I know other members post some of their projects on here from time to time so I decided to do the same. I’d like to say I will keep it current but it’s going to be time permitting. In a nutshell, we are a design / build contractor handling everything from smaller residential projects (kitchens, baths, additions, etc.) all the way to light commercial projects and buildouts. If anyone is interested in a snapshot of some of our past, and current work, you can visit our website at www.arrowenterpriseswny.com Thanks for looking.
Hardwood Flooring and Stone Veneer Fireplace
Installing 3 1/4" Hickory hardwood flooring in a customer’s den and open living area. Milled up some 4/4 Ash and custom stain matched the hardwood to tile transition strip as the original was Red Oak. Also removing the existing Oak gas fireplace surround and installing a stone veneer (Manzanita Cliffstone by Eldorado Stone) that the customer selected from Felber’s building supply on Transit Rd.
Over half way through the flooring and will be getting into the stone veneer by tomorrow. Completion pics to follow.
P.S.- Looks like the owner does not want the fireplace surround and it may be up for grabs. I can send dimensions / pics. to interested parties.
“Completion” update. OK, I won’t lie to you, this one finished out a little strange. Customer was thrilled with the way the floor turned out, but had some “issues” with the stone fireplace. They stopped me a few hours shy of completion. All they could come up with was that it wasn’t what they expected but weren’t sure why. Over time it came out that they thought it didn’t look exactly like the sample they saw at the supplier’s location. Each craftsman has his own style of doing things and apparently they decided to remove it all and possibly go with another stone or installer. Not sure yet. I’m not happy with the outcome. I wish they would’ve been a little happier with the install.
Thanks. Stain / finish matching is horribly hard and no computer I’ve met gets it right. It comes up here and there, and for the most part, we get it right. I always keep you in mind. Maybe it’s the screen name?
Yeah computer stain and paint matching sucks. We do everything by eye. We’ve got some really awesome color matchers at work. Not to mention the fact that you just drop off your desired color and a scrap of wood, stop back in a couple hours and it’s done.
My constructive stone stacking critique would be that you need to stagger your vertical joints to a greater extent. There are a few places where they are too close over multiple courses of stone.
Biggest problem with this stone was the need to have finished ends on each edge, and being able to fit a HUGE variety of stones with varying shapes, widths, heights, depths, etc. I could only describe it as trying to assemble a puzzle from three different boxes, with pieces that don’t quite fit, and without a photo of what the finished product looks like.
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For me it depends on a few factors. Location, grade of flooring (which also establishes material costs), and width of product (narrow or wide board). Also, how the transitions are handled. This one I had to custom mill and stain a huge volume of transition strip.
We had done another style of stone previously but a whole different ballgame compared to this most recent one. One thing both had in common was trying to keep a “random” look and still make things fit together.
I understand some comments about “vertical lines” and such but it was so difficult to throw in a “taller” stone and then find a combination of stones to add up to the same height and create a new row. Some of the photo’s I saw of the stone they chose actually had this same type of pattern.
The only experience i’ve had with random stone was i had to do a slate backsplash that was all individual stone. I pretty much wanted to kill myself the entire time because of having to cut it around cabinets, it kept splitting apart. And it was like 500sq/ft lol i have to do a fireplace in the next few weeks so hopefully it’s just wood lol.
I personally thought the fireplace you did looked really nice and completely changed the look of the room for the better. You can’t control the look of the stone, or how certain edges fit together.
