Our homes are the ideal environment in which to create our own personalized space. Kitchens and baths, bedrooms and dens all send a message about who we are and what makes us comfortable. But why limit your personal expression to the inside? By customizing your home’s exterior, you can create a visual statement for everyone to see.
A great way to add style and character to your home’s facade is with stone. In times past, using stone meant hiring a mason to perfectly position each piece. Technology advances led to faux-stone products, but the installation process often required a professional to attach multiple layers of wire and apply scratch coats of mortar.
Now there’s a simpler way. Crane Performance Siding’s BellaStone is a faux-stone siding product that comes in easy-to-install sheets. If you can handle a circular saw and a drill-driver, you can customize your home with the look and feel of natural stone.
What it is
BellaStone comes in lightweight sheets that interlock like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. They feature a surface that’s made of actual powdered stone for an authentic look and feel. Each panel is filled with dense foam that provides a minimum insulation rating of R-4 (for enhanced energy efficiency) and offers sound-deadening properties. When properly installed, BellaStone can help new homes meet Energy Star qualifications.
The manufacturer claims that the siding never needs painting and will last for decades. The back of each panel features special water-channeling tracks designed to direct any moisture to escape through the bottom of the panel run. Crane Performance Siding is so confident in BellaStone that it offers a 50-year limited warranty on the product.
How it’s installed
When installing BellaStone, it’s important that the subsurface to which you’ll fasten the panels is free from any rot or other damage. Carefully remove the old siding, inspect the sheathing and make any necessary repairs (photo 1).
Snap a chalk line to indicate the top edge of the first run of panels — if the first run is crooked, every panel from that point on will be out of alignment. Install vinyl J-channel (available through Crane Performance Siding or at home-improvement stores) along the installation area’s perimeter and around any windows or door frames (photo 2).
Use the proprietary mounting clips to install the first run of siding panels according to the manufacturer’s instructions (photo 3). Before installing the second row of panels above the first, run a bead of color-matched caulk along the seam where the panels will meet (photo 4).
Continue to install BellaStone panels in a staggered fashion as you work across the area. Wherever two panels meet, use a soda straw to tool the caulk bead into a concave shape (photo 5); then use a brush to dab the provided stone powder over the tooled caulk bead (photo 6). The dried caulk will take on a stonelike appearance.
Because of the panels’ lightweight nature, you can use a circular saw, a jigsaw or even a handsaw to cut them. They’re easy to drill through, and a variety of fittings, trim and moldings is available from Crane to help you tackle just about any installation situation. You can even use faux-stone decorative pillars to dress up porch railings and fence posts or simply as landscape highlights. Very detailed installation instructions are available from the manufacturer, and with a little patience, it’s easy to create just the look you want for a customized home that reflects your individual style.