How to get stonework to look right!

Building with authentic-looking stonework is hard today because most exterior stone is a veneer and not solid masonry. As a result, our stone houses can look like a flagstone patio. Come learn some tricks for laying up stone in an historic manner.
Be sure to check out and sign up for our Patreon page. We have a podcast coming soon and many great extras that will help you become a better craftsman and builder. / passionforcraft
Also check out our webpage: www.passionforcraft.com
Here are a collection of books used in this talk in my Kit.Co library: kit.co/brenthu...
Here are more great books to check out on my Amazon associates page:
Design book for houses 1920- Architect Small House plan book: amzn.to/37XWaUI
500 Small houses of the 20's- Good designs for period revival homes: amzn.to/3DiH3kh
Samuel Chamberlain's drawings of Rural France: amzn.to/3utg15G
Check Out Our Work: hullworks.com
Sign Up For Our Newsletter: hullworks.com/...
Tell Us About Your Project: hullworks.com/....
FOLLOW ME:
Instagram: / hullmillwor. .
Facebook: / hullhistorical
Pinterest: / _. .

[@TheSlowBoarder]

How do you not have 20 million followers? You are a true craftsman. Please keeps the education coming!

[@MTNPANTS]

Because we are the one in 1000 who truly appreciate the craft. Although 20 million people definitely like the way it looks ;)

[@stevemiller7949]

Well said.

[@BrentHull]

Very kind. Thanks.

[@anitaanotherorchid294]

Flagstone patio on the wall.... that’s it exactly ! I could never quite put my finger on why the stone work I have been seeing lately just rubbed me the wrong way. Great video , thank you !

[@rubyoro0]

Same.

[@BrentHull]

Cool. Thanks.

[@debb8152]

love this--I am a theater designer Brent and so often I am doing a play with a stone wall --all made of styro or blue foam--the coursing is very important--it's not random--otherwise its never going to be believable. Now a rough stone wall is not the same as a building but there is a similar idea. As always it's a great talk.

[@KevinSmith-qi5yn]

Middle age stone walls also had a degree of coursing even if the stones themselves look random. They would typically include a coursing layer every several feet.

[@BrentHull]

Agreed. Thanks!

[@613kc]

The silo finish is perfect!!! 💯

[@JoshPiland]

I agree. It fooled me, I was like “Is that silo original? And they’re just restoring it?”

[@BrentHull]

Thank you!

[@BrentHull]

Haha. Good. Thanks.

[@ccwnyc5671]

I'll never look at a McMansion again without snickering inside.

[@BrentHull]

haha.

[@tc9148]

So interesting. Love the analytical approach to follow historical precedent.

[@BrentHull]

Cool! THanks.

[@rolfselvig335]

Thank you for explaining this to people who don’t understand, but there is so much of this crap installed on new builds and remodels where people just don’t understand and don’t bother to learn why they’re doing it. It’s really embarrassing for the industry and thank you for your video. Be well.

[@BrentHull]

Thanks for watching!

[@sagecleveland3953]

When I worked in new build construction I always tried to talk my clients out of that style of wall and they always ended up thanking me when the neighbors house was done and they saw the difference. Great video !

[@rubyoro0]

What wall would you suggest to them instead?

[@sagecleveland3953]

@@rubyoro0 just a different style of stone. The random pattern looks good at the show room but looks lazy and sloppy on a home.

[@BrentHull]

Love that!

[@RenovationFarmhouse]

Great topic! Very helpful as I add stonework to my C.1890s farmhouse while taking inspiration from my fieldstone foundation.

[@BrentHull]

Perfect. Thanks.

[@ckm-mkc]

If I ever build a house or have an old house to renovate, I'm hiring Brent and his crew.

[@BrentHull]

Thanks!!

[@ompatel7194]

What a teacher!! You should train modern day professors.

[@BrentHull]

Haha, thanks.

[@spencer04629]

So many cases of the flagstone patio up the walls of houses! Not only does coursing "look right" it gives a much stronger appearance to the stone walls. Good lesson

[@BrentHull]

THanks!

[@lizzapaolia959]

Excellent video, thanks for sharing 👌🙏

[@BrentHull]

Thanks for visiting

[@scotchgirl9727]

This video was So Helpful! Thanks, Brent!

[@BrentHull]

Great. Thanks for the feedback.

[@michaelbissen1946]

Amen , brother!

[@BrentHull]

Thanks!

[@beverlyboys73]

I can really appreciate your attention to detail. I have also done many, many samples before the final product. It is so important to get it right. Great work.

[@BrentHull]

I totally agree! THanks

[@jacobwysopal5127]

Very awesome. I really like how you explain what you have learned. The qoining on a lot of field stone homes in my area will show tooling marks where the mason would flatten the faces. The rest of the wall structure will be field stone face no modifications. I am assuming that it was done because you cannot find natural stone that is square on one end to make a finished corner.

[@613kc]

You learn to guard your corners. i.e. A rookie laying one in the field. Big no no 😠

[@BrentHull]

Yes! Thanks.

[@Sylvainhomeimprove]

Great info. Will keep in mind if a customer wants a stone veneer done

[@BrentHull]

Thanks!

[@JoshPiland]

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Flagstone patio walls.

[@BrentHull]

So true.

[@neilvandenbrink5758]

Thanks for the video Brent. How do you feel about the corners where the stone edges are shown? I ask because to me it appears that the corners reveal the secret that the stone is actually just a thin veneer. Typically the quoins would be large long all three axis. How might you overcome this, or is it not a concern?

[@613kc]

100%! The corners 🙄 (I've built 16" double face. 8" single. Do not remember having this problem) Is it not legal to just build w/ Stone anymore? (structural) Brent -I'm adding you to my Heroes list!! Thanks sir! 🤠 hp

[@613kc]

I like this work. last 2 minutes are a slide show: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4WpnolpmcqKm7M

[@BrentHull]

Good question. It takes more work but can be done.

[@neilvandenbrink5758]

@@BrentHull thanks for the reply. I understand these things are trade-offs between costs and effort, and benefit.

[@robertbamford8266]

Sometimes, I think, the answer to your questions about how to do stone cladding is “Don’t!” Nothing like a California ranch with stone veneer halfway up the exterior.

[@BrentHull]

Interesting. Thanks.

[@kaosbboi]

Why not just build stone wall like in the past. I admire Brent passion, concepts and teaching but I still think pasting stones on the wall is a facade amd not a true stone wall

[@ckm-mkc]

It would be much, much harder to meet modern code and likely way more expensive. You'd probably wind up building two walls anyway, with the outer wall being purely decorative even if it was a "real" wall.

[@613kc]

💯 If you got the $ do it right. Otherwise, The silo is perfect. Thx Brent! What a great resource! hp

[@BrentHull]

I agree. When you can, do it. Most architects don't know how to draw out the proper details.

[@erawanpencil]

​@@ckm-mkc Agreed, it doesn't look money is any obstacle for this homeowner though, so if there was a time to do stonework right this project would have been it, even if that would have meant two walls and one being decorative. There's nothing wrong with decoration by the way, that the whole point of architecture! The silo looks great, if it was me I would have carried that look to all the stone walls; would unify everything too... trying to make things look like they were built up and added to over time is a risky game since the eye will notice that everything looks new. We don't know what pressures the builder may be under, he very well might have wanted to build real stone walls but wasn't allowed to.

[@bfelb]

This is an interesting point to make because it directly reflects the change in thinking that happened around WW2. Like for example, stone walls were only created in areas with lots of stone, and only with the stones in that area. Makes sense. That necessity created a cultural style, ie Tuscan house is very different from a Belgian house. Now you just buy a plot of land in the Texas desert and pick a look. It’s expected that the stone masons, no matter how good there work is, will have trouble replicating a real wall, because that’s all they’re doing, replicating. I don’t want to knock on Brent’s work because the quality seems very high but it’s still just as fake as the McMansion others are ragging on.

[@BrentHull]

Thanks for your comment. I would counter that all we do is replicate. Why not replicate well. it doesn't cost anymore to do it right.

[@LukeLongboneOfficial]

There are probably 50 actual stone masons actively working in a given region. The guys doing the stone veneer are minor league compared to a true stone mason. You don’t see the “real” stonework that much anymore (even on multimillion dollar projects) because nobody knows anyone who can do it. True story.

[@buds8423]

But what about the 1930’s petrified wood houses? In filled field stones usually laid any which size. They were a Texas child’s dream home!

[@BrentHull]

Good point. In that case, the stone becomes part of the story. Thanks.

[@gregschoolland5551]

Great perspective, much appreciated. Question: here in CA, code requires wall finishes (ie stone/siding) to be 4” above grade or 2” above flatwork. So everywhere you look stone is “hanging”. Do you run into that in Texas? Do you have a work around for that? Or a suggestion? Thanks!

[@BrentHull]

Hmm, we don't have that here. We typically put a step down in the foundation so the stone sits just below grade. Would that pass in CA?

[@stevemiller7949]

At least nowadays there is Brent, the New Urbanists, the Institute for Classical Architecture, Christopher Alexander and a few others plus the internet. Just imagine how much ignorance there was circa 1970. This kind of knowledge then would have been mocked as quaint, irrelevant, hippieish , or too extravagant. No doubt it still is by millions. What percent of American homes use vinyl siding? Marlon Brando was in a movie called "The Ugly American". When, where, and why did " The Ugly American House Syndrome" take root?

[@BrentHull]

It all started after WWII. In my opinion. Slowly getting worse over the next 40 years. I think we are starting to reverse some of it.

[@f.macmaster2891]

This is a disappointing video. I’ve been a stone mason and contractor for 50 years. Any mason with 5 years of experience with natural stone could have told you all that you have described and more that you haven’t discovered yet in the first 15 minute conversation . Your method of building several experimental walls had to be a very expensive and time consuming thing. You are big on books. There are a lot of books about this. You also seem to care only about how it looks not what it actually is. Frank Lloyd Wright would have hated it. You are a good finish carpenter. But you probably shouldn’t give advice about natural stone.

[@BrentHull]

Thanks for sharing. My audience is not stone masons. My goal is to educate most builders (who don't know about stone or brick) and help them elevate their game. I've never claimed to be a master mason. I would love to watch your videos and learn more about stone work. Let me know where i can watch them. Thx.