them meter by meter, but I tried my best with the power of winter-time satellite, which I found to be more precise than using LiDAR.

I had a much more expansive project 8 years ago, covering Stonington, Block Island, Little Compton, the Aran Islands, and Öland, but that computer has since exploded.

My end goal is to ultimately cover all of New England at some point, but for the time being, I have to play it by ear so that my laptop doesn't blow up every 3 minutes lol.

Sharing a completed natural stone project we worked on.
The flooring features a bookmatched style marble layout, with the same stone continuing through the staircase and contrasting dark marble risers.
What do you think of the combination of the light marble with the darker stone details?

My Favourite Projekt My Friends and me Build a few years back

This grotto is my first dry stone build. I'm wondering how long you all think it will last.

I'm concerned frost heaves will take it out. I have some thorough stones in the sides and I wish I'd taken more time to use a better batter and use masonry lines. I have some thorough stones on the sides, and I wish I'd taken more time to use a better batter and use masonry lines.

I'm looking for an objective opinion from experienced masons/hardscape installers on some recently completed porch work.

On the right side, I measured approximately 2¼ inches of fall over 8 feet away from the house. The opposite side of the porch has a noticeably gentler slope.

What bothers me most visually is the bottom of the right-hand stone pier. Because the porch surface drops fairly quickly across that area, the lower stone/course at the pier ends up looking wedge-shaped or “pie-shaped” when viewed from the porch. The pier cap itself is level.

My questions are:

• Is that amount of slope reasonable for this type of porch?
• If there is no drainage or elevation constraint requiring different grades, would you normally expect the two sides to have similar pitch?
• Is the wedge/pie-shaped treatment at the bottom of the pier considered a normal way to accommodate the slope?
• If not, how would an experienced mason normally detail that transition so the pier still reads square and level?

There is also a separate issue with the left pier. Looking down from above, the pier and cap appear to be rotated slightly relative to the paving grid and house. The post above it will soon be wrapped with straight TimberTech deck boards, so I'm concerned that the rotation may become more noticeable once the cladding is installed.

Does that pier look meaningfully out of square, or within normal masonry variation?

I'm genuinely looking for an objective trade opinion rather than confirmation that something is wrong.

Thank you.

This 2nd story wall in a Spanish farm house has a cavity in it!! How do I fix it , can I put new stones in ?

Hi can anyone give advise how to do this? I live in north west England.

Just wanted to have an opinion on what to do.

Last clip of this project! Before installing, I always trace and make a template for every single step with a bit of extra allowance/overshoot before i cut the big slabs in pieces. That way, I always have enough material margin on site to dial in a perfect, custom fit!

​From angle finding with the template to taping, grinding the fragile miter edge, dry-bed compaction, and bonding it flush with color-matched 2-component epoxy

Hello friends.

I’m looking for some advice on how to most cleanly separate one of these pieces from the others. In other words I would like to remove one of the four sides, leaving behind C shape.

It seems to be joined by what appears to me to be some kind of black caulking, except it’s hard as rock. However it does come off easily with a chisel. Yes, I have no idea what I’m talking about with stone.

This was the pedestal from a table. It is granite. Made in Italy.

Is it at all possible to do it by hand? With some masonry chisel’s? I will not be paying to have any outside help, and I do not have a wet saw. Even accepting that it might be a little rough, what would be the best way to proceed?

Thank you!

How could I even out the tones?, re: that stain-looking on the sides. At first I thought it was humidity but that’s not it. I have tried pressure washing this sign thinking it was just dirty from years past, but that tone difference is still there. Any pointers will be well received!

I might be posting in the wrong group, but looking for feedback/reality of feasibility. We're trying to design a headstone for a family member. Cemetery says no vases attached to headstone as it'll go beyond accepted measurements.

I want a vase of some sort. Its my one want for it. I hate laying flowers on the ground when visiting graves and no in ground vase is allowed.

If granite is used could a "vase" be drilled into the top of the stone with a small drainage hole in back at the base of the "vase" while still holding the integrity of the stone? Is there a spot that'll prevent weakening the stone, like center vs to the left or right? (It's not something I've seen and assume there's a reason for it, but hoping its doable.)

I attached a basic drawing, of what I'm thinking.

I come to you guys with ANOTHER problem. (Have I mentioned I hate my contractor?)

My tile installer has started installing the marble sill/cap on this shower pony wall, and I’m concerned about how far it overhangs the finished wall.

There will be another marble piece running perpendicular to this one, so as it stands it looks like they’ll meet in a pretty substantial sharp 90° corner projecting out from the wall in a room that I stumble into at night.

I flagged it before they install the second piece, and the installer asked what I want done. I’m not a tile/stone expert, I just know I don’t want a big sharp marble corner sticking out like this.

What would be the standard/professional way to finish this? Smaller overhang? Rounded/softened corner? Something else? Originally the walls were supposed to have beadboarding but the contractor kept saying he didn’t want to do it and I got sick of arguing with him about it; would that help by bringing the wall out some? What’s a solution here? I’m at my Whitt’s end with these guys.

HELP.

Laurel cavern ledge stone veneer in Pennsylvania color.

Looking for a stone mason’s input. Would you be happy with this?

Just wanted to drop a quick thanks to everyone! Editing and filming on site takes up a lot of time, but seeing all the nice comments and good discussions here makes it completely worth the extra work. Thanks for the support 👊

Hey guys, I bought 1.300 sq ft of cement-based terrazzo tiles with a glossy finish for my renovation project and I’m unsure about the quality.

The tiles look amazing but on every single tile there 2-10 spots where stones obviously got loose (up to 3/8“ aka 10mm long) and it got filled with what seems to be grout.
It’s a different color than the cement and doesn’t have a shiny finish.

The supplier claims this is normal in terrazzo tiles and every whole should be filled with the colored grout similar to the cement during grouting.

But this is just sooo many spots. There is not 1 tile without it.

Has anyone of you ever worked with cement based terrazzo tiles and can tell me if this is to be expected or am I being bullshitted?

Thanks in advance for your support.