Landscaping Rocks Blog

Natural stone interior elements provide a high end look to your home that false stone can’t even come close to. People are often tempted to use false versions of natural stone types such as granite and slate, but they rarely stand up to close inspection.

One of the chief issues with false stone is that it can’t be properly cut and shaped by a professional stone mason. If you try to cut false stone yourself, or it chips, you’ll expose the cement beneath the dyed exterior. Your guests will notice if they stick around for any length of time but worst of all, you’ll notice too – you’ll see the disappointing results more often than anyone. The problems with false stone only get worse over time as dyes and adhesives weaken. Cheap concrete will age, wear and crumble fast, leaving you with an unattractive, hard to renovate interior.

Fortunately, false stone isn’t much of a bargain. Natural stone is only slightly more expensive for something that is not only more attractive, but easier to shape specifically for your home. As a stone retailer with decades of experience both selling and working with natural stone, we can provide suggestions based on a type of stone’s appearance and material qualities. For example, properly cut and installed slate is a beautiful flooring material, while granite is excellent for heavy duty surfaces (such as counter tops) and veneers. There are colours, textures, shapes and thicknesses to suit virtually any interior function, from an attractive veneer to a heated slate floor.

Perhaps the best thing about choosing natural stone for your interiors is the way it connects you to a tradition of quality craftsmanship that uses tried and tested techniques. Skilled stone masons cut and lay stone in personalized styles, making every natural stone installation a unique work of art – not an artificial pattern that you might see in dozens of other homes.

If you have questions about how to use natural stone inside your home, contact Stone Haven. We can find the perfect type of stone for your needs, and let you know what to expect when it’s time to install natural stone in your home.

Tags: English, Landscaping Rocks, Stone Veneer, Uncategorized by mike
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Stone retaining walls can be used to keep gardens, lawns, flower beds and banks level and healthy, as long as you properly place and build them. Retaining walls are beautiful, too. When they’re well-built, they can be used as focal points themselves. Enhance your landscape using a stone retaining wall by incorporating just a few simple ideas.

1. Choose natural stone for your retaining wall. No other material has the same character or variety as natural stone. Contact Stone Haven or visit our showroom to explore the possibilities. In a world where people walk by standardized brick and concrete every day, natural stone stands out.

1. If your wall is going to be longer than 30 linear feet you may want to install some natural stone steps near the center of the wall. These give you and your guests access to the area above the wall. With the right stone and construction, the steps will add beauty as well as functionality to your retaining wall.

1. Put a curve in the wall for a natural look. You can also give the wall an organic ambiance by building the retaining wall so that its height follows the lay of the land. Remember that at either end of the wall, you have the option of either tapering it off or making square corners with a return into the bank.

1. A natural stone cap that overhangs the wall by 2 or 3 inches will act as a crown for your masterpiece and strengthen the wall, too. Use a stone cap to frame the wall, bring attention to the patterns in your work, and emphasize the different shapes of individual stones within the retaining wall.

1. Add the odd large rock to the wall to give it a character all its own. A beautiful natural stone wall is a unique object; it quickly becomes a local landmark or a friendly, familiar site to anyone familiar with the area. That not only makes your property more beautiful, but transfers that to your entire neighbourhood.

Tags: English, Retaining Walls, Uncategorized by mike
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Stone Haven will soon have a billboard on Highway 15 North in Montreal. We want to get the message out about our fantastic selection as we ring in the spring, and the start of the main landscaping season. We have granite, Penn Blue sandstone and other landscaping stone varieties with enough quality and quantity to suit virtually any size project. With the largest selection of natural stone products in Eastern Canada, Stone Haven is ready to help you realize your dreams – and if you’re not sure where to begin, ask our staff to help you pick the perfect natural stone for your project. As a stone wholesaler and retailer we have and unmatched variety of stones for walls, steps, retaining walls, patios, tiling and more to choose from.

You won’t be able to miss the 14 foot by 48 foot long billboard. It’s near the Atwater exit, going North on Decarie Blvd (15 North) in Montreal. You may be one of the 80,000 motorists that drive by every day – and it’s not far to drive from there to our showroom, where we have fantastic examples of how to use natural stone to beautify your home.

Mike Stone, Sue Stone and their staff will open the store for the season on April 2^nd. We all look forward to helping you make your dreams a reality. Look for us on the road – and we’ll see you in the showroom!

Tags: English, Landscaping Rocks, Uncategorized by mike
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Montreal-area stone wholesalers and landscaping experts to appear at popular trade show

Montreal and Lac Brome, Quebec: Montreal-area landscaping stone experts Stone Haven, Inc. (http://www.stonehaveninc.ca) announced today that they are set to appear as exhibitors at the popular Montreal Cottage and Country Homes show. Stone Haven will be at Booth #650 through the show’s run from February 19^th to 22^nd, 2009. The Cottage and Country Homes show takes place at Montreal’s historic Olympic Stadium: plenty of room to showcase the latest developments in rural living and landscaping.

This year, Stone Haven Inc. looks forward to increased exposure as the Montreal Cottage and Country Homes show has projected upwards of 80,000 visitors this year. The show is open to the general public and promises to be especially appealing to baby boomers and established professionals who are considering shifting to a more rural lifestyle.

Stone Haven will showcase its signature landscaping stone expertise. Visitors will have a chance to talk to owner Mike Stone, whose 30+ years of industry experience make him an excellent resource for anyone considering working in natural stone. Stone Haven’s products and expertise encompass stone walls, retaining walls, stone veneers, natural stone interiors such as countertops and fireplaces, and both domestic and imported landscaping rock. The company will bring samples of both raw materials and finished work to the show.

Before, during and after the show, people are invited to contact Stone Haven for more information by visiting http://www.stonehaveninc.ca or emailing mike@stonehaveninc.ca.

About Stone Haven, Inc.

Stone Haven, Inc. (http://www.stonehaveninc.ca) is a stone wholesaler specializing in natural stone, based in Lac Brome, just outside of Montreal, Quebec. Stone Haven combines an unparalleled selection of granite, limestone, sandstone, slate and more with owner Mike Stone’s over 30 years of experience in the stone trade. Stone Haven supplies high quality landscaping stones to architects, landscapers and other trade professionals, along with ordinary individuals seeking high quality stone for their personal projects. Email mike@stonehaveninc.ca to get in touch, or visit Stone Haven’s showroom in Lac Brome.

Tags: English, Uncategorized by mike
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Slate is another natural stone product that is found throughout the world.  Slate’s quality is determined by its hardness.  The softer the slate, the more it will flake. This is not what professionals nor their clients like to see.  While it’s true that a natural, weathered look is sometimes desirable, this should always be created through landscaping and design efforts, not because the slate itself wears away quickly! A hard slate is easier to work and will stand the test of time.

Slate is an extremely flexible material, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Slate counter tops have recently exploded in popularity. It’s also an excellent interior flooring and fireplace stone.  Moving outside, slate is also a beautiful choice for around swimming pools and for patios, walkways and steps.

Slate is well known for its variety. Local geological conditions create slate in a tremendous number of colours. The hallmark of a skilled landscaping stone supplier is the ability to find slate in beautiful colours without letting colour take priority over providing quality slate. Stone Haven carries excellent examples of popular colours like black, green, mauve, red and dark blue.

Visit Stone Haven’s showroom to see examples of what slate can do, or email mike@stonehaveninc.ca to see how Stone Haven can help you with projects using slate.

Tags: English, Landscaping Rocks, Uncategorized by mike
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Granite is one of the hardest, most durable types of natural stone available.  Granite is found throughout the world; you’d be hard pressed to find a region where it isn’t a primary building material. Indeed, it’s so useful that it’s used by building architects, landscape architects, interior designers and small scale landscapers alike.

Granite’s wide range of uses can be divided into interior and exterior roles. It’s an excellent choice for kitchen counters, flooring and facing for fireplaces.  On the exterior side, landscapers install granite in patios, walkways and around swimming pools.  Depending on the style of the exterior project irregular flagstone or patterns cut to specific dimensions are used.

One key to getting the most out of granite is being able to get the right cut from a knowledgeable stone supplier. There are several options available. Granite slabs offer a more natural look due to their irregular shapes and varying lengths.  Granite cut steps are also available.  These offer the client an opportunity to decide on the exact length of the step they wish to use.

The ultimate limit on granite’s uses lies in the skill of the planners and artisans who use it. Here at Stone Haven we benefit from Mike Stone’s 40 years of landscaping experience. If you want to know more, email mike@stonehaveninc.ca or call 1-450-242-0255.

Tags: Granite Stone, Stone Veneer, Uncategorized by mike
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Limestone has a long history as a building material for both indoors and outdoors projects. It’s easy to cut and work but it’s still strong, so people have used it for roads, paths and even entire buildings for thousands of years. Kingston, Ontario was once nicknamed “Limestone City” due to its preponderance of limestone buildings.

Nowadays, thanks to the rise of tough, lightweight materials like steel, limestone is considered too heavy for entire buildings but the properties that made it the stone of choice for past builders make it ideal for modern landscapers. The secret of limestone’s utility is its composition. Limestone is a sedimentary rock that’s largely composed of the material calcite: the same tough material that sea creatures use to make their shells. Limestone is made of large, round grains of calcite bonded by other sedimentary materials. The exact composition is responsible for a given limestone’s color.

Thanks to its natural properties limestone can be cut and polished to nearly any shape. You can get it in the form of rough, tumbled stones for decorative cairns and water fountains or in smooth, interlocking tiles. Naturally, you have far more choices than rough or smooth. One of the great things about limestone is that you can cut smooth edges on one face of a stone but leave a natural exterior on the other without affecting its strength or color.

Consider limestone for flagstones, tiling, exterior cladding, water features and anything else where a tough stone is mandatory. Visit our landscape showroom or call us for examples. Until then, take a look at the way rough and fine-cut textures combine in these Ontario Limestone tiles:

Tags: English, Landscaping Rocks, Uncategorized by mike
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Penn Blue Sandstone is one of the most versatile forms of landscaping rock due to its color and physical properties. It’s a form of sandstone, so it cleanly cuts into many different shapes, allowing it to fill the same role as concrete pavers, but with considerably more elegance and a distinct natural feel.

Once Penn Blue comes out of the ground it can be bought in a variety of regular and irregular shapes, including what we offer in our landscape showroom. Landscapers most often pick rectangular pavers for roles such as the surface around a swimming pool or an inset path to the front or back doors of a house. Penn Blue is ideal for these roles for two reasons. First of all, people enjoy the blue-grey color that gives the sandstone its name. Secondly, while it cuts quite smooth, as a sandstone it still has the granulated texture that, while practically invisible to the naked eye, is enough to give anyone walking on it traction even in wet weather. (This is a reason why it’s an excellent material for the areas around swimming pools.)

You can also use thick Penn Blue pavers for purely decorative purposes. Stacking a few large pavers to create a vertical element in your landscape like a rock pile or (assuming you have the expertise) a wall makes a dramatic statement that breaks up a flat yard.

When you use Penn Blue, remember that it’s a natural, quarried material. That means there’s no “factory standard.” While we only stock high quality landscaping rocks of this (or any other) type, every paver has a different color, based on how it’s been shaped by natural processes. Don’t try to find perfectly matching Penn Blue pavers, but understand that different shades and tones work together, creating a rustic natural look instead, of the bland but consistent colors of artificial solutions.

In fact, we suggest that you play up the natural qualities of Penn Blue Sandstone in your landscaping designs. See how a rough, rustic look would benefit the space by using tabled rocks and irregular pavers. Tumbled rocks have rough edges. Just as you might guess, irregular pavers don’t interlock closely because each one has a unique outline. Try fitting them together like puzzle pieces over a path with room for sand and earth between the landscaping rocks.

Like we said, come to our landscape showroom to see more, or contact us today with your questions.

Tags: English, Landscaping Rocks, Sand Stone, Uncategorized by mike
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1. Vérifiez le sol pour voir s’il est humide à l’endroit ou vous placerez votre mur. Si c’est le cas, tâchez de drainer l’eau loin de votre mur.
2. Compactez le secteur ou votre mur sera placé, si le sol n’est pas assez dense.
3. Votre mur devrait avoir une pente, vers l’intérieur, d’environ 2-1/2’’ à 3’’ pour chaque pied en hauteur. Par exemple, un mur qui mesure 2 pieds devrait avoir une pente de 5’’ à 6’’.
4. Plantez des piquets dans le sol pour vos lignes. Installez votre première ligne à 6’’ du sol et votre deuxième de 12 à 18’’ plus haut.
5. Si votre mur est plus de 2 pieds en hauteur, vous devez élargir la base. (La base devrait être proportionnelle, entre 75% à 100%, par rapport à la hauteur de votre mur. Par exemple, un mur de 6 pieds doit avoir une base de 4’ à 6’ de largeur.)
6. Maintenant que vos lignes sont placées et que vous avez installé votre membrane (géo-textile de paysagement) contre le talus. Vous pouvez maintenant commencer votre mur.
7. Il est préférable de commencer par les coins ainsi que les extrémités et ensuite travailler vers le milieu du mur. Veillez à emplir l’arrière de votre mur avec des pierres quelconques ainsi que du concassé ¾’’ net. Ensuite, compactez bien l’arrière du mur avec une masse (marteau).
8. Posez vos pierres avec la méthode de « pierres croisées » le plus souvent possible. Cela vous aidera à ne pas avoir trop de lignes verticales qui affaiblissent les joints de votre mur.
9. Gardez les pierres qui sont larges et plates pour le dessus du mur. La couronne peut dépasser la face de votre mur d’environ 2’’à 3’’ pour une plus belle apparence et pour diriger l’eau loin du mur plus rapidement.
10. Pour votre sécurité, portez de bottes à cap d’acier, des gants de travail ainsi que des lunettes de sécurité lorsque vous travaillez.
11. Peut importe si votre mur est petit ou gros, la clé du succès est de bien placer une par une chaque pierre et de le faire avec fierté.

Si vous avez un problème, appelez Stone Haven et cela nous fera plaisir de répondre à vos questions.

Tel : 450-242-0255

mike@stonehaveninc.ca

Tags: Francais, Uncategorized 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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