Finishing up our Tewksbury stone courtyard project:
In the Fall of 2019, we started the final phase of our Tewksbury Township stone motor court. We were able to complete just about everything including stone walls, stone outbuilding, bluestone slab walkways, stone fascia, and granite cobble paving. At the end of 2019, the only item left unfinished was the bluestone cap on top of the stone wall.
Putting down granite cobbles Fall of 2019 (above)
Since we used a natural cleft bluestone texture (as opposed to a smooth flamed finish) on all the bluestone walkways, we wanted to be consistent and use a natural bluestone cap on our freestanding stone walls. These days most of the bluestone is cut using a large saw blade and flamed finished to give the bluestone a very smooth and consistent finish. A natural cleft finish, on the other hand, is achieved by hand-splitting instead of using a saw, and it’s getting harder to find quarries that can do it accurately. Although we use a good bit of saw cut stone on many projects, the architecture on this home was more on the rustic side, and we felt that called for a hand-split natural cleft bluestone finish for the stone caps.
Laying large bluestone slabs with a natural cleft bluestone finish (above) Fall 2019
Finished granite cobble paving, stone walls, and natural cleft bluestone wall cap (above).
After rejecting almost 4 loads delivered from the bluestone quarry, in early April, our Project Manager, Tom Huff finally received a load that he felt matched the quality and consistency we were looking for. After delivering the bluestone, we rock faced the sides of each capstone on-site, by hand, and installed the caps on top of the walls.
We think the end result was well worth the trouble.
View our project gallery.