Homeowners Love Exterior Remodel Ideas Incorporating Stone
Though trends in construction and exterior design have come and gone throughout the years, the rustic look has always managed to maintain a place at the forefront of homeowners’ hearts. To this effect, no material can capture the rustic look while remaining clean and classy in contemporary designs quite like stone.
From seemingly simple projects such as xeriscaping the lawn or adding a stone firepit to more ambitious undertakings that involve adding a stone façade as part of a historic building restoration, there is a multitude of creative exterior remodeling projects that incorporate stone that will add tremendous value to your clients’ renovation efforts.
1. XERISCAPE THE FRONT LAWN
While the perfectly manicured front lawn has long been a beacon of the ideal American home, environmentally-conscious consumers are becoming increasingly wary of the water needed to make this ideal a reality. As such, many residents of Colorado and Arizona are choosing to xeriscape their lawns. Stone can provide a clean look that requires a fraction of the maintenance--and none of the water--required by its greener counterpart.
2. REPLACE THE CONCRETE DRIVEWAY
Colorado and northern Arizona are no strangers to snowfall. While the snow makes for a picturesque scene on clear mountain mornings, it can leave the region’s highways, sidewalks, and driveways in a state of serious disrepair come springtime, as the settling, thawing, and freezing that occurs throughout the winter causes concrete surfaces to crack and crumble.
A superior alternative that alleviates such winter damage is a permeable gravel driveway. Not only does this stone option provide elite driveway drainage, but innovative locking grids hold the gravel in place to ensure that no shifting, clumping, or rutting occurs in the face of heavy use. It also makes handling leaking car fluids a breeze compared to concrete alternatives, which require powerful stain removal methods to clean.
3. UPGRADE TO MORE DURABLE SIDING
It can be argued that Colorado faces a wider variety of weather than any state in America. From extended dry periods with bright, sunny days to the well-known winter snowstorms to the tempestuous winds that arise as the temperature changes, Colorado homes have to withstand it all.
Therefore, it is essential that a home’s siding be able to perform well across this wide spectrum of possibilities. The best house siding in Colorado will provide an element of insulation, outstanding durability, and elite fire protection, making stone veneer options, with their high thermal mass, a strong option when looking into full or partial upgrades of a home’s siding.
4. ADD AN OUTDOOR KITCHEN
Without being able to dine out in anything resembling a normal atmosphere in the safer-at-home year that has been 2020, many homeowners have chosen to bring the restaurant to their backyard, installing outdoor kitchens to break the monotony of cooking indoors each and every day.
Quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, stone ovens, and louvered pergolas are all fixtures of these exterior culinary spaces, which must be versatile and durable enough to withstand the changing seasons in the Rocky Mountain region.
5. INSTALL A STONE FIRE PIT
Perhaps the simplest means of incorporating stone into exterior remodeling projects is by installing a stone fire pit. Not only is this another safer-at-home attraction that provides versatility to a home’s exterior areas, but it plays just as well in a garden or traditionally-landscaped backyard as it does with zero-water spaces.
CONCLUSION
As building and design trends have come and gone, rustic sensibilities continue to appeal to homeowners, with natural stone a popular look around many contemporary homes. As such, when planning an exterior remodeling project, consider xeriscaping the lawn, moving away from a concrete driveway, and upgrading the home’s siding as a few of the ways to adroitly add stone to a property.
Skylar Ross is a contributor to the Innovative Materials blog. He is a content writer for the construction and home improvement industries with an interest in landscaping, outdoor remodeling, and interior design. Skylar is focused on educating homeowners, contractors, and architects on innovative materials and methods of construction that increase property value, improve sustainability, and create a warm and welcoming ambiance.