One of the benefits of choosing Evolve Stone as your stone veneer option is that you don’t have to purchase expensive accessories. In our workability video, we briefly showed how the product enables you to make quick custom cuts to account for obstructions, corners, and other obstacles you may encounter.
That said, prefabricated 90-degree corners is one of two accessories we do manufacture. You are welcome to miter your own, which may be helpful if you are working with a unique retrofit, particularly finicky substrate, or an obstruction on the other side of the corner. If speed is your goal and you don’t foresee these issues, the prefabricated corners will be a great solution for you. Keep in mind when planning your project that corners are made to order, and some dealers do not keep them in stock.
Pro tip: when installing manufactured corners, you can avoid any issues with wobble by placing one vertical bead of adhesive on each leg of the corner prior to installation, which acts as a shim and creates additional tolerance if the substrate is out of square.
Additional Corner Options
If you prefer not to use manufactured corners, you have other options. The easiest option is to terminate each side of the field into corner trim. This will allow you to hide any exposed cuts and gives you a little more tolerance for any alignment issues at far vertical edge. For instance, using vinyl corner trim, you could tuck thinner stones in the J channel to hide any imperfections, if you had to make cuts.
Creating Corners from Field Stone
The other two options are to use your field stone to create a joint. First, you could simply use your field stone to create an abutted joint with the adjacent side. In this case, you would want to completely install one side first. As you round the corner and begin on the second field, install the stones so that the adjoining edge goes slightly beyond your substrate, treating the protruding adjacent stone as additional substrate in your field. This will create a classic butt joint.
Lastly, you can choose to miter your own in the field. This is by far the most popular option for do-it-yourself corner solutions. Mitering a corner with Evolve Stone is no different than miter joints you may make with wood products. Cut the edge of each leg to a 45-degree angle (resulting in a small triangle of waste), and dry fit them to make sure you have made a square corner. Pro tip: to ensure a tight joint, add a little adhesive along the inside seam where the two legs of the corner piece come together before installing with finish nails like usual. Once installed, you can use a waffle-faced hammer, chisel, knife, or even a nearby rock to texture up the seam if the two legs do not meet in a way that looks natural. If you have to texture the surface, you will want to spray it afterwards with clear Thompson’s Waterseal in order to restore the vibrance of the color after your modifications. This tip can also be used to disguise exposed cuts in other parts of your installation.
INSTALLATION CONSIDERATIONS AND PRO TIPS
If you are using corners (either self-made in the field or manufactured), your installation should start with the first couple courses of corners. Before you begin installing anything, you will want to put up some level guidelines to help check your alignment. One of the most common places for installers to fall out of level alignment is when transitioning from one side of the building to the next. Those corner pieces will have to be installed in alignment with both sets of field stone. To ensure level continuity throughout the entire installation, put level lines up on not only the side you are beginning on, but also the adjacent side.
Remember that you are trying to accomplish a running bound, staying consistent with the rest of the stone pattern. The manufactured stone corners are made to specific leg lengths that coordinate with the stone sizes in each of our four styles. If you are fabricating your own corners in the field and want to avoid any unnecessary cuts, be sure to take into consideration the lengths of the surrounding field stone and how your corners will blend into the pattern arrangement.
Mitering is the most flexible option for achieving a clean and cohesive look without purchasing manufactured corners. Here is an image of someone measuring to make a compound cut due to a concrete obstruction on the adjacent side, very close to the corner they’re installing. Evolve Stone is an incredible product for these kinds of tight fits and allows you to accomplish unique cuts without wasting time getting tripped up on unforeseen obstructions.
If you need help figuring out the best solution for your project or are running into issues in the field, give our customer service line a call and we’ll get you some technical assistance right away.
