The term Building Stone says a lot. The practice of building houses and buildings with stone goes back a long way, but it goes forward as well, not because of history, but because of values that transcend it. It would be fair to say that we all go a good many years at a time, without reminding ourselves of the three little pigs story, but are there any of us that don’t know the story, or any of us that don’t understand its meaning? It would be very few indeed.

Through the beginning of the last century, houses and buildings routinely were built on foundations of stone, from whatever quarry was closest to the construction site, or of brick, if there was no quarry nearby. People of means often built the outer walls with the same stone, rather than wood frame and siding, because it was known that as long as a roof was kept over it, it would never decay, rot, fall apart, or be eaten by termites. Brick was seen and used the same way. This was the era before termite insurance. A house or building, made of stone, would obviously long outlive its builder, and his grandchildren.

With the development and widespread use of the C.M.U. (Concrete Masonry Unit, a.k.a. concrete block or cinder block) in the mid twentieth century, the use of Building Stone (and brick) changed. It was now, usually, the covering or shell around a wood frame structure, that was built on top of a concrete block foundation. The meaning of the look of a stone house or building, however, did not change. If you had the resources to build it with stone (as with brick), it was not going to blow away. You, also, were not just passing through.

Building stone was now, what we refer to as a veneer, usually 4-6 or 6-8 inches thick. It is this look that we associate with the traditional appearance of a stone house or building, and its mass and permanence are evident around windows and outer corners where the thickness of the veneer (again, whether stone or brick) would be visible. On an outside corner the mason would weave the pieces for strength, and this process would reveal that the thickness or the material was typically 4” -6” thick. Similar to the thickness of brick, and used the same way, stone was stacked with mortar joints, upward from a foundation or ledge, which provided the necessary structural support to carry the weight of the material. It took time and, as always, cost more money, to build in this way. The benefits were real, but not everyone could afford them.

Throughout the United States, in the 1950’s and 1960’s masonry supply yards (the manufacturers of the concrete blocks now used to build foundations, as well as suppliers of Redi-Mix concrete) began experimenting with concrete formed into artificial stone and artificial brick, to provide a semblance of this look, at a fraction of it’s cost. It would be a fraction, since they were thin, therefore lightweight, and could be literally stuck onto the frame wall, rather that needing to be stacked up, bearing down on the foundation. This meant that these materials could be put up rapidly and cheaply. Unfortunately, they looked awful.

In 1962, Garrett and Floyd Brown, professional plasterers from California, developed a process of producing manufactured stone veneer. They were cast of concrete with lightweight aggregates, in flexible moulds, and hand colored with Iron Oxide Pigments. For the first time, realistic looking manufactured stone was available to be distributed on a large scale, ultimately, under the brand name Cultured Stone. While other brands also shared this trend, Cultured Stone became and remains the Pre-eminent name in manufactured stone.

This product, soon available nationally, with L-shaped corners that would simulate a 4”-6” veneer stone, caught on like wild fire. It could be applied to virtually any wall surface, and with the speed of application, could be used at a fraction of the cost of full thickness stone or brick.

The stone industry lagged, and began to be displaced by the manufactured stone industry. The simulated look of stone was mass produced with manufactured stone, and began to find its way into housing developments and onto the facades of chain stores and franchised restaurants which would, previously, have never had a stone appearance, due to its prohibitive cost (the cost of material and labor).

Thin veneers (natural stone that was about 1 ½” thick) had always been available, and gained in popularity during this period, since they were, by virtue of their thickness, also lightweight and able to be used without foundation support. Unfortunately, the absence of the L-shaped corner, to simulate full thickness stone, left the producers of thin veneer at a substantial disadvantage in the marketplace.

Excellent promotional practices (brochures, sales leads and distribution of product in modular boxes) as well as the L-shaped corners they produced, left the manufactured stone industry in the drivers seat, and it gained market share year after year through the seventies, eighties and into the ninetees.

The lag in the Natural Stone Industry filling the demand for lightweight thin veneer with L-shaped corners ended in 2004, with the introduction of mass produced Architectural Stone Fabrication Machinery from Park Industries, of St. Cloud Minnesota. This equipment, which could cut L-shaped corners, as well as thin flat material at a highly efficient, and therefore low production cost, became available to the Natural Stone Industry.

Quarriers across the United States were now able to put these new saws to use at their facilities, providing an amazingly broad pallet of color and texture for Architects to work with, which of course had the unique and broad based variety of appearance that the Manufactured Stone industry had done a respectable job of duplicating, throughout the leadup to this period. Their products are available at a square foot weight rating of under 15 lbs per sq ft, and they are therefore usable, like manufactured stone, without foundation support.

Like the block manufacturers of the 1950’s and 60’s who, throughout the country had created a sort of grass roots revolution to replace real stone with a less expensive alternative, these producers of current thin veneer products are everywhere across the country. Unlike these early producers of manufactured stone, (who are gone now, having been replaced by the large scale production and distribution of high quality manufactured stone) producers of natural stone thin veneers have a finished product that is magnificent in appearance, and impervious to the elements. The fact that it happens to be radically less expensive to use than traditional full thickness stone, doesn’t hurt either.

Since the L-shaped corners provide the appearance of a full thickness stone, in effect, no one can tell that it isn’t 4”-6” thick. In other words, in effect, no one can tell that it isn’t the original full thickness stone, as one would have used in the days before manufactured stone. This is a debt it owes to manufactured stone, through the introduction of the L-shaped corner.

The manufactured stone installers were now, already out there. With virtually the same installation technique, L-shaped corners that would simulate 4”-6” veneer stone, and shipped in modular boxes, the duplicated had copied the duplicator, and the superb appearance of Natural Stone brought itself back into the marketplace in a very big way.