The Owner Builder's Guide to Stone Masonry

by Lou Penfield, Ken Kern, Steve Magers, et al.

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1626545405
• ISBN13: 9781626545403
• Release Date: June 2016
• Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Basic rules are covered here

I was looking for a book to cover veneer stonework for my fireplace and kitchen island. Many of the books out there only cover drystacking. This book covers everything that I needed. It is amazing that there are so few books on this subject. This book had good basic instruction for building walls that don't fall down, how to cut the stone, how to mortar the walls, how to use angle iron for openings. It also showed how to atatch veneer stone to an existing wall, which was really what I needed. I liked that this book showed what happens when things go wrong. His "bad" examples are priceless, although you sometimes have to find it for yourself in the pictures. And for the first time, I understand why you need to keep mortar wet until it cures, something that the instructions on the bags say to do but never WHY you must do it, or what happens if you choose to skip that step. I have a few Black and Decker books on backyard projects that are such a joke. They show everything working out perfectly and that is NEVER how it happens. Still, there is room for improvement...there could have been color photographs, more photo annotation, and more diagrams for some of the alternative stone building methods in the back.

So you want to build with stone? Buy this book.

I have perused that which is available at B & N and numerous online library holdings. There are a lot of books that tell you how to do one thing, or maybe 2. This book tells you how to work veneer stone, design footings, build freestanding walls, house walls, steps, veneer a floor, build an arch, etc. It suggests places to look to gather stone for free.The language of the book is completetly accessible. It teaches a sort of mantra about masonry Frank Lloyd Wright would be proud of. It doesn't get terribly technical, nor is there really any math that I can see. This book does not cover floating walkways, where the stone is simply embedded in sand. THERE ARE TONS of illustrations which are, in themselves, indispensible. It does assume a basic familiarity with mixing mortar and concrete, but gives tips on that as well. If you aren't a mason and are looking for a place to start from ground zero, this is it.