From simple stone walls to elaborate homes and studios, this is the ideal book for any DIY builder interested in working with stone. Thanks to its utility and cost-effectiveness, stone is an ideal construction resource for the astute owner-builder. Cheap and readily available, rock can be gathered from streambeds, abandoned quarries, and open fields with relative ease. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a natural landscape devoid of building stone. In this book, beloved home-building expert Ken Kern teams up with fellow stone masons Steve Magers and Lou Penfield to present the ultimate guide to DIY stone masonry. THE OWNER-BUILDER'S GUIDE TO STONE MASONRY is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of building with stone. Everything from detailed information on sourcing, sorting, and selecting stones, to the various methods of building with stone. There are even chapters on building fireplaces, steps, floors, and arches.
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road comes a taut, expansively imagined drama about four generations of an American family. The setting is Louisville, Kentucky, in the 1970s. The Telfairs are stonemasons and have been for generations. Ben Telfair has given up his education to apprentice himself to his grandfather, Papaw, a man who knows that "true masonry is not held together by cement but...by the warp of the world." Out of the love that binds these two men and the gulf that separates them from the Telfairs who have forsaken—or dishonored—the family trade, Cormac McCarthy has crafted a drama that bears all the hallmarks of his great fiction: precise observation of the physical world; language that has the bite of common speech and the force of Biblical prose; and a breathtaking command of the art of storytelling. Look for Cormac McCarthy's latest bestselling novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris.
A stonemason's story of the building of Britain: part archaeological history, part deeply personal insight into an ancient craft. In his thirty-year career, stonemason Andrew Ziminski has worked on many of our greatest monuments. From Neolithic monoliths to Roman baths and temples, from the tower of Salisbury Cathedral to the engine houses, mills and aqueducts of the Industrial Revolution and beyond, The Stonemason is his very personal history of how Britain was built - from the inside out. Stone by different stone, culture by different culture, Andrew Ziminski (with his faithful whippet in tow) takes us on an unforgettable journey by river, road and sea through our countryside showing how the making of Britain's buildings offers an unexpected and new version of our island story. 'My school history lessons were focused around flat pages of facts, events and royal personalities, but for me it was the material aspects of the past, the tangible remnants left behind that were thrilling, and that it was these buildings and places, and learning how they worked, that really brought the past alive.'
Author Ian Cramb was a fifth-generation stonemason who relied on traditional methods to create and restore beautiful stone structures. In this do-it-yourself manual for homeowners, masonry contractors, and restoration specialists, Cramb drew on his fifty years of life experience in the craft to cover restoration techniques for historic structures in the U.S. and Britain. The book covers various types of stone, stone-cutting, and traditional mortar mixes for walls, foundations, and buildings.
This book is designed to walk homeowners through the process of developing, planning, and implementing a stone building project. Starting with the basics, you will learn about the common types of stone and where natural stone is found throughout the United States, as well as how to gather your own fieldstone. You will learn how to use stone as a building material, including where to acquire it, as well as how it is cut, sold, and used in various projects. You will learn what tools you need for stonework and how to start working with dry stone, how to work with mortared stone, and the correct way to pour and mix cement. This book will even teach you how your children can be involved with your stonework projects. You will save significant money and increase the value of your house by building your own stone structures in and around your home. This book provides detailed instructions that make seemingly complex projects easy. You will learn how to build stone walls, mailboxes, and fireplaces. You can enhance your backyard with the addition of a stone patio, arch, barbeque pit, rock garden, and a pond, complete with a stone bridge.If you have an existing stone structure on your property, you will learn how to restore it and give it the face-lift it needs. If your property has a structure beyond repair, this book will help you recycle its stone or bricks. Additionally, dozens of stonecutting experts were interviewed for this book, providing insight and experience in using stone as a building material. With The Complete Guide to Building with Rocks & Stone, you will learn how you can start using stone for everything from new projects to restoring existing stone structures. For anyone considering a stone building project, this book is an excellent resource for you. Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company presidentâe(tm)s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.
Whether you are an artisan, an architect or a homeowner, The Stone Restoration Handbook demonstrates the best approach and techniques to use when preserving and repairing historic buildings. It introduces the materials and the processes, and explains the proven methods to conserve, repair and restore stone, masonry, statuary and monuments. This new book is packed with illustrations, examples and advice on stone selection and working, lime and mortars, pointing, cleaning and repairing mortar and stone. It guides you through assessing the job on the first site visit through to discussing the options and difficulties you can face. This is essential reading for those who care for and repair historic buildings and monuments. Contents include: surveying for a conservation report; setting up workshop and tools; stone selection and working; lime and mortars; pointing; repairing mortar and stone; cleaning; consolidation; casting and scagliola. Superbly illustrated with 564 colour photographs.
This work provides a clear and simple guide to the subject, based on meticulous and beautiful drawings. Organized in three sections, it includes chapters on construction details; methods of working particular structural shapes; both basic and advanced geometry and setting-out. It also includes forms and tables omitted from later editions to be used as templates for costing and estimating work. These are as relevant today as they were in the 1920s. It includes a new introduction by Christopher Weeks.
A master craftsman introduces the techniques and beauty of hand-built, drystone construction in a richly illustrated volume that celebrates this ancient architectural style used to create an imaginative variety of walls, follies, and other structures that honor the unique characteristics of stone.