Landscaping Rocks Blog

“You can’t buy experience.” That saying holds true when it comes to working with natural stone. While buying from a quality natural stone retailer will provide the very best raw materials to work with, the actual effort involved in landscaping with stone retaining walls or crafting beautiful natural stone interiors requires the experience to get the best out of the material, avoid mistakes and select the best natural stone for the job.

You can’t buy your own experience, but you can employ someone with that experience to work for you. With that in mind, experience is a key ingredient in the mix of criteria you need to look at when you decide to employ a natural stone layer. In today’s service-oriented professional environment it’s easy to get dazzled by personality and superficial results. While someone may have a reputation for quick work and a polite demeanour, the quality of the end result is what matters. You want someone with a reputation for solid work above everything else.

That’s why it’s always a good idea to ask for references when it’s time to hire a professional stone layer. When you follow up on these references you can ask past clients how their work has held up under everyday wear and tear and how they feel about the job’s quality after the fact. This will give you an idea of whether the natural stone layer’s results stand the test of time, and whether there’s substantial skill behind that first impression.

A skilled natural stone layer also knows how to create beautiful work that fits in with the style you desire. Ask for a portfolio of past work. Ask yourself if it demonstrates versatility across a range of jobs and natural stone types, and whether any particular example especially appeals to you. This will not only let you know if the contractor is right for you, but help you firm up your own ideas about the job you want done.

Once you’ve found the right candidate for the job, act fast, as skilled professionals in natural stone laying are rare. The best professionals will often be booked months in advance, so it’s a good idea to schedule your job as soon as possible, but set a realistic date weeks or months down the road. For outdoor natural stone work such as paths, stone retaining walls and other landscaping jobs, remember that demand spikes through Spring and Summer. Natural stone interiors don’t depend on the weather but will be affected by the demand for outdoor jobs, since expertise often crosses over.

Our natural stone showroom includes examples of professional grade natural stone work as judged by Mike Stone, informed by his decades of experience. Visit us and we can tell you more about how to find a natural stone layer with valuable experience, and the quality you should expect from these professionals.

Tags: English, Fieldstone, Flagstones, Granite Stone, Landscaping Rocks by mike
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It’s chilly now, but soon enough Spring will bring in warm weather and new demand for landscaping stone. But the landscaping season isn’t the only way weather influences work with natural stone, whether it’s slate, granite or sandstone. When you plan your stone landscaping project it’s important to not only plan your work schedule ahead of time, but think of how you’ll respond to day to day changes in the weather.

The first step to planning your work for the season is to set a start and completion date. If you’re a professional contractor, the ability to provide accurate estimates in which you can complete quality work is essential. If you plan on doing it yourself you can take a more relaxed approach – to a point. You can work on your own time, but take care to account for how much time it should take to do each part of the job, from taking it from a stone retailer to finishing the clean up.

We recommend that you pick a realistic completion date and stick to it so you won’t leave your work half done. After all, we all know someone who has a half-finished landscaping job. That not only looks ugly, but some of these efforts will actually degrade over time. For example, if you do the digging for a stone retaining wall but put off completing it, the soil will eventually erode, wasting all of your effort.

It’s also important to anticipate the weather. Again, a good professional landscaping contractor not only learns to take this into account, but can set up precautions to account for weather issues. Whether you’re hiring tradesmen or doing it yourself, keep in mind that one day of rain can equate to a two or three day delay. Rain changes the consistency of the soil and makes some jobs impossible. If your job is scheduled to take place in rainy months like April and May, adjust your schedule to allow for one or two weeks of delay due to rain.

Planning for weather conditions will ensure that you can plan a move or renovation for your property without interference from contractors and machinery, and without having to worry about working around materials and scrap. While you might dodge the worst of the rainy season, including its delays in your estimate means that you can be confident that everything is ready to go.

If you want to find out more about realistically scheduling a stone landscaping job, drop by our showroom or call us. In addition to being a natural stone wholesaler for landscapers and architects, we bring decades of experience in the stone laying trade, and can help you set realistic goals and find the best natural stone to meet them.

Tags: English, Fieldstone, Flagstones, Granite Stone, Landscaping Rocks by mike
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1. Si la terre est humide (pas en raison de la pluie) vous devriez excaver et drainer l’espace ou il y aura la base du mur. Veillez à toujours drainer loin de tous les bâtiments. La base sous le mur devrait être 6’’ de plus large que le mur lui-même.
2. Si la terre est sèche, vous pourriez commencer à poser les pierres sans excavation. Pour sauver des pierres vous devriez élever le niveau du sol où il y a des trous.
3. Le mur devrait suivre la configuration de la terre pour avoir fière allure. Cela veut que si la terre monte ou descend votre mur devrait faire pareille.
4. Commencez par regarder où votre mur sera bien placé. Ex : L’apprécierez-vous de l’intérieur de votre maison ? Peut-être voulez-vous porter l’attention sur un endroit spécial de votre propriété? Vous pourriez vouloir l’employer comme clôture ou simplement embellir votre jardin avec un mur de pierres en arrière-plan.
5. Après avoir trouvé le lieu parfait, la prochaine étape est d’installer la ligne qui vous aidera lorsque vous construirez le mur.
6. Employez un 2×2 en bois ou un rod à ciment de ¾’’ comme piquet. Ils devraient être installés avec une pente de 21/2’’ vers l’intérieur pour tous les 12’’ en hauteur du mur. Ex : Si votre mur est de 2’ de hauteur, les deux côtés du mur devraient être inclinés vers intérieur 5’’ rendant la base du mur 10’’ plus large que le dessus. Donc, si vous voulez le dessus du mur 24’’ vous avez besoin d’une base de 34 pouces. (La distance entre les lignes d’un côté à l’autre du mur)
7. Une fois que vos lignes sont placées c’est l’heure de commencer à poser les pierres. Commencez par ceux dans les coins et ensuite travaillez vers l’intérieur. Utilisez les plus grosses roches pour la base mais placez-en ainsi dans le mur pour lui donner du caractère. Gardez les grosses pierres plates pour couvrir le dessus du mur.
8. Tout en posant les pierres dans le mur veillez à placer les longues pierres vers l’intérieur du mur pour lui donner de la force. Ne placez jamais une longue pierre mince sur son côté comme pierre de façade, il donnera a ce secteur du mur une force de retenue très faible et il risquera de s’écrouler.
9. Pendant que vous construisez votre mur, prenez le temps de vous reculer et de regarder pour s’assurer que vous avez un beau design. Parfois, il est bon de placer, à la base, une grosse pierre pour faire porter l’attention des gens sur cet endroit précis de votre propriété.
10. Rappelez-vous de prendre votre temps et de solidifier, à l’aide d’autres roches, chaque pierre que vous posez pour qu’il ait le moins de mouvement possible.

Comme un vieux sage mon père m’a, un jour, dit : cela prend à chacun du temps pour apprendre à poser des murs de pierres. Comme tout que nous apprenons dans la vie, il prend, pour certains, plus longtemps que d’autres.

Tags: Fieldstone, Flagstones, Francais, Landscaping Rocks, Uncategorized by mike
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My wife Sue and I would like to welcome home owners, landscapers, architects, stone masons and retailers to our store and show room at 570 Knowlton Road, Lac Brome , Qc. Canada. I have, as of this year, been working in the stone and landscape trade for 40 years! With over 3 1/2 acres of natural stone we have one of the largest selections of landscape and building stone in Quebec.  Deliveries are usually within 24 hours or the same day.  The coffee is always on and our expert staff would be pleased to answer your questions and make sure your order(s) go out on time .
Mike Stone / President

Tags: English, Fieldstone, Flagstones, Granite Stone, Landscaping Rocks, Retaining Walls, Sand Stone by mike
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