How come $tonemasons cost so much?

Learn to do it yourself... you save lots of money and get the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

skill usually doesn't come cheap.

My son is a Mason apprentice. When I was younger I built a natural field stone chimney and mantle. This was very large. My job was to 'cut corners' that is take a chisel and make straight edge corners. Not very easy and time consuming. Depending on the size/weight of the stones you can only do about 18" vertical a day. Lots of tricks of the trade to do 'real' stone work. I dont know if he's overcharging.

Might you want to look at those prefab stones? They are flat on one side, you can buy corners and you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference with real stones.

Where about in Northern Ontario? The chimney I helped build was in New Liskeard many moons ago...

I suggest the cultured stone/stone veneer. I am also looking to redo stove pad/wall.
Not sure if HD has anything that you are looking for, you might have to visit vendor or a quary to hand pick your own stones : )

You may want to look at my installation using cultured stones (Corning). https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/63774/

If you go to a Mason supplier store, you will have more choice and possibly better price. If you know a brick layer or mason as a friend they may let you use their account to get a further discount - typically 15%. That's what I did.

Yup - skill costs. A mason is different from a stone mason. My Dad had a few trades over the years but was a 'stone mason' and 'mason' at various times along with other jobs. He often said, "Anyone can lay brick or block. Cutting stone by hand requires skill." And, yes, when laying stone you can only put up about 18" high per day - because the weight of the upper stones tend to push out the lower stones. If you go too high too fast you will have a mess.

Good masons are expensive but not sure the price is justified in this economy and with so much immigrant labor. Around here, there are plenty of folks who are using cheaper immigrant labor and the end product is pretty damn good. Problem is, you need to be the QA/Qc guy. I've heard of some not pouring footings deeper than a foot - which is bad here in the northeast for sure. There are plenty of items to take into consideration before choosing who is going to do the job. I am not even sure how the mason you contacted could even quote not knowing what kind of stone you are using. i suppose he just had some man hours in his head and quoted from that.

As for materials, go to a stone supply co as recommended prior to going to HD or Lowes. Take a look at everything. i would not put the fake stone on anything in my house.

I built my hearth with the help of a good friend who had experience. Took about 1 month to complete. working from the bottom up we did a "row" at a time. I suppose we could have cut the month down some as we didnt work every single day in the month but it still is a time consuming job.
I scrounged all the rock - found that I used about 1/2 of what I scrounged. finding the right width (we kept the face at 4" off the wall), edge and shape for each location on the hearth was like doing a puzzle. We spent a lot of time trying for the right fit so that the "cement grout" between the rocks was as minimal as possible. Also wanted a natural edge vs using a chisel to make a straight edge - looks better if its natural.
Fun project, learned a lot.

$50 sq./ft. is about half the going rate around here, and yes there are jobs being done for that price.

You get what you pay for. Sounds like you don't really want to pay for stone.

Anyone willing to do that job for much less than that is cutting corners somewhere, most likely by rushing the work, meaning any mistakes will have to be left in place.

Perhaps you should consider a different method.

GOOD masons, whether they be brick or stone, are not cheap.

When I had my fireplace done with cultured stone, I looked at every fireplace I could. There is definitely a wide range in the quality of work out there.

My brother in law is a bricklayer, and I had him do my fireplace. After watching the work that goes into the job, the artistic eye required to find what stones will fit and look good in a particular area, and finally being able to finish the joints in such a way that the job is neat and clean, I realized quickly that there was NO WAY I would have been happy with the job had I done it myself.

Here is a before picture of my fireplace the way it was when we bought the house:




And here is the finished job:




The difference is pretty amazing, no?

Was it expensive to do? HELL YES. But it's been 10 years now, and I still look at that wall and smile, 'cause it looks so good.

Don't cheap out on a job like this--you'll regret it later.

Greg

WOW! Great Job. +1 on the work involved. A mason friend of mine also laid the cultured stone and you are right about the artisic 'eye'. He spent a lot of time playing with the stones to make sure they looked good and fitted right.

Your room actually look bigger!

Post more pics once you have the insert in.

mainstation said:

I got off the phone last night with a decent Stone mason who quoted without seeing the hearth rebuild, over $2500-3500 to rebuild with natural stone (I am supplying) and ash beam(mantel-- I am supplying) my hearth. I will dismantle the original brown brick hearth and it might be possible to use the existing Lintel. Total sq footage of the job will not exceed 50'. Hearth is to be approx 81" wide x 50" high.
His quote is more than the price of the new Summit insert. WTF?
just venting a bit. Time to call other masons.

Click to expand...

50 foot going stright up and level sounds about right on the money! lol thats a big job!

It is because they are a secret society and quietly set the prices, much like the gas companies!

Well, if they didn't cost so much they'd be freemasons, right?

smokinjay said:

mainstation said:

I got off the phone last night with a decent Stone mason who quoted without seeing the hearth rebuild, over $2500-3500 to rebuild with natural stone (I am supplying) and ash beam(mantel-- I am supplying) my hearth. I will dismantle the original brown brick hearth and it might be possible to use the existing Lintel. Total sq footage of the job will not exceed 50'. Hearth is to be approx 81" wide x 50" high.
His quote is more than the price of the new Summit insert. WTF?
just venting a bit. Time to call other masons.

Click to expand...

50 foot going stright up and level sounds about right on the money! lol thats a big job!

Click to expand...

50 square feet, not vertical feet.

mainstation said:

I got off the phone last night with a decent Stone mason who quoted without seeing the hearth rebuild, over $2500-3500 to rebuild with natural stone (I am supplying) and ash beam(mantel-- I am supplying) my hearth. I will dismantle the original brown brick hearth and it might be possible to use the existing Lintel. Total sq footage of the job will not exceed 50'. Hearth is to be approx 81" wide x 50" high.
His quote is more than the price of the new Summit insert. WTF?
just venting a bit. Time to call other masons.

Click to expand...

Don't know if its the going rate or not. I know working with heavy materials is expensive. If Service Magic .com is in your area try for a competing bid through them.

Aside from the knowledge and experience of the mason, I'd just like to add that some cut dimension stone can be expensive when you consider the cutting at the quarry, moving to the job site, and cutting once again at the site. Also, its very labor intensive work that wears on you. One mason I know was already considering a hip replacement at 50. That's why I studied geology.. I just look at rocks, I don't have to move them.

homebrewz said:

Aside from the knowledge and experience of the mason, I'd just like to add that some cut dimension stone can be expensive when you consider the cutting at the quarry, moving to the job site, and cutting once again at the site. Also, its very labor intensive work that wears on you. One mason I know was already considering a hip replacement at 50. That's why I studied geology.. I just look at rocks, I don't have to move them.

Click to expand...

Yep, my brother in law who did my fireplace just had one hip replaced at 46 and the other is about due to be done.......

Most masons don't make good roofers. Be sure to have a roofer, or yourself, if you have the experience or skills, check the flashing and shingle work after the mason leaves.

I can't comment on stone work, but I will comment on hiring.

I hire a painter for some parts of my house. He's a good friend, and charges $700/day for himself and one laborer - about $45/hour/person and I supply the paint. He provides all drop clothes, brushes, rollers, tape, spot caulking, spackle/mudd, what not.

Now I find this to be slightly pricy. But when I have him come in, a few things happen:

1. They work together 6x faster than I do by myself. Meaning each guy is 3x faster than me. This is not an exaggeration - they get done in 1 hour what would take me a combined 6 hours.

2. If it's a multi-day job, they usually work 9-10 hours a day to try to get me to only pay for a 1/2 day on one of the days. So it gets better

3. When I equip them with quality paints (like ben moore's Aura, at $50-55 a gallon), they'll knock out 2-3 rooms in a day with 2 coats.

4. They let me do things like paint the trim and get some of the paint on the walls, and then they come in and do the walls with a perfect line that is just perfection.

...

My point behind this is that I pay, but I get a TON for what I pay for. When they do an 8 hour job, it's usually the equivalent of at least 40 hours of work for me. 40 hours. That's ~3-4 full weekends worth of work saved for $700, and it's done to a much higher level of quality.