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Quality Contractors

Stone, Masonry is it Quality?

One word of advice when it comes to having a stone deck installed: Make sure your contractor shows you a project that is 10 years old or better.  Why?, because if the deck has been installed properly, it will look as good 10 years later as it did the day it was installed.

A few “Rules of Thumb”

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A 4” thick sub deck should be the minimum thickness.

If you are having steel rebar installed in the sub deck, then a minimum of 6” is recommended by the ACI.

You sub deck should have expansion joints either grooved or cut a minimum of every 6’, at any point where you have a curved or radius.

You want your natural stone to be a minimum of 1 ½” in thickness.

You will have a mortar bed (concrete) that will be laid on top of your sub deck and the stone set in the Mortar bed.

The stone mason should have evenly spaced joints between the stone.  ¼” is more than enough and larger and you have more mortar than stone.

Make sure that your stone Mason is using a quality Portland cement, like and Type “S”.  (Different climates may change this recommendation so check with your local cement company or research with the American Concrete Institute for further details). 

Once your stone mortar bed has sufficiently dried, make sure that you hydrate your cement material.

It is also recommended to hydrate the mortar bed prior to grouting the stone.

NO, you do not use grout that is a figure of speech.  Your mason should use Type “S” Portland Cement to grout the stone.

Finally have the Stone Mason cut expansions in the deck as a mirror image over the expansions that you placed in the sub deck.

Now have the deck pressure washed to remove any and all mortar on the stone.