From Drab to Fab: The Impactful Curb Appeal of Manufactured Stone Veneer
There’s no place like home – and when it comes to upgrading the walls, there’s no way like stone.
There’s no place like home – and when it comes to upgrading the walls, there’s no way like stone.
Buyers today have a wide range of options for renovating vertical structures like indoor and outdoor walls, doorways, chimneys, facades, and landscape features. Materials such as brick, fiber cement, metal and vinyl siding, tile, and even wallpaper all have their own selling points from visual and budgetary standpoints. But on the whole, none are as impactful as stone – particularly for increasing property value.
Rosse Reclaimed Brick, Cream Canyon Stone (2), Blanc Reclaimed Brick
“You actually get 92 percent of your investment back when you put stone on a home,” Instone President Kevin Grotke explained in an episode of InBuilding Design. “It’s the number two return on investment when it comes to remodeling.” That’s roughly 20 percent higher rate of return than what you’d get for remodeling a kitchen.
Part of the windfall can be explained by the direct boost that stone veneer gives to a home’s curb appeal. As real estate analyst Bridget McCann explained to Instone, the view from the front of a home gives a potential buyer their first impression. If they don’t like what they see, they won’t bother stepping inside.
Blanc Reclaimed Brick
Property owners and builders sometimes talk themselves out of using stone for what could have been high-impact opportunities for improving curb appeal. The temptation can be strong to save money with other materials, but it’s a decision that is penny-wise and pound foolish.
“Siding is about $1 per square foot, where stone is $15 or $20, and that sounds like a big difference at first,” Instone Chief Operating Officer Rob McKay said. “But when you consider that you’re just going to put 100 square feet or so around the front entryway of your house, the cost isn’t as scary. Stone will elevate the look and feel and probably the value of that home.”
This holds true not only for natural stone, but high-quality manufactured stone veneer (MSV) products like Instone’s new Toro Stone line. As an affordable alternative that looks as real as any faux stone on the market, Toro Stone can help make the return on investment even greater.
“Our goal is to create a premium product at a mid-level price,” McKay said. “Toro Stone is reliable, realistic, and a product that any mason can proudly stand behind.”
Toro Stone currently offers eight distinct collections, each with their own color varieties. They include: Canyon Ledge, Cobblestone, Fieldstone and Mountain Ledge, which each have natural appearances and earthy tones; and Fast Set and Treblestone, both which have stylish, stacked stone looks. Toro Stone also offers two thin-brick veneer collections, Reclaimed Brick and Vintage Brick.
Some MSV products on the market, including those that come as panels for faster installations, can take on predictable and repetitive patterns. Each box of Toro Stone veneers includes a range of colors, shapes and sizes, giving the mason ample opportunity to design layouts that they believe look right for the space.
“Listen, masons might not call themselves artists but they definitely are,” McKay said. “There is an art to doing this right, and we want to put that power in their hands and let them show off their skills.”
Finally, masons can count on the Toro Stone team to stick with them for the long haul. If there’s ever a problem on the job, installers can call us for help, whether that be sorting out a warranty issue or connecting them with the local dealer to get on-the-ground assistance. And years from now, if the need should ever arise for a shipment of stones to repair a damaged area or expand it to a new area of the house, Toro Stone can supply a perfectly matching batch – one of the great advantages of using MSVs.
Contact us today to find out more about Toro Stone products that can elevate your next construction or renovation project.
