Working With Stone
We can work with all manner of natural stone to achieve your vision. We can restore old stone to be re-used, or integrate new stone to achieve a beautiful finish. Typically, you’ll find a variation of Limestone or Sandstone in buildings around Toronto.
Historically, the stone used in building would have been local stone due to feasibility in transporting. For foundations, this stone would have often been field stone taken from close proximity to the construction site. Back then material was expensive and labour was cheap. For face work, stone came from further afield. From quarries located in Queenston right up to Owen Sound in Northern Ontario and across the country in New Brunswick and everywhere in between. Stone quarries are finite resources and some stone used for building 100 years ago is just not available anymore. All the available stone may be extracted over time. They can close due to flooding or the cost of extracting the stone may become uneconomical forcing the quarry to shut down . Interestingly, some Victorian era buildings contain stone from England. The stone was taken over as ballast and unloaded at the dock in exchange for lumber.
The market today has access to stone from all over the world. Labour is expensive so exporters such as India can provide the Canadian market with competitively priced stone. We also import stone from the states. Indiana Limestone and Ohio Sandstone is a popular choice for certain applications.
We can re-create stone details such as margin tooled corners or drafted corners to give you a historically accurate restoration.
