Taking a walk through a Home Depot store recently, and then again, I came across the Veneerstone display. My first thought was "well this is nice, but I certainly can't afford it." I figured it was real stone, it sure looked real, just sliced thin.
Well now I've checked it out online, and I think it is very nice, and affordable too. It's not real stone, but concrete pieces cast to look like stone. They are fairly lightweight (though they feel solid) and they attach to the plywood or OSB sheathing of a building exterior much like tile with a special grout and lath backing. No special footing is required as with brick, and no extra thick wall (giving up lots of potential interior space, in my case around 22sqft) is required as with brick (or real stone), though the pieces do project outward from the sheathing a bit. It's hard to know exactly how long lasting Veneerstone is, but there is a factory warranty of 75 years. No painting is ever required. Installation is said to be fast and easy, with instructions provided.
Actually, I think it looks better than brick, and I'd love to have this on my shed (which I've decided to start calling my "Workshop" as the engineering company did, since it is intended to have finished interior like living space).
Back to long lasting...I suspect the pieces will look fine for my lifetime, but thermal cycling over many years might cause some pieces to fall off an require re-attaching.
The material price might be no less (or even slightly more) than brick, but brick installation is a huge amount of work, even getting the many pallets of brick I would have needed into my back yard was worrying me.
Probably the main issue is finding someone who could do this installation. This is kind of a niche product, so there may not be that many professional installers, and how many of those would be able to build a entire workshop as well? On the other hand, Hardipanel is a mainstream product, and anyone who does any kind of construction probably knows (or at least think they know) how to install it.
Interestingly enough, the website does show a shed, and even a dog house.
Anyway, next time I go through Home Depot I might ask if they know any professional installers who could also build an entire workshop, given that the slab has already been constructed. The Veneerstone website only lists Home Depot stores as the dealers in this area.
BTW, it's too late for real brick, as I did not get a brick footer.
That Veneerstone looks really nice in the photo. I might use it on my future patio's sitting walls if it is less expensive that rock.
ReplyDeleteAs far as using it on your workshop, I'd put it on the bottom of the walls and maybe a third of the way up and then put hardiplank above that. I say that because the photo of the all Veneerstone shed looks a bit odd.