Natural Thin-Veneer: The Real Deal

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For some jobs, there's no substitute for natural stone - except for those minor considerations of costs, weight and installation issues.

The solution: thin-veneer cuts of quarried stone. Depending on the material and the location of the project, the thinner slices of natural stone can aid in structural stability, meet the aesthetic needs of clients and planning commissions, and become part of a sustainable-building plan.

In the following three projects, the natural alternative proved key in securing a job or providing just the right look for the customer

THE SECRET SAUCE: STONE

LOMBARD, Ill. - In 1977, John Koliopoulous opened his first Patio Restaurant offering family fast-fare to his clientele. His specialty: barbecue ribs.

More than three decades later, the ribs are acclaimed as among the finest in the Chicago area…and his newest restaurant is also getting raves with the use of plenty of thin-veneer natural stone.

Mark Knauer, owner of Deerfield, Ill.-based Knauer Inc. and the restaurant's designer, calls the new facility, “probably the finest-looking fast-food restaurant you'll ever see. it looks like a fine-dining restaurant.”

While Knauer might be a bit prejudiced, he's not a novice in designing such facilities. His firm specializes in the hospitality industry, and typical projects include hotels, restaurants, clubs, lounges and gaming facilities. When called in to do a fast-food restaurant, the firm creates a prototype.

However, this is a one-of-a-kind facility among the five built by Koliopoulous.

“All of his restaurants are very, very high quality,” says Knauer. “This is probably a little warmer and a little more family-friendly. John would probably be the first to say that the others are a little cold and stark.”

To help warm up the decor, the design incorporates 4,000-5,000 ft2 of thin veneer Virginia Ledgestone from Fond du Lac, Wis.-based Natural Stone Veneers International Inc. (NSVI). (The job was sold by Marathon, Wis.-based County Materials Corp.)

Knauer cites multiple reasons for using thin-veneer stone on this project.

“For one thing, there's a consistency in the stone that allows us to write a spec and not have to spend a lot of time tracking things down,” he says. “We don't have to make sure the contractor is furnishing exactly the right stone, and we don't have to go out to the quarry or to the supplier to make sure it's the right stone.”

The stone's lighter weight doesn't require the same level of structural detailing that the use of a full veneer would require. And, Knauer adds, when time is money, it goes up quickly.

“We have, of course, learned over the years some about how to deal with inside and outside corners,” Knauer says. “There are some differences to dealing with a 4” stacked stone. Fortunately, the mason (DTM Masonry Inc.) did a great job.”

Dan Mesch, owner of St. Charles, Ill.-based DTM, agrees that thin veneer can be a bit, as he says “tricky” in the corners. On the other hand, he says he's becoming a fan of thin veneer products.

“We love using it because it's lightweight,” he says. “It's easy on our bodies.”

In this case, he says the job - which the company earned through its low bid - was a fairly straightforward one that required no mockups before work began.

“It's very simple as long as you keep it level,” Mesch says. “That's the biggest challenge. We'd do snap lines every 16” so we knew we'd be on the money, and it resets itself if you get off a little with the varying heights.”

There was a little concern about the proper coloring for the end product, though. The Virginia Ledgestone utilizes a blend of dark, light and silver ledgestones.

“We'd try not to put all of them in one spot so you'd have a silver section here and a brown one over there,” he says. “We inter-mixed the base colors fairly easily and it pretty much laid itself.”

Not that Mesch's crew didn't stay busy. DTM also laid the brick used in the project, and the company employed up to a dozen different masons at the site off-and-on for six months.

“We started in October and did all the major rough-in stuff during the warmer months,” he explains. “Then, when winter set in, we were able to go in and do the interior brick work and the interior stone veneer. We finished the exterior after it warmed up again in the spring.

“It was quite a project for us.”

A concern for both the architect and the mason involved the project's structurally soundness.

Mesch says the building envelope is a mix of construction methods. Some areas have block backup, but others have steel studs, plywood and a vapor barrier covered with metal lathe.

“It was a good example of what you can do with the thin veneer,” he says. “You can put it just about anywhere.”

The tops of the exterior walls are capped, and Knauer says he had lengthy conversations with Mesch about the best way to finish them.

The architect describes himself as being “old-school,” and says he was initially worried about using the thin-veneer stone without a vapor barrier or flashing at the top and bottom.

“We haven't had any problems,” Knauer says. “We might have had reservations about using a thin-set product like this on the exterior, but I don't think we do any more.”

“We made sure that it was done right,” says Mesch. “It's holding up well.”

Knauer says one of the things he likes most about the thin-veneer stone is that it can be used for both interior and exterior use.

“It allows us to use the same stone on both,” he says. “We can run glazing into it and it looks like a continuous wall, even though the construction is different for the wall behind it.”

And, while he wishes some suppliers would improve their corner products to create a thicker stone look, the use of the thin-veneer stone on this job really gave the client what he wanted.

“What we all wanted was to warm up the building,” Knauer concludes. “The veneer brings in a natural feel, an organic feel, and does it in a very quality way. I think that's important.”

SUSTAINABLITY WITH STYLE

PARK CITY, Utah - The look of the Park City Medical Center needed to be extraordinary for both the owner and the community ... and thin-stone veneer helped clad the way to its success.

Saying Park City is just another small town is akin to calling Paris just another European city. The community of fewer than 10,000 people is home to three ski areas, as well as the U.S. Ski Team, the country's largest independent film festival and myriad celebrities.

Still, when Intermountain Health, the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit provider of health-care services to people in Utah and southeastern Idaho, began looking at building a hospital in Utah's Summit County, they weren't totally sold on Park City as a location.

“They were looking to build a hospital in the area, but not necessarily in Park City,” says Jeffrey L. Davis, who worked on the project as a principal with Salt Lake City-based Architectural Nexus. “A group from Park City really solicited to bring the hospital to that community.”

Even with that support, it wasn't a quick process, Davis adds. The chosen site, in an area under development beyond Park City's boundaries, need to be annexed into the community.

The appearance of the new building became a great concern to both Park City residents and municipal officials. Architectural Nexus has designed a number of facilities for Intermountain Health, but Davis describes most of them as being simple in materials and contemporary in design.

“Park City's planning and zoning ordinances are directed towards a certain kind of design for Park City, so the aesthetics became very important,” says Davis. “They wanted the hospital built, but they wanted it to fit in with their vernacular.”

Further complicating the matter: the building's size of 153,000 ft2 and 26 beds is larger than anything else in the town.

“The regulations are really written for smaller buildings,” says Davis. “That meant we had to break the building up into different components and find ways to use roof planes and changes in elevation and materials to really make it fit into what they desired.”

David Cassil, Architectural Nexus' director of design and the medical center's chief designer, says that, given the terraced site and the community's desire for an organic look to the project, the designers opted to focus on stone for the exterior appearance.

“We took the lead on that to make it a nice fit within the landscape of the area,” says Cassil.

With that idea in mind, Davis says several options were explored, from man-made products to full veneers.

“As designers, we really felt the natural stone was the best integration into the site,” Davis says. “We also knew that there was a nearby quarry. We got in touch with its developer, (Heber City, Utah-based) Delta Stone Products Inc. Working with the quarry's owner, Mountain Valley Stone (also of Heber City), they had developed the stone as a thin-veneer product, and it became a cost-effective way to use natural stone when a traditional way of using it would have been outside our price range.”

The Mountain Valley veneer - a quartzitic sandstone named for the quarry's owner - comes from less than 10 miles away. Even though the project did not formally pursue LEED? (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System? certification, many sustainable features are included with the medical center, such as the use of the locally quarried stone.

Besides providing an organic look attractive to the community, Cassil says the thin-veneer stone offered the project another feature: speed of installation.

“Time was definitely a factor in our construction, and this went up very quickly,” Cassil says. “The stone mason had a large crew on the project and one of the big advantages of a veneer like this is that it can be phased into the rest of the construction more conveniently.”

Craig Child of Child Enterprises, the Springville, Utah-based masonry contractor for the project, calls the new medical center, “a pretty building that fits into the mountain atmosphere and culture.”

“They wanted the look of natural stone, but they were limited on the weight,” Child says. “The thin-stone veneer provided a lot less weight for the construction, but it still gives the look of natural stone.”

From his perspective, the natural stone offers a pair of other advantages. Child says his experience shows that it's more durable than a concrete product. by installing it with a poly-modified mortar, there's less likelihood that it will detach from the underlying surface over time.

He also agrees with Cassil's contention that the installation of the thin veneer is easier to do around other aspects of a project than a full veneer. And, in this case, the veneer stone was used quite extensively. not only was it incorporated into the landscaping, but Cassil says the stone was also featured in the lobby and carried into the food service area.

“It was important for the stone to look right and for it to have nice, straight, even lines and good craftsmanship from the masons,” says Davis. “We went through several iterations of mockups to make sure we were all on the same page and the aesthetic that we desired came across.”

Child explains that the project was done in a random ashlar, with pieces ranging from 4”-12” in height.

“The lower 30' of the building has a lot of stone on it,” he says. “There are some areas that go full height, but there are other areas where it's just wainscoting.”

The only installation problem, he notes, resulted from some of the piers being battered on one angle.

“This stone was made to have a corner, and so to match that batter we weren't always able to get the joints as straight as we'd like,” Child says.

Child praises the overall look of the medical center, and Cassil says he believes Intermountain Health may be interested in expanding its supplies selection on future jobs Architectural Nexus does for the company.

“This may be a one-of-a-kind project,” Cassil concludes. “But, I think the project expanded Intermountain Health's thinking beyond its typical palette of materials.”

CLAD ABOUT THE HOUSE

SPOKANE, Wash. - When Ken Warren and his wife decided to sell their 23-year-old family home and build something new, all the options now available in construction materials provided a number of surprises.

Among the ones they chose to incorporate into their new abode: plenty of thin-veneer natural stone.

Granted, the Warrens' new residence isn't exactly a tract home. Situated on six acres, with a view of Mt. Spokane off the back deck, the home itself encompasses 5,000 ft2 on the main floor and another 5,000 ft2 in a day-lit basement, with a four-car, 2,000 ft2 attached garage. Then, there's the 5,500 ft2 garage - attached by a breezeway - to house Ken Warren's car collection, and a 2,000 ft2 utility building with a covered carport situated off the lower level.

The Warrens didn't exactly approach designing a new home in the traditional way, either. Although a key goal was getting the master suite, a guest suite and the laundry facilities all on the main floor, the couple did a lot of the legwork themselves.

“We like our previous home, but there were some things that if we were going to start with a clean piece of paper we thought we'd add a little extra on this end of the room, or whatever,” says Ken Warren. “We did a lot of research in books and magazines and at local and regional home shows, trying to find a design and a floor plan we liked and merge it in with the dimensions of many of the rooms from our older home.”

It was only then that they called on an architect to, as Ken Warren says, “put the jigsaw puzzle together.”

Once that was done, the Warrens began seeking out an exterior look for their project. It was then that they encountered options that hadn't been available years ago.

They ended up visiting the local outlet of Mutual Materials Co. and settling on Canyon Creek, a thin-veneer stone from Kalispell, Mont.-based Glacier Stone Supply LLC that ranges in color from chocolate brown to tan to blue/gray.

“We made our selection from what they had available and what we liked,” says Warren. “I wanted to use real stone rather than the manmade stuff. This just lent itself to the color concept we had for the house and the choices we made with paint and peripheral stamped and sand-washed concrete used on all the drives, sidewalks and decks.”

Warren adds that he liked the idea of a thin veneer product, as well.

“It gives us the irregularity of the rock, but it's not dramatic. the rock varies from about 1” to 1 1/2”, he says. “And, it saved us from having to design a thicker wall and foundation.”

Detail work proved to be extremely important to the homeowners. Although Canyon Creek is available in several different ledge, tumbled and dry-stack configurations, the Warrens wanted the stone to maintain what Ken Warren calls “a horizontal theme.”

To do that, the couple worked closely with Tom Murphy, owner of Spokane-based masonry contractor Tom Murphy Masonry LLC.

“It's a random dry-stack look, but we gave the owner samples of different ways we could install it,” Murphy says. “We used more than a dozen diamond blades on our saw to cut and fit the stone. We don't do that for a lot of people, but it was required to achieve the horizontal look the client was after.”

Murphy explains that he got the job because of previous work he'd done with the contractor hired by the Warrens to build the home. Veneer installation was done over metal lathe and plaster using a regular type “S” mortar.

And, the stonework is extensive. The finished project utilized 8,000 ft2 of stone flats and 1,400 lineal feet of corners. Murphy and his five-person crew spent parts of 2008 and 2009 on the jobsite.

Not all of the stone stayed on the home's fa?ade, either.

“We really like the color tones,” says Warren. “We made our grand entrance gate and several light posts up the drive, and the back desk barbecue cook center and raised fire pit out of the same rockwork, and then we carried it into the house on our fireplaces and the walls of our recreation room and wine cellar, along with the hot tub in the swimming pool area and a large raised circular planter that will incorporate a water feature in the circular drive.”

The couple is also incorporating the same color tones into this year's project - landscaping their lot (including a second large water feature) - although that part of the job is utilizing a locally quarried stone.

Both men say they're very pleased with the end result.

“Because of the way we pieced it together, it was a little more labor-intensive,” says Murphy. “I think you can see that a lot of time and effort went into making sure the quality was maintained and everything was balanced.”

“Our old home had a little bit of stone across the face, because that was what we could afford then,” says Warren. “This is an absolutely beautiful stone, and after talking to the mason, we liked that it has a systematic pattern but there's variability within the pattern, and the mix of color tones. We really haven't seen anything like what we built.

“Everyone who sees the new house compliments us on the beautiful rockwork. The masons were great to work with and did an absolutely exquisite job.”

By K. Schipper

Keywords: StoneADD Articles