WHAT IS CLADDING HOW TO SELECT STONE CLADDING FOR YOUR HOME

In this article, we will take a look at some key areas of creating your perfect wall and the elements that come together to give you the finishes you see today on some of the most stunning homes across the country.

We’ll take a look at what natural stone cladding is, what types are available to you, which would work best for you and ultimately a guideline on how to install your cladding.

WHAT IS CLADDING?

“Cladding” is made to dress your wall with stone without the costs of building walls with blocks and labour costs associated with them. You can easily clad your wall with your preferred material and blend it in to suit your environment in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

WHAT IS NATURAL STONE CLADDING?

Stone Cladding is a thin layer of stone applied to a building or other structure made of a material other than stone. Stone cladding is adheres to a concrete wall, brickwork and buildings as part of their original architectural design. The back of each piece of stone is sawn to a flat finish, which allows stones to be fixed to appropriate substrates.

With locations scattered all over the world, most countries have some form of natural stone that is found beneath them.

Natural stone “cladding” is thin slices of quarried natural stones. They are taken out of the land and accordingly sliced into blocks and boulders – from these blocks/boulders, the products you see today are manufactured and made.

With many different types of natural stones, ranging from granite to quartzite from travertine to marble there are cladding varieties to suit anyone and everyone.

What is free form Cladding?

Free form – These are small, medium and large pieces of loose natural stone with sawn flat back pieces that come together to create an organic wall that appears like it has been built for centuries. The definition of “free-form” is individual pieces.

With a back that has been sawn flat for easy installation, our individual wall cladding stones are glued onto an existing wall, creating a natural and timeless organic look.

Installed by a skilled stonemason, equally as important to the quality of stone used as well as the shape and finish of the stone, is the quality of craftsmanship from your installer.

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Freeform organic stonework is an art form, and the artist is critical in completing the ‘picture’ that becomes your wall.

It is not a pattern that they have to follow, there are specific ways you need to lay each type of organic cladding to get the right look. What we are trying to achieve here is the appearance that your structure has been hand built from actual blocks, centuries ago.

If you lay the cladding as if its an abstract painting or some sort of pattern you turn the wall into more of a patterned stone wall (which is fine if you are after that look) rather than to achieve the look of a structurally built wall that is built/stacked by a stonemason block by block. This way it each piece suits its grains, shape and colour.

For example, If your stonemason were going to build a wall say 10m long and 5 meters high from blocks, the wall should be structurally stable, it needs to be stacked one on top of another so it doesn’t ever fall or collapse.

When cladding a free form natural stone onto an existing wall it still needs to look like as if they have been built from actual blocks, they still need to appear stable. Even though it is actually the substrate on the back that needs to be stable!

If you do not see the difference when looking at a block wall and a cladded wall, then you have achieved the coveted timeless wall which will doubt anyone speculating if the wall is cladded or block work.

Armstone offers corners pieces of all the stone claddings which are available in pre-cut 90-degree pieces to give you that full stone, block look. The benefit here is that you don’t have to get your stonemason to mitre the corners, its best to avoid seeing any cut joints anywhere on the wall.

To achieve the true organic look your installer shouldn’t have any sawn cuts on your stonework. They should make cuts from the back of the stone and split each individual piece of the stone to prevent having a sawn cut on the face or side of the piece.

If you have the sawn edges, you may chip the edge of each piece to give the stone a more natural edge. This is where the expertise of your stonemason should really show.

When done properly, a free form organic wall can create a stunning timeless feature to your indoors or outdoors. However as with anything in life, if corners are cut, there Is practically no point in going through the process. One would be better off with other, more practical options.

WHAT IS DRY STONE CLADDING?

In the Free Form individual stone cladding range, you can either do “Dry Stack” aka “Dry Stone Cladding” which means that the stone cladding is Not Grouted (no any cement filled into the gaps) or Grouted. 

Some stones look good in “dry stack” and some “grouted”. It is really all about your personal preference.

Some Natural Stone Claddings looks really organic when you lay them in “Crazy” pattern. This is where the pieces don’t have any even sizes or shapes.

If you are planning to do a dry stack you must plan ahead to have the grout joints tight or you if you’d like to grout you should use packers to get consistent grout joints for each individual piece of stone.

If you are not sure which will suit your home or project give us a call and speak to us, we are sure we be tailor you the perfect solution.

Besides the “Crazy” format stone cladding nowadays more architects and landscape designers are specifying the “Random Ashlar” pattern which is suited for more modern designs.

“Random Ashlar” is a random Geometric pattern – Random ashlar, pieces consist of random squares and rectangles.