Natural Thin-Veneer: The Real Deal

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.

Click photo to enlargeThe 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. Click photo to enlarge

“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.