Natural Thin-Veneer: The Real Deal

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.

Click image to enlarge“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.”Click photo to enlarge

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.”