How a Mason Can Help Improve Your Outdoor Living Area in the Jamestown and Tiverton, RI Areas
Masonry is one of the oldest professions in the world and the building techniques continue to make tremendous contributions to homes and landscapes. Adding masonry features will not only provide function, but incredible beauty for your landscape. From structures such as retaining walls and patio pavers to fire features and cooking structures, masons are ready to transform your landscape. Here’s how a mason can help improve your outdoor living area in the Jamestown and Tiverton, RI areas.
Blend with Existing Structures
Unless the existing structures are a blight to your landscape, you’ll want to use them as inspiration for anything else a mason can build. This means applying a complementary color scheme, size, shape, and texture of the individual stones when designing the new features. While sometimes juxtaposition can be a great strategy, you definitely don’t want your new masonry features to harshly contrast against the older features. At the same time, perfectly matching existing masonry may not be possible; which is why complementary materials and methods are often the best choice.
The Right Materials
Masons create amazing patios, walkways, pool decks, and driveways as well as vertical features like fireplaces. With a wide array of different building materials, there’s always room for artistic interpretation and decorative accents. Depending on your preferred design scheme, masons will use natural stones, bricks, or pavers to accomplish gorgeous and functional hardscape elements. Here’s a breakdown of each material.
Natural stone: Stone is the original building material. Stones are quarried and then shaped to create a relatively flat surface suitable for both horizontal and vertical applications. One disadvantage to natural stone is stones take more time to put together unless they are precision-cut and shaped, as they are a much more complex set of puzzle pieces that must be fit together. However, any feature made with stone will feel stunningly beautiful and timeless - and absolutely unique, since each stone is one-of-a-kind.
Bricks: These are the materials typically associated with masons as they have been used to build homes, patios, roads, and walls for thousands of years. Bricks are excellent building materials that require little time to install due to their uniform shape. They feature natural earth tones and their small size creates an impressive visual texture for any rustic or traditional home.
Modern concrete pavers: These are the most modern hardscape materials, and the technology is increasing their durability and versatility. Pavers are manufactured to be suitable for walkways, pool decks, patios, and driveways. They can also be used in the accents and borders of those features as well as walls and stairs. Whether they mimic natural stone or showcase their modern vibe, there are pavers that complement any architectural style. Talk to your mason about non-slip and permeable pavers for multiple benefits to your landscape.
Retaining Walls
Though typically thought of as functional features, retaining walls have a diverse array of functions. Retaining walls support hillsides by design, helping to encourage a sustainable landscape while preventing erosion and creating more flat ground. However, they can also act as wonderful boundaries to define space and house lighting fixtures. They can support potted plants or other sculptures and they can integrate well with any other type of masonry landscape feature.
Fire Features
No backyard living space is complete without a fire feature for ambience and comfort. A gorgeous masonry fireplace or even an understated fire pit will draw you and your loved ones together and help you make the most of your outdoor space.