Solid rock exterior vs imbedded rock patterns (engineered, vinyl, foundation)

[ocean2026]

I love both.

Buildings made of limestone -old churches courthouses are magnificient. MY Guess is they are durable and provide good insulation.

Now and then I also see houses that have walls with rocks of different size and shape imbedded in cement. Usually looks like tan colored rocks and gray cement. They look nice but how durable and what insulation value do these walls have?

[Threerun]

I worked with a lady that owned a gorgeous limestone farmhouse circa early 1800's in Berkeley county WV.. According to the way she spoke- they ain't no insulating value of thick limestone. She said once it gets cold, it stays cold. They burned a lot, and I mean A LOT of propane to keep the house tolerable in the winter.

Now in the summer she said it was great- but condensation was a problem..

[windtimber]

Insulation value is nil. However, in the summer they do stay cooler for quite a while. Likewise in the spring they take a longer time to warm up. The stone makes an interesting "heat sink" in both directions.

[PNW-type-gal]

A lot of newer houses have a fake stone applied.

(like this: Rogue River Stone Manufactured Stone Veneer)

The stone is actually a colored cement product. There are also actual stone veneers.

Not only in the fake stone cheaper to buy, it's much cheaper to have installed and fairly easy to do yourself: it doesn't require the skills of a stonemason. There are corner pieces, arch pieces and shelf/ledges available.

[Cosmic]

Stone or rock exterior houses are very nice if properly done. Lots of different materials can be used. River rock is nice, limestone if good quality is good.

Again the insulation value of the stone / rock siding is about nil. Similar to brick. You probably want a stick built studded wall on the interior to have some insulation value. Just a solid masonary structure can be a bit too cold in winter, too hot in summer.

One thing to watch out for is the modern mortar is not as good as the olde time stuff. It is more brittle and can tend to crack. The old stuff was a form of quicklime or burnt lime. Far superior, an old house with the old type mortar can last a long, long time.

Lot of the modern stuff is actually fake rock / stone. Might not be too bad if they use the stucco type procedure and then tool it to look like stone. The glue on fake rock I would be less apt to have, would worry more about cracks / leaks. Still all of it is probably superior to vinyl siding.

[ocean2026]

thanks- I wonder why such think material rock and brick have such low insulation value.

Can one tell from looking whether the mortar is quicklime or the new stuff? My guess is the walls were done over 30 years ago in one building I looked at - would that be the old stuff?

[Cosmic]

The bulk of your masonary type solid buildings will have a very poor insulation value simply because most of it conducts heat fairly well. That and it represents a huge thermal mass that you typically have to provide additional energy to bring up to temperature. Could be engineered to work but you need the better mousetrap approach.

Some it is a type of economy of scale. The big massive stone churches in like Europe use the thermal mass characteristics to their advantage. Like a thermal flywheel, they use the Earth's temp and thermal mass to remain comfortable in all weather. Just have to build to a massive scale.

You can tell the type mortar by few simple tests. Probably need something built before WWII for the olde time stuff. The olde quicklime mortars remain pliable, basically they start as limestone and return to a type of limestone after some exposure period. They also have a sort of "rehealing" type feature if damaged.

My last old house had this massive rubble stone foundation like couple feet thick with the old quicklime mortar. The guy next door had the same identical house. He wanted to replace a narrow old basement door with a new modern steel one. We had to bust out about two feet of that foundation. Talk about work, you could hit the thing with a big sledge, the mortar was like rubber, just absorbed the blow. Days and days of pounding with chisels to get it done. Don't really appreciate the stuff until you have some hands on experience.

You can really see it in places like the old textile mills. Usually 5 - 6 stories of massive brick buildings. The weaving looms just pound the building something horrible. Entire building is in vibration and motion. Old mortar works so well the walls can be like the day it was built.

[ocean2026]

Great next time I'm in ELP where that building is -I'll check it.

Are you also saying that large churches -stone or brick buildings say over XXXX sq ft ( put in number lol) are ok for insulation?