Stone siding (65 photos): views, beautiful ideas

Properly selected finishing material can not only significantly decorate the structure and landscape design, but also create the most comfortable, warm atmosphere in any home. Stone finish gives a special charm, originality and respectable appearance to private buildings. But the high cost and bulkiness inherent in natural stone often become the reason for the rejection of this decorative material. A worthy replacement for it will be siding, imitating natural stone, which not so long ago became widespread. It has a lot of positive characteristics, including a variety of structures. In our article, we will review the main advantages of siding imitating stone, its varieties and methods of application.

Siding is a material for wall decoration, which is able not only to qualitatively protect the building from climatic vagaries and create a pleasant atmosphere inside the house, but also to perfectly decorate the facade. Plunging into history, we note that for the first time siding was used in construction in the 19th century, when the Americans began to use wooden boards as facings. Moreover, they stacked them with an overlap, in the same way that horizontal canvases hung over each other. A little later, in the middle of the last century, in Canada and the USA, they launched the production of PVC siding panels, which were distinguished by their durability. Over time, other types of this facing material appeared. Why has siding gained such popularity all over the world? The answer to this question follows from the list of advantages of the material, namely:

- Ease of installation - the material is easy to install even for a beginner who does not have much experience with this material;
- Lack of need for preliminary leveling of a surface as the primary lathing hides all defects of walls;
- Unpretentiousness in service - street dirt is easily washed off by a pressure of water;
- Resistance to any weather conditions, which ensures the durability of the material (warranty period is about 50 years);
- Affordable cost.

It is also worth noting that modern types of siding have many diverse designs that easily simulate any type of natural stone. With the help of stone siding, you can create completely masterpiece facades by combining textures, as well as apply it in the design of interiors. Another plus is the universal compatibility of stone siding with any other types of facing materials (wood, decorative plaster, glass, etc.).

To date, stone siding has various interpretations. It can be classified according to materials that serve as raw materials for manufacturing. The spectrum of surfaces imitating one or another natural material also plays an important role.

Having decided to decorate the facade of the house or the interior with stone siding, it is important to correctly choose the material from which it is made, because in the future aesthetics and also the duration of the service will depend on this. The modern market offers such types of siding as:

1. Vinyl siding. Inexpensive panels made of PVC. Its advantages can be called a variety of types of surfaces - they can be smooth or have an interesting texture. Light weight allows easy transportation and installation.Vinyl is not affected by natural disasters, fungal and mold damage, has low thermal conductivity. Under the influence of fire, it does not burn, but only melts, without emitting harmful substances into the atmosphere. Its advantage also affects low thermal conductivity, which provides a favorable microclimate in the room. As for the shortcomings, it is worth noting the low resistance to mechanical stress, strong shock.

2. Acrylic siding. More expensive material made from the latest polymers, due to which it is distinguished by increased strength, resistance to deformation. It is distinguished by a beautiful glossy shine, a variety of textures and shades. The material most faithfully simulates masonry and has a long service life - up to half a century. When choosing acrylic siding for stone, it is important to pay attention to the uniformity of the color on the external and internal sides of the panels - if they differ in color, then this is a poor-quality material that has been reprocessed to mask imperfections.

3. Siding made of metal. Made of aluminum and galvanized steel, the material has the highest strength and longevity, and an additional polymer coating protects it from corrosion. Finishing with metal siding has an attractive appearance, truly repeating any type of stone, whether it be a shell rock, stone layers or brick. Choosing it for the decoration of facades, it is worth considering that the sheets are quite heavy and will create additional load on the wall and foundation. An additional layer of insulation will also be needed, since the material has poor thermal insulation.

4. Fiber cement siding. A special kind that is made from cement, sand, water, cellulose fibers and reinforcing panels. The material is not inferior in strength to concrete, reliably imitates the relief of natural components, resistant to climatic and mechanical influences. In the manufacture of fiber cement siding under a stone, marble chips, quartz, and mica are added to the composition, which makes it more similar to natural material. It is often used to decorate basement floors, arbors, fences.

In addition to choosing the main material - stone siding - it is important to select additional elements (starting, finishing strips, corners, details for the design of window and door openings), which during installation will make the joints of panels and openings more accurate.

Thanks to the improvement of production technologies, today you can find a wide variety of textures and patterns of siding surfaces. Moreover, the variety boasts the constant emergence of new solutions that can plausibly mimic natural rubble, rocky, granite blocks, shell rock, etc. Finishing with siding imitating brick looks great - it is quite relevant today not only for exteriors, but also for interiors of residential premises .

Based on the type of stone depicted and the size of the picture, the siding is represented by an extensive color scheme, which makes it possible to choose the most acceptable design.

Although the material itself looks pretty nice, it’s important to choose the right pattern for the aesthetic design of the exterior or interior walls of the building.

Finishing of the building facades with siding must be foreseen at the construction stage. If it is decided to cover all the walls with this decorative material, it is better to give preference to vinyl panels that are lightweight and will not create additional pressure on the box. For powerful concrete and brick buildings, the choice of material can be any.When choosing a material drawing, it is worth considering that large masonry looks great on large buildings, and for a small house it is better to choose a material that imitates small stone.

In buildings on several floors, stone siding is used to design, in most cases, individual architectural elements: partially walls, a basement, a bay window, etc. The exterior decoration looks beautifully with the demarcation of the surfaces of the basement and walls using different siding textures and its shades. If there are several buildings on the site (gazebo, bathhouse, etc.), they can be decorated in the same style as the house, using the identical texture of the material - this option will look very stylish, emphasizing the excellent taste of the owner and the beauty of the stone surrounded by greenery.

The stone is perfectly combined with other types of finishes, for example, with decorative plaster, wood, blockhouse. In the photo you can see the magnificent tandem of stone siding, which marks the central part of the building, with smoothly plastered walls and entrance columns. A vivid example can be modern houses in the style of a chalet, where the lower part of the structure is decorated with basement siding, and the top is made of wood or materials imitating it.

In modern interior decoration, the most relevant lately has been siding imitating brickwork. It can become a worthy decoration of a cozy living room, sometimes the material is used to finish the kitchen, but it is better to be careful not to place it near a fire. In the corridor, imitation of natural stone is used, as a rule, sporadically - corner areas, niches, doorways are made by siding. You can find this type of decoration on the balconies, which even in the cold winter period will look warm and cozy.

In conclusion, we suggest visiting a photo gallery where you can see many ways to use stone siding. You will see how magnificent this material is able to decorate the facades of buildings, small buildings, fences and adjoining areas. The photo also shows the use of stone siding in stylish interiors. Enjoy watching!