We did all of the Cultured Stone ourselves on both our home and barn. We also did a Pro-fit Ledgestone on our inside fireplace. My DH owns a company that distributes the stone, but we had personally never done the work before tackling our home.

Yes, you can DH it yourselves. It does take considerably more time, but the savings can be significant. Stone installers are expensive because this is a labor intensive project. How much time it will take depends on the type of stone you choose. Drystack ledgestone will take much less time than a fieldstone or cobblefield stone. It also depends on how many square feet of stone you have to install to get an estimate on the time frame.

I would recommend having at least one helper. Doing it totally alone would be quite time consuming. I was my DH's helper and once we got the rhythm down, it went fairly quickly.

I think the hardest part was the grouting. On the house we did it by hand with a grout bag and you developed great forearm strength because it was hard. On the barn we wised up and used a power grouter which probably tripled the amount of grout that could be done in a day. If you choose a stone that doesn't have grout joints, this would be a nonissue.

If you tell me what type of stone you have chosen, I can probably give you a better idea of how difficult it is and perhaps provide some pointers. Here is a picture of our barn -- we just completed the stone last week. All in all, it took two full weekends working about 8 hrs. per day. The wainscoting goes around the entire structure.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e307/gardenchick1/IMG_0343.jpg

Here's the barn we just finished.

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I've not DIY'd cultured but real stone. By far the most labor intensive task was chipping/cutting the stone to shape, which isn't necessary with cultured. Setting the stones is real easy.

I'm working on a DIY dry stack stone window well with natural stone. The hard work for me has been the physical stuff. Those stones are heavy! I'm liking the results though.

Here is a link that might be useful: our progress

I DIY'ed real stone too. The hard part is making them fit so the joints would be small. With cultured, not an issue. I have heard cultured is pretty easy.

my DH diy'd the cultured stone on our last home. he did it on our outdoor fireplace, our planters and our light posts. it looked totally professional and gorgeous.

Okay, my husband and I are getting encouraged by your comments to take this kind of thing on.

Gardenchick: We are looking at Eldorado Stone in either a limestone shape (rectangles) or a country rubble (random shapes, not small like stacked stone, though). Your pictures look beautiful. You guys did a great job!

We have quite a bit to do and some of it is high so we would be carrying the materials up a ladder or onto scaffolding. I'm just worried it will take too long. So far, my husband stacked his own ICF blocks and wired our house DIY. Because of the DIY part we are starting our 3rd year of building and are just now drywalling. :)

Thanks for the encouragement!

Jennifer

Eldorado stone is very beautiful and I don't think you will regret using it. We also DIY'd the stone on our home last year which has some fairly high gables. We used scaffold and I just handed the stone up or climbed up a section to hand my DH the stone. It was a little time consuming in those spots, but do-able. I wouldn't recommend a ladder as it would be too awkward and it would restrict the installer's movements when laying the stone.

Either stone you have chosen would not be too difficult to install. The country rubble is very random and would be like putting together a puzzle that you create. The only preparation I would recommend with the limestone is that you snap a chalk line on the wall to keep your rows from becoming wavy as you set the stone. A sure sign of an amateur is a wall where the stones go up and down and looks like you've had a little too much for lunch.

Here is one of the gables on our home where scaffold was used. Not difficult by any means.

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Bumping this thread because I wanted to ask gardenchick, if you don't mind, what type of Eldorado Stone did you use?

Also hoping to ask Lindybarts,(and gardenchick too), (hope both see this), what type of grout work did they use for yours? I was on the websites of Eldorado and Dutch quality, reading their techniques of grouting and was wondering if you knew which type was done on yours, (standard joint or overgrout joint)?

Thank you both in advance!

Actually, our stone is not Eldorado, but Cultured Stone. It is Cobblefield in the chardonnay color. Our mortar was natural and not colored.

We used standard 1/2" raked joints. Overgrouted joints look good on fieldstone but do not lend themselves readily to some other types. It gives a very rustic look reminiscent of French Country homes.

What type of stone are you considering using?

Hi Gardenchick! Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to find what I like and then cost compare with real stone. I like the Eldorado, Dutch Quality and a local company that makes a handcrafted stone. I'm leaning towards the natural blend ledgestone from Dutch Quality, the Bridgeport Limestone from Eldorado and a ledgestone from the local company. To me, the grouting makes such a big difference. We have been waiting and waiting to break ground. I want to be ready to go, so I'm trying to get the ducks lined up as best as I can, or at least one or two ducks LOL! I pray we can get things going by Oct. I'm starting to lose hope and for some reason, I'm hating my houseplans--don't tell DH though! LOL! Guess it is just we were so hyped to start in the spring and things haven't gone as we thought with picking the builder. Sigh...

Hate to give a rec without having used a product but from a cost perspective I'd look at this stuff by Black Bear. Here is a stacked stone we're thinking about taking a chance on:

http://siding.builddirect.com/Siding/Stone-Siding/manufactured-stone-Carmel-Blend/ProductDisplay_7247_P1_10009121.aspx

Below are DIYer Testimonials

Here is a link that might be useful: Build Direct Testimonials

Gardenchick: Finally got a chance to see the website for Cultured Stone--oh no! Now more choices LOL!! I'm going to try and stop to see a dealer this weekend. I've already seen the other products. It is hard to choose. I'm trying to find a blend of what DH and I both like, as well as keeping with stone that would be found in our area--my DH is hoping we don't have to do something custom and if we do, then maybe going with the real stone will be about the same price. We'll see! And BTW, your home and barn look gorgeous!!

I took a look at the two styles you are considering at Dutch Quality and El Dorado. You mention that grouting makes all the difference. In the ledgestone by Dutch Quality, there are no grout lines as this is a tight fit stone. The only mortar that is used is to adhere the stone to the wall. The limestone by El Dorado, however, does have grout lines. The photo on their website has grout lines that are very similar to ours and which is the most common way to grout. I rarely see joints that are deeply recessed. Since I did 90% of the raking of the grout myself, I can attest to it being only slightly recessed (enough to show the edges of the stone).

As for quality, El Dorado has always been a "cut above" Dutch Quality in the past with regards to a natural look. However, we haven't carried that line in a while so they may have changed looks over the years.

I like both the ledgestone and the limestone look. What type of house are you building and in what area in the country do you live? I remember our architect telling us to avoid ledgestone and choose a bigger stone like limestone or cobblefield because we had tall gables to cover. He said sometimes the ledgestone can look too busy on soaring gables. If I had an idea what style of house you are building that might help to narrow down your choices.

By the way, both stones you have chosen are very nice and I like the colors. I don't think you could go wrong with either one ... however do look at Cultured Stone just in case you see something different. Call the dealers in advance and see if they have examples of the stone on a wall instead of simply on sample boards. The boards are notorious for not being "true" to color and seeing the stone on an actual wall outside makes all the difference.

Sorry to OP for hijacking this thread!

Gardenchick! Thank you for your advice. Hadn't thought about the ledgestone on the gables. That might be what is making me think twice about it. We will have 2 gables accented with the stone and also a border around the house. DH and I are trying to compromise on this one. As far as the grout, I was thinking that the type used on Limestone makes a big difference in the look. Can't decide which one I like better because they all are very nice. In addition to going to look at the Cultured Stone, there is an area close by that has a lot of very old stone homes and an old farm nearby that has their old home and barn in stone. I'm going to drive through those neighborhoods and examine their type and style. Hope they don't think I'm some crazy lady!

We are in the northeast. Building on 21 acres, with pond and some wooded area, not in a housing development. We are placing the home on top of the property, overlooking farmland, woods and our pond. Started the dig for the driveway and gas well awhile back. I guess our style of home is a mix. I jokingly said on another thread that it was old world meets the mountain or something like that. Inspirations came from lots of searching on the net,(this site included), driving around neighborhoods and new construction, from the different style of those to the style of the HGTV 2006 dream home and just recently added to that eclectic mix, the MidWest Living 2007 Idea house. We also want to make sure our home fits the property, but most importantly our family and our lifestyle, (4 young boys.), and yet something different then what is being built all around us, if that makes sense. DH really wanted to do all brick and stone but the cost for both would make us have to cut other things...some that DH didn't want to lose, and I just can't live without the stone, so we are compromising with shakes/board&batten and stone.

We are meeting with hopefully what will become asap "the" builder tomorrow. Wish us luck, cross fingers, send prayers...we need it all!! LOL! We just want to start already--UGH!!

I am part of the marketing staff with Dutch Quality Stone. I just wanted to let you know of some of the resources that we could supply if you were looking to find a stone profile to meet your needs.

Visit our website to see our new gallery that shows a wide variety of applications that you can achieve with our stone.

If you are looking for a local dealer, just send me an e-mail, cschwartz@dutchqualitystone.com and I can get you setup with a local distributor that carries our stone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dutch Quality Stone

Gardenchick1 are you still out there? You previously spoke about cultured stone.

Just came upon this older posting doing a search because we are thinking about DIY cultured stone on our above ground poured foundation. The style we were looking at appears to be stacked, no grouting inbetween.

Some of our questions are:
1. Can CS be applied to poured concrete?

2. We are getting conflicting information on how the CS gets attached? Is there a best way? Are there options?

Does anyone know any good links to DIY instructions for installing stone? Thank you

The Eldorado Stone website has a good video showing installation which is very helpful. The video is under Installation/Downloads

Here is a link that might be useful: Eldorado Stone

We installed our El Dorado stone ourselves. It's their 'Country Rubble' style. We were inspired after seeing what a great job our neighbors did installing their own El Dorado stone. We'd never done anything like this before, but it wasn't hard, especially once we got into the swing of it. We followed the directions on the El Dorado website and got a copy of their free instructional DVD from the place we purchased our El Dorado.

We practiced on our least visible wall (a good idea!). Installing 'Country Rubble' is like putting together a puzzle, only you're not guaranteed that the box contains all the right pieces! If you pick this style, just keep remembering to mix size, color, shape, and don't create any running lines. Our builder (who also had never done stone before) did the really high work for us using his scissor lift.

It definitely takes a lot of time if you have a lot of stone, but we kept reminding ourselves that it would take someone we hired a lot of time too. We're pleased with the results though and are glad we did it ourselves.