DeSoto / Stone Veneers

Stone Veneers in DeSoto

Stone veneer on facades, columns, chimneys, and outdoor kitchens for DeSoto homes, set with the drainage detailing that keeps water out.

Stone veneer puts a real stone face on a facade, a column, a chimney, or an outdoor kitchen without the cost and footing of solid masonry. Most of the DeSoto work is on homes from the 90s and 2000s in Thorntree, Frost Farm, and The Meadows, where the brick has dated or a porch column reads plain, and a stone veneer updates the front of the house or wraps a backyard feature for far less than rebuilding in full stone. It is one of the more practical upgrades on these established homes, value you see from the street.

The first choice is natural versus manufactured stone. Natural stone veneer is cut from real stone, so the color and texture run deep and no two pieces repeat, and it is the richer, longer-lasting face. Manufactured stone is cast and colored to look like stone, weighs less, costs less, and gives you a consistent look that is easier on the budget, which suits a lot of DeSoto facades and surrounds. Both are thin veneers set against the wall rather than load-bearing, and both look right when they are installed right. We bring samples and hold them against your brick and trim in daylight.

The part that separates a veneer that lasts from one that fails is the moisture detailing behind it, and it is invisible once the stone is up. On an exterior wall, water gets behind the stone, that is a given, so the wall needs a drainage plane: a weather-resistant barrier, a way for the water to run down behind the stone, and weep openings at the bottom so it escapes instead of sitting against the framing. Veneer set straight onto a wall with no drainage plane traps water and rots the wall behind it. We install to the standards the stone industry sets, with the barrier, the flashing, and the weeps where they belong.

There are two looks in how the stone goes up. Mortar-set leaves a visible joint between stones, the traditional, grouted appearance. Dry-stack sets the stone tight with the joints raked back so it reads as a wall of stone with almost no mortar showing, a cleaner, more current look that suits columns and modern facades. Both are sound when the wall behind them is detailed right. We match the pattern and the stone to the house, whether it is a full facade, a pair of porch columns, a chimney chase, or the face of a backyard outdoor kitchen.

Stone veneer generally runs $20 to $40 per square foot installed depending on natural versus manufactured stone and the complexity of the wall, with full facades scoped by the area and surrounds by the piece. Most jobs are several days to a couple of weeks depending on size. Many DeSoto owners veneer a chimney or columns while we are building a retaining wall or an outdoor kitchen so it is one crew on one stone palette. We cover DeSoto, Cedar Hill, Duncanville, and southern Dallas County, and set stone veneer in Denton too. See the rest of our stonework or what we do across DeSoto, and ask for a free on-site estimate. We measure it, we quote it.