I love our manufactured stone. We have had zero problems with it, no fading, no movement, etc. If it were me I would probably do all stone as shown above and no brick with the hardie board but that is a personal preference.

Your roof material is also very much part of the look here, as it is prominent. I would say adding stone to hardieboard, brick and whatever your roof is, is one material too many.

We have hardie and manufactured stone as does every house in our neighborhood. In our part of the country, it isn't common to see brick, especially brick and stone. I've built several structures with manufactured stone and they look great after years of sun and cold weather.

Up close, some thin veneer manufactured stone looks cheap and even has a hollow sound when you tap it. I prefer full thickness manufactured stone from Arriscraft. It's as heavy and solid as the quarried stone it resembles.

Man-made full thickness Arriscraft stone, Indiana limestone belt course and Century concrete bricks. Photo: Heather Joy Investments Ltd.

THANKS GUYS. IF IT WERE UP TO ME I WOULD DO ONLY STONE AND HARDY, BUT MY HUSBAND LIKES THE BRICK. THE LOAN OFFICER AT THE BANK RECOMMENDED NO STONE AS WELL AS THE BUILDER. WE ARE NOT WORRIED ABOUT RESALE VALUE AS THIS WILL BE BUILT ON FAMILY LAND AND WILL BE OUR FOREVER HOME. DOES THE STONE HOLD UP AS WELL AS BRICK? AND WHICH WOULD BE A CHEAPER CHOICE?

Stone, brick and Hardy board, plus roofing materials, plus paving materials plus window frames are just too many materials. If you like brick, then limit to brick and Hardy board for an improved appearance to the elevations.

Real stone, properly installed, is as durable as brick. Depending on severity of winters, both will need repointing periodically. Genuine stone masonry is about the most expensive exterior wall finish to be found.

The "lick and stick" stone veneer is really light-weight plaster or concrete product manufactured to look like stone. It's usually adhered with an adhesive and then grouted. I don't know about its durability and longevity.

Good luck with your project.

PS: Turn off your all caps. It's hard to read and makes it look like you are shouting all the time!

I agree that you are working with too many exterior materials....you need to eliminate one of them. It's not just a matter of resale, but if you are putting all your hard earned money into the place and making a custom home, you might as well make the right choices to end up with a final product that you will love as long as you are in the home....

We used real stone that was cut thin to make a stone veneer...they had special saws to cut corner stones. It saves on the install vs. real thick stone, and it looks and behaves like real stone as it is. Ours came from stoneyard.com.

Nice house! :) We are planning to build that same house this year.

The house pictured in your photo was built in GA not too far from us, and I successfully tracked down the builder last year when we became interested in it. He was able to give me many details about the exterior products used too - nice guy. He even agreed to contact the owners for me as we really wanted a peek inside - I never heard back on that though so I suppose they weren't willing to let a complete stranger come visit their new home. Imagine that!

I don't agree with some of the comments here re the 3 exterior finishes used. I love that house just as it was built. The third finish (hardie) was only used sparingly on that small upper-level bedroom spot on the front, plus the dormers. That's the only place we plan to use it too. I don't think it causes any issues to do that.

Keep us posted on the build - I'm particularly interested in seeing this house built.

THE LOAN OFFICER AT THE BANK RECOMMENDED NO STONE

They're now architectural advisers and building scientists as well! Who knew?

This post was edited by worthy on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 10:35

Thank you for the follow ups. We decided on going with brick hardy board and some stone. dBrad, that is crazy that you are building the same house! I fell in love with it when I saw a pic of it online. The roof has given us fits though. We are looking to start building the first of March. I will post pictures.

Interesting thread. I didn't know manufactured stone could look so real (Worthy's pic above).

Not to hijack, but the stone experts here..can you tell me what type of stone is on these houses (real or manufactured)?

Thanks.

Far from a stone expert! But the lower two look real to me. Probably the first one too.

Manufactured stone, whatever variety, is usually limited to certain set sizes and patterns. So you can see them repeating themselves.

However, there are some random cultured stones that certainly look random to me. Here, for instance.

Still, depending on how they're manufactured, many of these sound hollow when you tap them.

(In making my judgement above, I was, of course, using other clues--AD =Architectural Digest. And the extremely expensive complicated triple chimneys. No one doing that is using anything less than the most expensive materials.)

This post was edited by worthy on Wed, Jan 30, 13 at 14:15

The middle one is Pennsylvania field stone....

Thank you!

I know this post a little older, but I stumbled across it as we are planning to build a home modeled after this home too! So funny others here are as well. I had recently been considering Hardie and brick on the elevation and wondered if you completed yours. Would love to see a pic!

I have always, always loved this house exterior.
Just trying to help...https://www.houzz.com/photos/stone-residence-1-traditional-exterior-austin-phvw-vp~238700-Residence-1-traditional-exterior-nashville

For this particular look, I'd go for cobblestone. There are some great professional cobblestone pavers out there, and it shouldn't be hard to find the right ones for the job.

Here is a link that might be useful: Professional cobblestone pavers