Stone Fireplace, Stone Staircase, Limestone Fireplaces

In these days of high tech building, one wonders just how long our new houses, built on tight budgets, will really last? It’s only really in the last half century where building practices have been driven by cost rather than longevity. You only need to look at your average Victorian dwelling to see that they were built with the intention that they would last forever! Brick work was substantial; roofing materials were top quality welsh slate, or blue clay tiles; Rainwater goods were cast iron, and everything was done with a view to a building being able to withstand tens of years of our tough weather.

When the victorians built a house, they used the materials that were the best. Tough facing bricks that would not fall apart after a few frosty winters, oak or yellow pine for external joinery that could last indefinately with the correct maintenance, and they used stone too. Stone for window heads and cills; stone for thresholds, steps and stone stairs: Stone cappings on walls, and stone details on chimneys. In fact they did a lot of detail work so that their properties weren’t just well-built and long lasting, but they also looked ‘right’. Of course many of the Victorian terraces were probably not grand enough for stone staircase or stone fireplaces, but many of the bigger Victorian house did use those things and many are as solid today as they day they were built.

It is very concerning that our modern ‘fast-build’ properties are not really made to last. In fact you only have to look at TV’s ‘new homes from hell’ to be very concerned about the cowboy fashion in which some of our big house builders operate.

So, when you build your new home. Copy the Victorian practice: Build strong and for the long lasting!

Stone is heavy! Limestone is also very porous, and when we carve it, we wet it too, and that makes it even heavier. It’s always very difficult to estimate the weight of a stone fireplace when we come to deliver, as the water content can be very considerable and can add a great deal of weight. Our delivery drivers are pretty good judges though and they know that a freshly cut stone fireplaces can weigh half as much again as a completely dry one. When limestone is freshly cut it is also quite delicate, and it needs exposure to the air to make it dry out and harden. In an unheated building this can take some time.

All stones are porous to some extent, and even the harder stones that we use for external work, or the stones we use for a stone staircase for example, all hold some water retained from the cutting process, and need some time to dry out.

The water can also darken the stone, and a stone fireplace or set of stone stairs will not take on their full, natural colour until completely dried out. If your stone work is in a heated building then this process will be considerably quicker, but in any case it does not matter, the drying out does not ‘hurt’ the stone.

In fact the gradual changing in shade and the consequent revealing of the swirls and texture of the stone is quite a fascinating thing to watch…… if you have nothing else to do!

Stone stairs are normally made as part of the structure of a building. They are by their very nature, immensely heavy. Each tread of even the most simple stone staircase is a large and weighty piece of stone, and takes great care to handle, and great skill to install.

Stone staircase with wide sweeping steps of course weigh even more, and for that reason, they need a substantial foundation to support that total weight. For this reason, a pre-design survey is very important, as our masons need to establish that the walls and floors of your home are up to the job of supporting all that weight.

If your existing wall is not strong enough, then we can build you a new wall, and reinforce the floor if necessary to support the stone stairs correctly. This is the sort of thing we do regularly, and although it may add a little time and cost to the project, it is always possible, and at the end you will have the awe inspiring stone stone staircase that you had dreamed of.

All stone fireplaces are effectively a stone surround with a big hole in it that surrounds the spot where you have your grate or stove. The shape of that ‘hole’ can take many forms: You could just have three stone beams. (the top one resting on two at the side) and that I suppose is what the first stone fireplaces were like.

As time went on though, ‘design’ starting making an appearance, and some bright spark must have thought that he’d make his stone fireplace into an attractive feature, rather than just a construction to stop his house falling into his heat source.

The first thing was probably a bit of carving or smoothing of the stone blocks, but rapidly developing into full-on shaping of the stone into an architecural ‘feature’

Perhaps there was a bit of competetiveness involved: Perhaps some one visited the neighbours’ house/hovel and saw that they’d shaped their fireplace into an elegant shape? Who knows, but soon the fireplace had become an entity in its own right, and the rest is history!

All our products, whether stone stairs; stone fireplaces; or stone mullions, come from essentially a hole in the ground! All stone in quarried in one way or another. Some quarries are massive industrial sites that blast and cut millions of tons of stone every year. Others are small family owned businesses that produce a fraction of that amount and only supply small localised requirements.

We use exampls from both ends of the scale. Although we predominantly use Limestone, most of which is sourced from France, we regularly get customers that want a stone fireplace made in a stone that is already evident in their property. Sometimes this is impossible, because the quarry has long since closed or been abandoned, but in other cases we have been more lucky and have managed to find a supplier to give us some of the original material

All stone does weather of course, so particularly in the case of external stone work, even though the material comes from the same quarry as the original, the new stone will always look different for a while. The same applies to internal stuff too: A stone fireplace will get stained by smoke, soot and dirt over the years, and a stone staircase will have thousands of hands and feet having ground in dirt for many years.

It’s sometimes possible to ‘distress’ the new stone a little, but there is no subsitute for the effects of time, wear and tear.

Most importantly though the stone texture will match the original.

So you’ve decided to have some stone stairs in your house. What a great decision! Stone stairs in any form add a feel of real quality and solidity to a property: They look unbelievably impressive, and make any house really stand out from the norm. Of course there are many options: It may a simple straight flight stone staircase, or it may be a sweeping, curving flight that carries you to the upper floors of your house. The stone stairs can be all one width, or they can taper gracefully wider as they descend.

The treatment of the actual treads offers many choices too. The treads can be square; they can be bullnosed, or they can have an elaborate moulding carved on the edge. The undersides of the steps can be stepped like the upper face, or they can be one flat plane from top to bottom.

A curving cantilever staircase is truly a work of art: Just one end of each tread is built into the supporting wall, and the rest of the  stone staircase just ‘hangs’ beautifully in mid air almost like magic.

Then you have the choices for balusters and handrail. You can go the traditional route, and use wrought or cast iron rails, or you can be comtemporary and use cable, or rope or stainless steel: The choices are limitless.

Whatever you choose, you will never regret choosing stone for your stairs, as this has to be one of the most beautiful and impressive features that any house could have.

Once you’ve installed your stone fireplace and decided on what type of fire you’re going to have, you need to decide which particular model. Dog baskets are relatively easy to choose as most are very similar, and once you’ve got a roaring fire going it doesn’t really matter. If however you intend to have a Wood stove in your stone fireplaces, then you have a bewildering number of options. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of manufacturers and designs, and choosing the most suitable can be a real daunting task.

Most people want a stove where they can see the flames, so that at least they have some of the effect of having a roaring open fire. this is catered for by most stove companies, but incorporating some sort of ‘air-wash’ system into their stoves. Air-wash is basically a system where some air is pre-heated by the stove itself, and then directed down over the inside face of the glass. This has the effect of providing a barrier between glass and smoke, and thus largely prevents the glass getting sooted and tarred up.

It isn’t a fool proof system, as if you use very wet wood, so much vapour is released that it cools the fire, and thus the inefficient burning will still cause soot. It can be stopped by making your stove really ‘roar’ with all the air vents open, but then you are really wasting all your fuel.

In the end, the most efficient method is to burn dry wood; in stove; housed in a beautiful stone fireplace: What more could you want?

Well if these temperatures keep up (or down) then we may as well go skiing instead of worrying about making stone fireplaces! Our stone is stock is looking more like an Iceberg every day, as the snow freezes over it. We had minus 8 again this morning and the heating has packed up in the office. So….. think of us while we’re drawing up more stone staircase plans with icicles hanging off the windows!

Actually, I suppose we could start doing a bit of ice carving to keep in practice, but an ice fireplace is probably not a winner is it?

We have just fitted a fantastic stone fireplace in a house in Surrey. It is in a beautifull Elizabethan house that has been restored, and our fireplace has gone into a wing that was semi demolished due to fire damage in the fifties. The owner has now found some original drawings of the house as it was in the early 1800s and it has another wing in which they want to put a sweeping stone staircase. (apparently they have what seems to be a picture of an original one in the house) The owner is having talks with the council, and they seem very keen on the restoration project, and we would love to make the stone stairs as they are a stunning design.

Oh well, fingers crossed

It isn’t just stone fireplaces and stone stairs that we make at Manorhouse Stone. We also make stone gate pillars, copings and wall blocks. In these security conscious days, you may have considered protecting your property with gates on your entrance drive. If you decide on large, (and probably heavy) iron gates, then you will need substantial pillars on which to hang them. We can design and build you something that is in keeping with your property; gives the intended protection to your access, and also probably adds significant value to your property.

Our customers have told us that they feel the gates we have made for them have put more value on their properties than the cost of the gates themselves. (by some considerable margin in some cases) Think about it: When you pull up to a property which has beautiful entrance gates, it’s generally a very good first impression, (presuming they haven’t got two stone lions or eagles on the pillar tops) Even more impressive if the gates are electrically operated, and swing smoothly open to welcome you, once you have identified yourself through the intercom perhaps.

We can make you a stunning set of stone pillars and incorporate them into any existing stone wall or fence line. We can also source gates for you or have new ones made if required.

So remember, don’t just come to us for your stone fireplaces and stone staircases, make us your first call for your new stone entrance pillars too.

This country really does struggle with snow doesn’t it! We’ve only had a couple of inches here in Leicestershire, but the world is in turmoil. When I was talking to one the German masons that does work for us, he said he’d been back home (East Germany that was) and it was minus 16 when he got off the plane. East Germany is where Berlin is for those that didn’t know.

Although our weather is pretty wet and miserable, it is also generally quite mild. Would you rather be carving a stone fireplace in a shower of rain… or in a temperature of minus 16?  I’ll put my raincoat on everytime!

Of course fixing and installing stone work in freezing conditions is best avoided. The Lime mortar will freeze, and the stone is so cold that often the blocks of your stone stairs or stone fireplaces are frozen together, and you just cannot separate them. Best to do some internal stone work if you have some!

Stone work of course has been done in any weather! In some countries where cold weather is prevalent, then the masons have no choice, and there is always a way round any problem. Much as has been mentioned before: Many stone fireplace and stone staircase installations take a great deal of ingenuity due to restrictions on site. It’s all part of the job and the challenge.