# Stone Cottage



## thimblesworth (Nov 4, 2013)

I am weighing the pros and cons of various types of homebuilding, and I am wondering if anyone could lend some insight into the world of stone cottages. How difficult is building a stone home as opposed to building a log cabin? Also, where would be a good resource to look for plans for a stone cottage? Thank you!


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

What kind of stone? I have a stone cottage, it is made from sandstone blocks. It was an old carriage house. I had to cut 2 openings into the side to add on an addition. Not much difference than concrete blocks except for being solid and very heavy. Stone is much heavier and since small pieces go up a lot slower. If field rock, it is a whole different job. Hard heavy work. Stone masons are artists....James


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## SimplerTimez (Jan 20, 2008)

The Nearing's book _The Good Life_ has quite a bit of info on building from property found rock; but no plans that I recall. Also discusses forms, concrete mix, etc. as it relates to such.

~ST


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## thimblesworth (Nov 4, 2013)

Thanks for the replies! I find the aesthetic of a stone house to be quite appealing, but I'd be happy in a trailer home if I had land to put it on. This is certainly the direction I'm leaning towards for the future. I'll check out _The Good Life_, thanks again.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

How about a regular stick built cabin with rock facing?

....James


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

My carriage house was always damp inside. When I remodeled it I put a vapor barrier and studded up the walls and put in insulation just like you would in a basement. It is warm and cozy now....James


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Depends upon whether you have an endless supply of rock, in toting distance... versus having a forest full of straight logs close by...

Stone is great, and will last forever... but, depending on location, it could be perfect (in the SW, with fat walls for thermal gain/release) or horrible (in frozen parts of the country).

Imho, there's also an economy of scale... better to be bigger than smaller. My first project started off as a 20x8, quickly nixed the 8 part because the work involved was going to be massive, and if I had to do that much work, might as well make it worth it.


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## thimblesworth (Nov 4, 2013)

jwal10 said:


> How about a regular stick built cabin with rock facing?
> 
> ....James


Now that you mention it, that makes a lot of sense. I could get creative with how I could side the dwelling with stone even. Thanks for the idea!


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Hi guys, hope you don't mind if I chime in. I have some questions, maybe for James specifically, but for anyone who can answer them. I love sandstone and have always wanted to incorporate it into my tiny house plan in some way, but didn't know if it was a good idea. 

Since sandstone seems to erode quite easily, is it a problem when building with it? Do you seal it in some way? The old sandstone houses I've seen around here don't look like they have any kind of sealant on them.

Do you have to repoint it and, if so, how often? Is there a special kind of mortar or is mortar all the same? What kind of maintenance do you have to perform to keep it nice and how often? 

Do you have to treat it with something to keep it from growing moss or lichen? There are very old, large sandstones at our family cemetery, and they have it growing on them.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We built a masonry cottage of about 252 sq-ft seven years ago which you can see at this link:

http://SugarMtnFarm.com/cottage

Our family did all the construction. We built the shell including the ferrocement barrel vault roof in about two months with two adults, a teenager, a nine year old and a toddler. Total cost of the project to move in was $7,000. There is a long list of articles linked from the above page describing how we did things with lots of photos.

The cottage houses our family of five and only takes 0.75 cord of wood a year to heat in our cold northern climate - dead wood from our forest is all we need. It stays cool in the summer as well. The high thermal mass and good insulation. 

Construction is a mix of reinforced concrete (RC) for the floating slab, block with filled cores and rebar, ferrocement for the arched roof, brick, cut granite, marble and stone from our land.

Maintenance is about zero. 

We love it.


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## homstdr74 (Jul 4, 2011)

thimblesworth said:


> I am weighing the pros and cons of various types of homebuilding, and I am wondering if anyone could lend some insight into the world of stone cottages. How difficult is building a stone home as opposed to building a log cabin? Also, where would be a good resource to look for plans for a stone cottage? Thank you!


Ken Kern wrote some good books on various ways for an owner to build his own home, and one of the ways was with stone:

http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Kern/e/B001KIIZMQ

We have "The Owner Built Home" (in which he describes how to use stone as well as other things) and "The Owner Built Homestead". We have found both of those books to be very helpful.


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## norcalfarm (Feb 11, 2009)

Check out the book 'Stone House' by Tomm Stanley. He used slipforms for his house and appears to have worked well.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Sorry it took me so long to get back here, but thanks everyone! Highlands, I read your whole story about building your house several years ago and loved it!


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## John_Canada (Aug 17, 2013)

Entirely dependent on the stone available in the area. Sandstone would be awesome. I went thru this thought process as well I wanted walls like this place http://kentuckknob.com/ or this place http://www.sethpeterson.org/
The difficulty comes in the wall cross section. Kentuck Knob used an air space. Not sure about other but I can put you in touch with the architect that helped restore the second place, and I think he has full plans for sale for a one and two bedroom version. Havent talked to him in a bit tho.


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## Glade Runner (Aug 1, 2013)

highlands said:


> We built a masonry cottage of about 252 sq-ft seven years ago which you can see at this link:
> 
> http://SugarMtnFarm.com/cottage
> 
> ...


Wow! I am fascinated by ferrocement construction. Can you give some details on how you did your barrel vault roof? Did you get engineering calculations on the span and load, etc?


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