Timber Frame Homes—Stone Fireplaces

Nothing gives timber frame homes that rustic look and feel like stone fireplaces. In addition to looking rustic, a stone fireplace can also give your home a traditional, contemporary, or elegant look. When building a stone fireplace you can stack the stones with or without mortar. There are also different types of rocks that offer different textures and colors for your new stone fireplace. If you choose to use natural stones, they can be shaped or carved to reflect various styles.

Before you have your timber frame house built, share with the builder or designer pictures of the type of stone fireplace you want so they can figure it into the design of the home. If you have more than one picture they can help you decide, which design will work best in your new home. When building your stone fireplace most builders opt to make it the focal point of your home. When it is the focal point, it will set the tone for your interior decor. This is one reason that you should make sure that design you choose fits the style that you want in your home.

Now that you have your design, you need to decide between thin-stone veneer, full stone, or manufactured stone. Each one has its own advantages. True to tradition, a full stone fireplace offers a multi-dimensional look and includes very big stones. The drawback of this type of fireplace is the massive weight of it so it will require that you have support structure and built-up foundation when building your timber home. During construction the bigger stones take more space on the job site, more time-consuming to erect, and heavier to transport.

Because of all the disadvantages of using full stone thin-stone veneer is rapidly replacing them in stone fireplaces. These types of stones are sawn to about an inch thickness so being lighter weight it costs less to ship. It also makes better use of a natural resource because when a stone is sawn in two it doubles the amount of usable stone for your timber frame house. Using full stone hearthstones makes the fireplace almost identical to a full stone fireplace without all the disadvantages. The finish look of this type of fireplace is smoother than full stone so some mix full stones with thin-stone veneer to give it a natural finished look.

Manufactured stone is done by combing lightweight aggregates and then pouring the mixture into a mold to get the stone shape that is desired. To customize the product’s appearance they can add colored pigments. The finished product ranges from one to three inches thick. The stone fireplace for your timber home is made in the same way as using regular stone.