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jonathan_burky

should stone veneer also cover foundation?

4 years ago

We are putting in new stucco and discovered that water was leaking behind our old river rock stone veneer. We are going to replace the stone veneer with a new natural stone veneer. Question has come up whether to bring the new stone veneer all the way down to almost the ground (ground is sloped so quite a bit of exposed foundation on corner of house). Or … to only have the stone veneer come down from just below the window to where the foundation starts (leaving the standard exposed concrete below). The prior stone veneer went all the way down to the ground and my siding guy said that’s very unusual. Any reasons to go one way or the other? I feel like it would look nice to cover the exposed concrete with stone veneer.

Comments (9)

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    Only use fake stone where stone would be if it were real stone. So in your case yes put stone on the foundation and that’s probably it unless there are things like column bases. No stone house transitions to wood at windowsill level.

  • 4 years ago

    Something strange in the pic - looks like the sill plate sticks beyond the wall sheathing and foundation. If your plan is to extend the stone to follow the slope of grade (since you need minimum 4" concrete exposure above grade), I would opine that would look silly. If you did extend down further, you would step the stone. And if you have a river (round) stone, you would need something like a lintel to get a straight edge at the bottom. However, because of that sill plate situation (if that's what I see) and the differential movements of wood vs concrete behind a surface-applied veneer, I would stick with only above the foundation.

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    I need to see the house from much further back but I think from what I see the stone veneer should only go above the concrete Foundation plantings can hide the concrete at least at the front . but I need to see the whole house..

  • 4 years ago

    Here’s what the old veneer looked like. I think they set the bottom flashing and had the veneer track the slope of the ground to give some clearance for concrete but the old veneer did cover up some of the concrete

  • 4 years ago

    So you'll keep the stone (round), stucco, then board&batten? Is there a stone water table on other elevations, and stucco too?

  • 4 years ago

    The stone veneer wraps around to the side of the house and extends for about 8 feet. Then it’s on the front of the garage - also in front of house. We were going to replace the river rock with a more of a rectangular rock that’s cleanly stacked. The cedar board and batten may get replaced eventually but right now it will be veneer, stucco, and board and batten

  • 4 years ago

    We had fieldstone (sandstone) on the lower portion of our house with wood above it. Rain would soak into the stone and wick into the wood above, rotting it. We had to flash the top of the stone, cap it, and replace the wood with cement board. Make sure your rocks or veneer is not water permeable.

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    I would skip the stone and the stucco and do it all in horizontal hardiplank, pocket the difference if there is any.

  • 4 years ago

    Any recommendations on material - sandstone v. Quartzite v. Granite? We live in environment with very snowy winters