J. Kevan Busik

Historically, the most basic building product was natural stone. There are 5,000-year-old structures that have used this building product that continue to exist today. Man has used this product to walk on, carve and decorate his living area for thousands of years. Stone is the universal building material. We have tried to copy natural stone with concrete and duplicating Mother Nature's range of colors and textures. Yet through it all we have not been able to capture the warmth and feel of real stone.

For some applications, one of the only problems that existed with real stone was the size and weight — it simply was not practical is some cases to use natural stone due to its weight. This issue was overcome on many high-rise buildings with the introduction of dimensional panel systems, which proved to be very successful in these specific types of applications.

Which brings us to today's latest adaptation of natural stone, and what the issue of this magazine is devoted to: thin stone veneer. This new thin stone veneer is not a panelized system; the natural thin stone veneer provides tremendous flexibility in patterns, shapes and colors that the thicker stone provides, however, there is a cost and times savings in the installation phase. The thinner stone requires less time to install and requires much less intense labor than its larger counterpart.

Another clear advantage of the natural stone is that, oftentimes, designers will decide to combine both thin and thick veneer on projects and no one can tell the difference between the thin and the thick because they are the same stone.

That being said, it is important to note that when you get your quote for thin stone from the producer, the price may be the same or higher than its thicker counterpart. This is a result of the increased production costs in shaping the thin veneer. Put the material cost together with the installation and you will see the savings. Undoubtedly, as technology advances and new equipment becomes available to produce this stone, the cost of production of the material will drop and you will probably see the material market prices drop.

As a designer you now have some real choices in your application of lightweight material. The beauty, longevity and permanence of real natural stone can now be used in a wider variety of applications.

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Building Stone Magazine
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