One of the most frequently asked questions we see is whether our fake stone is truly durable. As a company that comes from a building background, we understand the importance of the longevity, weatherability, and durability of quality siding products. Evolve Stone was designed to be a durable, easy to install, maintenance alternative to traditional stone siding. We put our material through rigorous testing and have made this data available to you. Here are some of our findings.
Historical Performance
As a company, Evolve Stone is the brainchild of a residential building company and a specialty theming company. While our modern stone cladding has only been commercially available in the last couple years, the material has a long performance history prior to this application. It was invented in New England, intended to withstand harsh winter weather and a wide range of temperatures. From Trinidad to Maine, patented Evolve Material has been exposed to and thrived through a full spectrum of harsh weather scenarios, including hurricanes.
Read more about Evolve Stone’s History.
Water, Snow, and Ice
With siding products, water infiltration and retention is always a concern. The great news is that Evolve Stone is moisture impermeable. For exterior applications, following the installation guidelines and underlayment requirements is essential to maintaining a proper drainage plane. We wrote a detailed separate article on issues related to water infiltration. In summary, the Evolve Stone system performs extraordinarily well in this category.
What about expansion and contraction?
Evolve Stone expands and contractions extremely minimally. At the range of temperatures possible to encounter, the material experiences less than 1% movement. Since the stones do not fit tightly flush together, the slight gaps between them will naturally absorb what minimal movement may occur over time.
Effects from UV Exposure
The Evolve material is UV resistant. Extensive testing shows no detectable fading or color changes after UV exposure. Furthermore, the Evolve material’s prior applications in theming installments show us that the product is UV stable even in locations with excessive exposure to the sun, such as a beachfront location near the equator.
Wind, Salt, and other conditions
Per ASTM testing, the shows no effects when exposed to salt spray during testing, shows no effects when exposed to freeze-thaw cycles during testing, does not retain water, minimal expansion/contraction and performs extremely well under wind loading. These tests are downloadable from our resources library.
What if stones chip or break?
It is unlikely that you will chip or break stones that have already been installed, due to the strength and durability of the specialty composite material. However, if you do happen to chip a stone, the material is fully colored throughout. You can simply use a chisel or hammer–heck, even a rock!–to texture the area, wet the surface to return color vibrancy and remove dust, and your stone will be good as new.
Our promise
If all of that wasn’t enough, we back our products with a 50 year limited warranty. We have strong confidence in the longevity and quality of our products, and have provided the research and testing to put customers at ease.
For more information on technical specs, performance data, and ASTM testing, head to our resources page.
