Everything You Need To Know About | Wall Stone
Updated: Dec 9, 2022
A crash course on one of the world's most popular stone products
Wall Stone, is and has been, one of the most popular forms of fabricated limestone.
For thousands of years, people across the globe have constructed homes and incredibly beautiful marvels with this form of stone.
One of the most notable constructs is The Great Pyramid of Giza, primarily built with blocks of limestone along with some granite and mortar.
One of the most fantastic attractions of limestone is its durability. Its ability to stand the test of time is why people have chosen limestone as a building material for millennia.
In this crash course, we’re going to take a deeper dive into what wall stone is, where you can get it, and why it is so wildly popular.
Table Of Contents
What Is Wall Stone?
Wall Stone, also known as Snapped Drywall, is a rectangularly fabricated form of limestone. These bricks, or blocks, are made by running slabs of stone through a hydraulic snapping machine or hand chiseling it to a specified size.
Wall Stone can come in many different sizes – ours consisting mainly of bricks that are 12”-18” in length, 8”-12” in width, and between 4”-6” in thickness.
The density of limestone places it among the most resilient of natural stones. Making the final product an extraordinarily durable yet naturally beautiful block of stone.
The fabrication process ensures the blocks retain their natural rock face – guaranteeing a genuine, rustic aesthetic. These blocks are extremely versatile and can be used in numerous applications or projects.
Wall Stone is an insulating, weather-resistant, fire-resistant, bug-resistant, and impact-resistant building product that will last for many, many years to come.
Uses For Wall Stone
Wall Stone can be used for virtually anything imaginable.
Generation after generation, people have and continue to build their homes and other structures out of wall stone due to the stones’ natural durability and longevity.
There are countless ancient structures built out of limestone that still stand today - thousands of years later.
A few famous examples include The Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt, The Acropolis of Athens, and The Colosseum of Rome.
Today, more common uses of wall stone include building retaining walls, driveways, small walls, barriers, edging, firepits, and adding landscaping accents.
Limestone’s tough composition and abundance make it a natural stone product that is readily available and perfect for any scenario.
We’re going to briefly dive into some of the most popular uses of wall stone.
Retaining Walls
Retaining walls are moderately rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. They are used to keep soils between two different elevations – often in areas of undesirable slopes.
One of the main reasons for wall stones’ popularity as a building product for constructing retaining walls is their durability and ability to be stacked. Due to it being a prefabricated, rectangular stone product, it can be stacked and manipulated with ease.
This increases efficiency and decreases costs during the building process - cutting down on labor costs and speeding up construction.
The separations between the stacks allow for water to drain freely outwards from the soil – preventing any water pressure from building up against the wall and ensuring even weight distribution to keep the soil back
Driveways
As you know, driveways are a type of road or path, typically coming from the main street to a house, garage, or carport. They are generally designed to conform to the landscape and architecture of connected houses or other buildings.
Driveways must be able to hold the weight of multiple vehicles, even in the toughest conditions.
Many people have defaulted to the standard black asphalt driveway; however, more and more people are exploring new and exciting ways to give their home personality.
One such way is to construct a wall stone driveway. As we already know, limestone blocks are an extremely reliable and durable building material.
If fabricated correctly, wall stone driveways will add a serene sense of elegance and natural sustainability to any property.
Garden Walls
Garden walls are an underrated landscaping accent. They act as dividers, splitting different areas apart from one another, or act as barriers, encasing areas behind a beautiful pattern of stone. Another common use of wall stone, naturally, is to create beautiful garden walls.
The decorative accent provided by garden walls adds emphasis to the landscaping aspect of your property along with the design. Now, although these are made of the same stone as retaining walls, these walls are not meant to withstand the weight of soil.
Garden walls are typically dry stacked, or stacked to interlock with one another for strength and durability. While this provides strength and durability, it is not enough to retain a mound of soil. More so enough to act as a guiding structure for pathways and gardens.
There are abundant methods to creating garden walls of your own, aside from dry stacking. Some even include using mortar and stone positioned in such a way that the lines between resemble a spider web, also called a web wall.
Finding the right style for your home enhances its aesthetic tremendously.
Firepits
Another main use case for wall stone is to build firepits. Limestone’s density and fire-resistant properties make it a popular choice among building materials for firepits.
On top of its fire-resistant properties, limestone has bug-resistant properties as well. This combination, with a nice cozy fire, creates a calming, bug-free atmosphere that will be enjoyed by many.
Pros And Cons Of Using Wall Stone
PROS:
| Abundant
Limestone is one of the most abundant rocks in the world, consisting of almost 10% of all rocks on the planet’s surface. It is so common that it can easily be found on all seven continents.
Limestone comes in many colors and variations. It can be white, grey, buff, light beige, dark brown, red, green, blue, black, yellow, pink, or even orange – ranging from a soft and chalky texture to a tough and rugged one.
One of the biggest pros of wall stone is abundance – you will always be able to obtain it and it comes in many forms. On top of that, it is very affordable.
Our native limestone wall stone variations are an elegant white/grey color and a rustic buff/rusty color.
| Versatile
Wall Stones’ versatility is one of its greatest attractions. Its many applications include building homes, retaining walls, driveways, garden walls, and firepits.
The adaptability of the stone allows it to be carved or fabricated with ease - while also maintaining its strength and resilience.
| Bug Resistant
Another major benefit of limestone is its bug-resistant properties. Limestone’s composition includes derivatives of bug-resistant substances. It's sometimes chalky, powder-like dust causes insects to dry out and suffocate.
If exposed to extreme heat, limestone can produce lime, which is a potent natural bug repellent.
| Fire Resistant
Wall stone made of limestone is a fire-resistant product. The chemical composition of the stone makes it non-flammable. It is commonly used to make firepits and fireplaces.
| Impact Resistant
The very dense nature of limestone makes it an exceedingly impact-resistant material. Depending on the thickness of the stone, limestone can be bulletproof.
| Insulator
The dense nature of wall stone also plays into why it is an effective insulator. Limestone has been used to build homes for thousands of years. Another reason it is commonly used is it traps heat in the winter and cool air in the summer.
CONS:
| Susceptible to Chemical Weathering
Due to its porous nature, limestone is susceptible to chemical and solution weathering if it is not sealed. Chemical weathering occurs when chemicals in rainwater make changes to the minerals in a rock.
With limestone being porous, this chemically polluted rainwater can easily find its way through the stone. Over the course of years, if left unchecked, this will erode the inside pores of the stone.
The most common solution for this is to have your stone sealed with a penetrating sealer.
If your limestone is sealed, water will not be able to make its way into the pores.
| Prone to Staining
Another downfall of its porous nature is that it can be stained. If you spill a little coffee or wine on the wall stone, it will soak deep into the pores of the stone, staining and changing its color from the inside out.
The most common solution for this is to have your stone sealed with a penetrating sealer.
The easiest way to prevent staining from occurring is to make sure your stone is sealed.
Our Opinion
For us - it's a no-brainer. The pros far outweigh the cons when it comes to using wall stone as a natural stone product.
The pros are everything you can ask for in a natural product. It is common, easily manipulated, and extremely resistant to external forces. It comes in many colors, textures, and solidities making it an extremely customizable stone.
On top of this, its ability to withstand the test of time makes it superior. The only cons there are to using limestone wall stone both involve it being porous.
The very simple solution to this is to have your stone sealed with a penetrating sealer. This ensures the pores are embedded with a water-repellent which will keep moisture out.
We highly recommend the use of wall stone in any application.
Where Can I Buy Wall Stone?
You can buy wall stones right here! Our limestone quarry allows us to cut out the middleman and dig you up the best-priced stone around.
We are proud to offer custom fabrication options for all wall stones. *Delivery Options Available | Nationwide Importing/Exporting*
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